Deals.

Shaq is bouncing back into the book world, and fans of the gentle giant have something new to look forward to. He won a 2000 NBA championship ring, and now he's snagged a book deal. In January 2001, St. Martin's Press will release Shaquille O'Neal's sports memoir, tentatively titled The Last Saga.

Attention book shoppers ... Amistad Press' Manie Barron is on a buying spree! Barron recently bought Herb Boyd's Sugar In Harlem, a cultural biography of Sugar Ray Robinson and the Harlem of the `40s, `50s and `60s. Andrew Ward's novel Dark Midnight (due July 2001), and Michelle N.K. Colson's cultural history of black hair entitled Fried, Dyed, Laid To The Side: The History, Mystery and Politics of Blackhair were also purchased, along with the paperback rights to Dark Midnight When I Rise, by Andrew Wand, the story of the Fisk Jubilee Singers.

Speaking of shopping around, Blackboard bestselling author Kimberla Lawson Roby has signed a two-book deal (including audiobook publishing) with Dutton after a successful publishing run with Kensington. Get a taste of her first Dutton novel, A Taste of Reality, when it's published in May 2001. The Penguin Putnam imprint has also signed on to publish retired Boston Celtics center Bill Russell's book on leadership and teamwork. Expect a spring 2001 release in print and audio.

As of January 1, Kwame Alexander's BlackWords Publishing and self-publisher Nikki Foxx's Alexander Horton Group are officially among the latest in the trend toward publishing mergers. BlackWords, with nine back listed titles will continue to publish poetry and literary fiction, while Alexander Horton Group will focus on multicultural commercial fiction and creative nonfiction.

Amistad Press Editorial Director Charles Harris has just signed Preeminent African American scholar John Hope Franklin to write his 23rd book for the HarperCollins imprint. The book, a memoir of his life in scholarship, academia and government affairs entitled Vintage Years, is Franklin's first autobiographical work and is scheduled for publication in 2002.

Awards Spotlight!

Jeffery Renard Allen's Rails Under My Back (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux), a BIBR Recommends title, won The Chicago Tribune's prestigious Heartland Prize for Fiction. Congrats!!