DANA CANEDY

Denzel Washington the actor has some 60 films under his belt, plus two Oscars, and at 66 is universally regarded as one of the all-time greats.

Dana Canedy has known she wanted to be a journalist since she was 12 years old, writing stories in her childhood bedroom in Kentucky. She joined the New York Times in 1996, where she worked for two decades. Though she never doubted what she wanted to do with her life, Canedy acknowledges her career path wasn't always easy. In 2020, she was named senior vice president and publisher of Simon & Schuster's eponymous publishing imprint, the first Black person to head such a division at a major U.S. publishing house. "If you can have a life where you have more good years than bad, that's a pretty good life," she says.

(AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)NEW YORK – Book publishing in 2020 was a story of how much an industry can change and how much it can, or wants to, remain the same. To its benefit and to its dismay, publishing was drawn into the events of the moment. Penguin Random House, among other initiatives, asked all employees to read Ibram X. Kendi’s “How To Be an Anti-Racist.” Kendi later presided over a company town hall. Macmillan CEO Don Weisberg, who cited a wide range of diversity programs at the publishing house that began before “American Dirt,” said he “understands the skepticism." The CEO of Penguin Random House U.S., Madeline McIntosh, noted how well book publishing could meet the public's needs during the pandemic and other events of 2020.

NEW YORK – One of publishing's most thriving genres of the past four years, books about President Donald Trump, is not going to end when he leaves office. In 2021 and beyond, look for waves of releases about the Trump administration and about the president's loss to Democratic candidate Joe Biden. “But there are tens of millions of Americans who look to the Trump presidency as an important time and are fans of his administration. Center Street, a Hachette Book Group imprint, has published Donald Trump Jr., Newt Gingrich and Judge Jeanine Pirro among others. Any publisher signing with Trump or a top administration official might face the anger not just of Trump critics among the general public, but from within the industry.

NEW YORK – Best-selling authors David and Nicola Yoon are launching a Random House Children's Books imprint for young adult romance novels by and about people of color. They are calling the imprint Joy Revolution and plan to release the first books in 2022. “I loved romantic comedies and romance novels when I was younger. “All readers deserve to see themselves represented in the books they read," Barbara Marcus, president and publisher of Random House Children's Books, said in a statement. David Yoon is known for such novels as “Frankly In Love” and “Super Fake Love Song.” Books by Nicola Yoon, his wife, include “The Sun Is Also a Star" and “Everything, Everything.”

(Reuters) - The Pulitzer Prizes for 2020 will be announced two weeks later than scheduled as journalists who serve on the board that awards them cover the coronavirus pandemic, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday. The prizes in categories for journalism, drama, books and music will be handed out on May 4 instead of April 20, said Dana Canedy, a New York Times editor and administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes. The Pulitzer board includes many high-level journalists who are on the frontlines of informing the public on the quickly evolving Coronavirus pandemic. As they focus on this critical mission, this postponement will provide additional time to thoroughly evaluate the 2020 Pulitzer finalists, Canedy said. The Pulitzers are the most prestigious awards given in American journalism.