Seven Random House authors have been announced as 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award finalists: Teju Cole's Open City and Alan Hollinghurst's The Stranger's Child in the fiction category; Amanda Foreman's A World on Fire, James Gleick's The Information, and Maya Jasanoff's Liberty's Exiles in the nonfiction category; Paul Hendrickson's Hemingway's Boat in the biography category; Jonathan Lethem's The Ecstasy of Influence in the criticism category. The winner's will be announced at a ceremony in Manhattan on March 10th, 2012. Click here for a full list of NBCC finalists go to.

Vaclav Havel, the former president of Czechoslovakia died last Sunday at the age of 75. Before his rise to power in his home country he was a leading dissident in the struggle against Communist rule and spent several years inside prisons because of his activism. A playwright with 19 plays to his credit, Havel was also the author of several books addressing communism within Czechoslovakia and his work as President during a time of transition from Communist rule including To the Castle and Back and Summer Meditations.

Congratulations to Julian Barnes who has been awarded the Man Booker Prize for The Sense of an Ending. Shortlisted three times previously for his novels Flaubert's Parrot, England, England, and Arthur & George this is Barnes' first time winning the prestigious award. For a list of our previous Man Booker–winning and shortlisted authors please click here.

Nobel Peace Laureate, environmentalist, and political activist Wangari Maathai passed away in Nairobi, Kenya over the weekend. Maathai is best known for her work with the Green Belt Movement, founded in 1977, which sought to plant trees across Kenya in an effort provide jobs for women and to fight soil erosion and produce sustainable fuel. A constant force in Kenyan politics and affairs, Maathai served in parliament from 2003-2008 and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 "for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace." Her most recent books Replenishing the Earth and The Challenge for Africa address her concerns for both the environment and society at large and offer realistic options to those trying to promote real change in Africa and around the world.

Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University and author of The Iron Cage, a history of the Palestinian search to establish a state, continues to offer scholars and media alike an informed context for the current UN debate about Palestinian statehood. Most recently, Khalidi appeared on CNN's Fareed Zakariah "GPS" to discuss this issue along with the Council on Foreign Relations' Elliott Abrams. You can watch his appearance by clicking here.