Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of Half of a Yellow Sun and Purple Hibiscus (Anchor), has been selected by the MacArthur Foundation as a 2008 MacArthur Fellow. The MacArthur Fellows Program awards unrestricted fellowships to talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction. Each fellowship comes with a stipend of $500,000 to the recipient, paid out in equal quarterly installments over five years.

Yaroslav Trofimov has won the Washington Institute of Near East Policy's Gold Prize
for The Siege of Mecca (Anchor), a gripping account of the takeover of Islam's holiest shrine. The Bronze Prize went to Anthony Pagden for Worlds at War (Random House), a stunning work of history that delves deep into the roots of the "clash of civilizations" between East and West. The Washington Institute Book Prize is awarded annually to three outstanding new books that have illuminated the Middle East for American readers. With this prize, The Washington Institute seeks to acknowledge the very best new works on the region.

Modern Library has launched a major, new series of individual paperback plays from the internationally renowned Royal Shakespeare Company, edited by acclaimed Shakespearean scholars Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen (William Shakespeare: Complete Works).

Now available:

A Midsummer Night's Dream | Hamlet | Love's Labour's Lost | Richard III | The Tempest

Each individual edition includes:

· expanded introduction and an overview of Shakespeare's theatrical career

· a new section which explores the theatrical history of the play as well as modern-day production choices through original interviews with today's leading directors and theatrical professionals

· a scene-by-scene analysis and key facts about the play

· a Shakespeare chronology

· black-and-white photos featuring original production shots from the RSC

All titles are available on this website. For more information about the series, click here.