Robert Fisk, British journalist and author of The Great War for Civilisation, has been awarded the Lannan Foundation's 2006 Lifetime Achievement Prize for Cultural Freedom. For the past three decades, Fisk has reported on the politics, wars, and civil upheavals of the Middle East. He is one of the most highly decorated foreign correspondents in the world, holding 28 press awards, including the British International Journalist of the Year (seven times), European International Journalist of the Year, and the United Nations Press Award. He currently serves as Middle East correspondent for The Independent of London.

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Six Random House titles have been announced as finalists for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Awards. The winners will be determined by voting from book review editors and reviewers from across the country and will be announced in a New York City ceremony on Thursday, March 8th. The finalists are as follows:

Fiction:
•Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
•The Lay of the Land by Richard Ford
•The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Biography:
•The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher by Debby Applegate

Autobiography:
•Stuart: A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters

Criticism:
•While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West From Within by Bruce Bawer

Prominent Polish writer and journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski passed away on January 23rd in Warsaw. He wrote for four decades about conflict throughout the developing world, and is most known for his books The Soccer War, Shah of Shahs, Imperium, and The Shadow of the Sun. Knopf will publish his most recent book, Travels with Herodotus, in June 2007.

Click here for a complete list of titles by Ryszard Kapuscinski.

Several Random House titles were named winners and finalists for the Jewish Book Council's 2006 National Jewish Book Awards. The winners and finalists are as follows:

Winner of Everett Family Foundation's Award for Best Jewish Book of the Year:
•A Code of Jewish Ethics: Volume 1: You Shall Be Holy by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin

Winner of Celebrate 350 Award in American Jewish Studies and Finalist for Barbara Dobkin Award in Women's Studies:
•Emma Lazarus by Esther Schor

Finalist for Ronald S. Lauder Award in Eastern European Studies:
•Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz by Jan T. Gross

Finalist for Gerrard and Ella Berman Award in History:
•Bad Faith: A Forgotten History of Family, Fatherland and Vichy France by Carmen Callil