Drew Gilpin Faust has won the 2009 Bancroft Prize for her book This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War. One of the most coveted honors in the field of history, the Bancroft Prize is awarded annually by the trustees of Columbia University to the authors of books of exceptional merit in the fields of American history, biography and diplomacy

Random House congratulates its winners of the 2008 National Book Critics Circle awards: The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul by Patrick French (Biography) and The Forever War by Dexter Filkins (Nonfiction).

Biography committee chair Eric Banks said, "We must be grateful to V.S. Naipaul for his faith in requesting such an unflinching and deeply probing portrait, and it is our great gain that Patrick French gave him exactly what he asked for."

The NBCC press release called nonfiction award winner The Forever War by Dexter Filkins (Knopf), "a you-are-there account of bravery, suffering, and insanity as the Iraq war grinds on--a book that both exemplifies and transcends war reporting." Click here to see nonfiction committee chair Art Winslow announce the award, followed by Filkins's comments.

Congratulations to Jhumpa Lahiri (Unaccustomed Earth) and Mohammed Hanif (A Case of Exploding Mangoes) who have each won a Commonwealth Prize. Lahiri won in the general Europe and South Asia regional category, and Hanif won in the Europe and South Asia Best First Book category. The prestigious Commonwealth Prize was established in 1987 to celebrate works from the Commonwealth regions of Africa, the Caribbean and Canada, Europe and South Asia and South East Asia and Pacific.

Allworth Press publishes business and self-help books for artists, designers, photographers, and other creative professionals in subject areas such as marketing, promotion, pricing, copyright, contracts, business practices, and health and safety. Allworth books are now distributed through Random House.

Founded in 1937, Watson-Guptill is a nonfiction publisher with a wide-ranging list specializing in art and photography instruction, craft, and performing arts reference titles, graphic novels, and books for young adults, many of which are perennial bestsellers. Watson-Guptill is now a publisher of Random House.