The winners of the 2103 James Beard Foundation Book, Broadcast & Journalism Awards were announced Friday night (in advance of the Beard food and beverage awards, which will be bestowed this evening).

Ted Allen, host of the television show Chopped,  MC'd the awards ceremony, which was followed by a gala dinner featuring star-chef-created dishes inspired by movies -- for example, Marcus Samuelsson's Jerk Bacon with Cow Peas, inspired by Django Unchained.

The multi-talented Samuelsson took home the Beard Award in the category of Writing and Literature for his memoir, Yes, Chef, published by Random House; scholar and restaurateur Maricel Presilla received the Cookbook of the Year honors for her Gran Cocina Latina: The Food of Latin America, by Maricel E. Presilla, publisher by W.W. Norton & Company, and Ann Willan was inducted into the Cookbook Hall of Fame.

Read more about the the 2013 James Beard Foundation Book winners, and about criteria for the James Beard Awards for cookbooks.

A number of the Beard Award winners were also recently honored by the International Association of Culinary Professionals.  In case you missed it in the newsletter, here's the list of 2013 IACP Cookbook Award winners.

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At the 67th Edgar Allen Poe Awards Gala Banquet last night, veteran author Dennis Lehane picked up his first Poe statuette -- his book Live by Night (HarperCollins / William Morrow) won the award for Best Novel.

Grand Masters Ken Follett and Margaret Maron presided over the ceremony, which was held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City.

Other winners included Chris Pavone, who took home the Edgar for First Novelist for The Expats (Crown Publishers) and Elizabeth Wein, who received the Best Young Adult honor for Code Name Verity (Disney Publishing Worldwide - Hyperion).

"Sherlock Holmes" snagged two awards -- sort of.  Best Critical / Biographical work  went to The Scientific Sherlock Holmes: Cracking the Case with Science and Forensics by James O'Brien (Oxford University Press) and Best Television Episode Teleplay was given to "A Scandal in Belgravia," written for the BBC / Masterpiece series, Sherlock.

Read the complete list of  2013 Edgar Award winners.

On the site you can also read about the Mystery Writers of America organization, the history of the Edgar Awards,  the list of 2012 Edgar Award winners, the list of Grand Masters throughout the 67 years of Edgar Awards, or about a well-known "international man of mystery."

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Scared of being in the dark about being a ghostwriter?

Then check out the new articles on the site about how to command a decent payday for "invisible" work. Marcia Layton Turner tells About.com readers about:

Becoming a Ghostwriter 101 and

How to Get (or Get More) Ghostwriting Business

And, for those who are in the market to hire a ghostwriter, read this About.com interview with Gotham Ghostwriters.

And if you're in Southern California this coming week, you might consider attending Ghostwriters Unite Conference. The event promises to shed some light on the behind-the-scenes profession and bring together practitioners and publishers. The event takes place May 3 - May 5 at the Hilton Long Beach in Long Beach, California and includes panel discussion are on on topics such as ghostwriting standards and practices, freelance pricing, and general book publishing industry topics; speakers such as Dan Gerstein, Founder and President of Gotham Ghostwriters; and community-building fun, like an opening-night mixer.

Visit the Ghostwriters Unite! site for more information and to register for the conference.

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The documentary Out of Print, which screened at the Tribeca Film Festival this past week, cuts a broad swath through the  digital issues that affect book publishing today.

Narrated by Meryl Streep, the film starts with the history of the book (cuniform tablets at the Morgan Library and Museum; the codex;  Gutenberg's movable type), and takes us through to the digital revolution's dramatic effect on book-related issues.  The film's interview subjects include bold-faced publishing names such as Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, and president of the Author's Guild, Scott Turow, as well as authors, academics and educators. They weigh in on topics ranging from public access to information and copyright protections, to the comparatively short shelf life of electronic information and the potentially deleterious effects of digital info "dipping" vs. deep learning on our children's brains.

One screening featured a  Tribeca Talks panel whose members discussed the topics in more depth. Pictured left to right in the photo, it included journalist and author Ken Auletta, who moderated;  Out of Print filmmaker Vivienne Roumani; CEO and Founder of Open Road Media, Jane Friedman; Tony Marx, President and CEO of the New York Public Library; Annie Murphy Paul, journalist and author specializing in science subjects.

Though ambitious in scope, Out of Print isn't comprehensive in its coverage of the digital book revolution as it pertains to the book publishing industry. Despite their obvious stakes in thegame, the film doesn't include the viewpoints of any major print publisher or literary agent in its interviewee ranks, and the bricks-and-mortar bookseller it chooses to feature is Fred Bass -- a venerated Manhattan bookseller to be sure but, as his The Strand is predominantly a used bookstore, hardly representative.

Still, Out of Print begs some smart questions about the digitization of books -- even as the Tribeca Talk panelists acknowledge that only time will give us the answers.

Out of Print will screen at the Newport Beach Film Festival on May 1, the Seattle International Film Festival on May 22 and 23, and at the New Hope Film Festival in late July (screening dates tbd).  For more information on the film, visit the Out of Print website.

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