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The Religious Booksellers Trade Exhibit (June 1-4), held in St. Charles, Ill., and serving Catholic, Episcopal and other liturgical bookstores, was able once again to piggyback on BEA in Chicago, [...]

[The following Q&A was inadvertently dropped from Religion Forecasts, Feb. 23, because of a production error.] PW: What prompted you to write The Miracle Detective [reviewed in Religion Forecasts, Feb. [...]

PW: Many of your television viewers on ABC News and Good Morning-America don't realize that you are an ordained minister as well as a physician. Timothy Johnson: I would guess [...]

PW: What prompted you to write Why?: Trusting God When You Don't Understand[see review, p. 247]? Anne Graham Lotz: To be honest, the real reason is one that I just [...]

PW: You note in your biography Martin Luther[see review, p. TK] that although Luther is often cited as one of the most influential people of the last millennium, there are [...]

The American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature held their joint annual meeting in Atlanta, Ga., November 22-25. It was a far quieter conclave than last year's, [...]

PW: Why the title Killing the Buddha? Jeff Sharlet: It's a saying attributed to a ninth-century Buddhist sage named Lin Chi. One day a monk said he'd met the Buddha [...]

PW: Why did you want to write A Fragile Stone [reviewed on p. 64], about the apostle Peter? Michael Card: I really didn't choose him; he chose me. I was [...]

PW: Your new book, The Brother of Jesus (p. 73), is about the ossuary that is supposed to have contained the bones of James, the brother of Jesus. Why is [...]

THE HOT TOPIC of this year's joint meeting of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature was the recently discovered ossuary, the small limestone burial box [...]

THE HOLY PROFANE: Religion in Black Popular Music TERESA L. REED. Univ. Press of Kentucky, $40 (224p) ISBN 0-8131-2255-4 From West African spirituality to the gangsta rap of Tupac Shakur, [...]

LORENZO ALBACETE. Crossroad, $19.95 (194p) ISBN 0-8245-1951-5 Monsignor Albacete, who holds degrees in both theology and physics, speaks eloquently--and sometimes iconoclastically--about science, religion, and truth claims in this collection of [...]

JOHN BEVERLY BUTCHER. Polebridge, $20 paper (264p) ISBN 0-944344-91-7 It may sound oxymoronic to claim that a lectionary could be original, but this one truly shatters the mold. It is [...]

BROTHER DAVID STEINDL-RAST. Templeton Foundation, $12.95 (128p) ISBN 1-890151-98-X Thomas Paine might have approved of this inspirational gift book, which heralds common sense in the sayings of Jesus and in [...]

BRUCE CHILTON. Hendrickson, $19.95 (122p) ISBN 1-56563-380-6 New Testament scholar Chilton, author of Rabbi Jesus: An Intimate Biography, here expounds upon ideas of sacred time in the Jewish and Christian [...]

DONALD COZZENS. Liturgical Press, $19.95 (208pp) ISBN 0-8146-2779-X 'How is it that a church that is the bearer of the Word and the champion of the oppressed can maintain unholy [...]

PW Talks with Forrest Church PW: Why did you write The American Creed? FC: The bcok was forged in the crucible of September 11. I worked on an instant book [...]

PW: Why did you write Grace Matters? Rice: I had to get this story out before I could move on with my life. The story centers on my friendship with [...]

PW: Were you surprised by the response to Walking the Bible? BF: I've been very moved by the reaction. I feel that what's happened to me is the physical embodiment [...]

ANNETTE SMITH. Revell, $10.99 paper (192p) ISBN 0-8007-5799-8 Don't be fooled by the too-cute-by-half cover on this collection of interrelated short stories. The vignettes within are emotional but rarely cloying, [...]

PENELOPE STOKES. W Publishing, $16.99 paper (304p) ISBN 0-8499-1706-9 As in her previous books (The Amber Photograph; The Blue Bottle Club; The Amethyst Heart; The Treasure Box), Stokes uses the [...]

MELODY CARLSON. Multnomah, $12.99 paper (300p) ISBN 1-59052-017-3 In this fourth installment of Carlson's popular Diary of a Teenage Girl YA series, Caitlin O'Conner. begins her freshman year of college. [...]

JACK CAVANAUGH. Revell, $11.99 paper (224p) ISBN 0-8007-5830-7 In this collection of brief sketches, four heavenly residents offer messages in the form of letters to those of us who are [...]

KRISTEN HEITZMANN. Bethany, $11.99 paper (384p) ISBN 0-7642-2605-3 A pyrophobic fireman woos the woman who once broke his heart in this predictable but competent romantic suspense novel. Cal, a recovering [...]

TERRI BLACKSTOCK. W Publishing, $10.99 paper (144p) ISBN 0-8499-4341-8 After a devastating earthquake leaves three co-workers blind, lame and mute, respectively, they awaken the following morning to discover they have [...]

AFTER SEVEN YEARS with Houghton Mifflin, Wendy Strothman, executive v-p of the trade and reference division, will step down on July 31. She will, however, continue to work as a [...]

HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS, the MIT Press and Yale University Press have completed the final phase of a joint distribution system first discussed in the summer of 1997. Over the past [...]

On the evening of September 11, Pakistani-born journalist Ahmed Rashid was sitting in the book-lined study of his home in Lahore, Pakistan, with the television on. He watched with horror [...]

PW: In Great with Child: Reflections on Faith, Fullness, and Becoming a Mother, you chronicle your experiences during your third pregnancy. How did the book emerge from that pregnancy? DR: [...]

PW: Your new book, Just Shy of Harmony, is with Harper San Francisco and not Multnomah, your publisher for the last several years. Why the change? PG: I wanted to [...]

JOAN L. MITCHELL. Continuum, $17.95 paper (144p) ISBN 0-8264-1354-4 Elisabeth Schussler-Fiorenza's 'hermeneutic of suspicion' is possibly the most formative idea to emerge from the feminist biblical scholarship of the late [...]

MARK NEWMAN, Univ. of Alabama, $39.95 (336p) ISBN 0-8173-1060-6 In this historical study of race and the postwar Southern Baptist Convention, Newman argues that most white Southern Baptists were 'moderates' [...]

Although only 1% of American births take place at home, University of Toronto professor Pamela Klassen finds those births imbued with religious meaning, as women attempt to ritualize one of [...]

BEN WITHERINGTON III. Baker Academic, $26.99 (400p) ISBN 0-8010-2293-2 Beginning with the introduction--which eschews the usual John-vs.-the-Synoptics categorization of the Gospels in favor of a more nuanced approach, in which [...]

TIMOTHY K. BEAL. Routledge, $19.95 paper (256p) ISBN 0-415-92588-6 * This brilliant, twisted, imaginative book explores religion's dark side, from the predictable monsters of sacred texts (Leviathan, Behemoth, Tiamat and [...]

MARGARET C. REYNOLDS, EDITED WITH A FOREWORD BY SIMON J. BRONNER Penn State Univ., $29.95 (196p) ISBN 0-271-02138-1 This fascinating book profiles one of the smallest and least studied of [...]

PAMELA E. KLASSEN. Princeton Univ., $60 (318p) ISBN 0-691-08797-0; paper $18.95 ISBN 0-691-08798-9 * In this provocative and engagingly written ethnography, Klassen asks 'not how religious traditions have ritualized birth... [...]

The article presents profiles of various publishing professionals in the religion publishing industry, with particular emphasis on Christian publishing. Mark Schoenwald, president of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, discusses efforts to promote women to managerial positions. Mary-Kathryne Steele, president of publisher World Wisdom, discusses her efforts to promote multicultural children’s religion books. Carlton Garborg, president of BroadStreet Publishing Group, is also mentioned.

An interview with fiction marketers about the growing market for digital media is presented. Don Pape, publisher of trade books at David C. Cook, shares that 9% of their sales in 2010 were from new fiction releases. Mary Burns, vice president of publishing at Barbour, relates that their top subgenre is Amish fiction, with Wanda E. Brunstetter as their lead author. Nathan Henrion, national accounts manager at Baker Publishing Group, describes how they are using social media like Twitter to market their fiction releases.

Talks about transformation in scholarly publishing. Factors that influence scholars to write outside the tribe of fellow academics; Comment from Reed Malcolm, acquisition editor for the University of California Press, on the disappearing market for the specialized, scholarly monograph; Statement issued by Robert Hosack, senior acquisitions editor at Baker Academic and Baker Books, on the opportunity of authors from an ongoing fascination with spirituality in contemporary culture.

Reports on the increasing popularity of Christian novels in U.S. publishing. Number of copies of the book 'This Present Darkness,' by Frank Peretti which were sold by 2001; Categories of Christian fiction; Information on the move of novelists to larger Christian houses; Discussion on finding new authors. INSET: Literary Faith Fiction Gains Ground.

An interview with several Christian fiction editors about the growing popularity of the category of inspirational/Christian fiction is presented. Barbara Scott, senior acquisitions editor at Abingdon, tackles issues influencing the market growth of Christian fiction. Sue Brower, executive editor at Zondervah, describes trends in "bonnet fiction," about closed religious groups such as the Amish. While Shannon Marchese, senior editor at WaterBrook Multinoman Publishing Group, describes the trends in women's fiction.

Profiles several novelists with works about faith and religion. Sue Monk Kidd, author of "The Mermaid Saint"; Michele Claire Lucas, author of "Late-Life Debut"; Brenda Rickman Vantrease, who wrote "Illuminated."

Focuses on the advantages of using the Nielsen BookScan and STATS tool in tracking the sales of religious books. Views of John Helmus, director of sales analysis and market planning for Wiley, on the benefits of BookScan for his work; Importance of the tools to publishers; Comparisons between BookScan and STATS. INSET: If Wishes Were Horses.

Features four literary authors of religious fiction. Lisa Samson; Michael Morris; Dean Hughes; Ted Dekker.

Profiles several scholar/authors that focused on religion. Information on the book 'Redeeming the Dial: Radio, Religion, and Popular Culture in America,' by Tona Hangen; Discussion on Buddhism in the book 'Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West,' by Donald S. Lopez Jr.; Details on the book 'Cloister and Community: Life Within a Carmelite Monastery,' by Mary Jo Weaver.