New York, NY - Harold Augenbraum has been named the new Executive Director of the National Book Foundation, announced Deborah E. Wiley, Chairman of the Board. Augenbraum, who has been director of The Mercantile Library since 1990, succeeds Neil Baldwin, who resigned last fall. Meg Kearney has served as Acting Director during the interim.

During his fourteen years at the Mercantile Library, Harold Augenbraum established the Center for World Literature, The Proust Society of America, the New York Mystery Festival, and the Fadiman Medal for Literature. He founded the Membership Libraries Group in 1991 and has served on the Board of Directors of the New York Council for the Humanities. The recipient of many significant grants and awards, Augenbraum has directed such literary projects as "Bard of the People: John Steinbeck and His World" for the National Endowment for the Humanities.

"Speaking on behalf of my colleagues on the Board and the staff of the National Book Foundation, I am delighted that Harold Augenbraum has agreed to join us," said Deborah Wiley. "Our organization has made great strides in recent years in raising the awareness and appreciation of books by the American public, but we still have much left to do. We believe Harold's deep love of books, combined with his creativity and leadership, will be an enormous asset as the National Book Foundation moves forward."

A graduate of Boston University and fluent in Spanish and French, Augenbraum is considered one of the country's foremost scholars on Latino literary studies. He has edited numerous anthologies of Latino literature and has also translated two books by Latino authors, both for Penguin. His reviews and articles on a range of topics including Latino fiction, Edgar Allan Poe, Proust, and Asian-American writers have been widely published and he also lectures frequently on these subjects. In 2000, he received the Raven Award from the Mystery Writers of America "for contributions to the field."

"I am thrilled at the prospect of working with the National Book Foundation and its National Book Awards," said Augenbraum. "It has an impressive track record on which to build a brilliant future, and I look forward to working with its committed board and the many authors, publishers, and readers with whom it has been, and will be, associated to create new programs that will benefit literature in America."

The National Book Foundation was established in 1989 to expand the impact of the National Book Awards - sponsored every year in Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People's Literature - beyond the single focus of literary recognition. The non-profit Foundation is well-known for its sponsorship of the Awards, which have been in existence since 1950, and is becoming equally known for the free educational programs it presents nationwide.