Awards, Awards, & More Awards: Lambda, ForeWord & The Audies

BookExpo America is always a popular time to announce award winners, and this year was no exception. Over the past week, the Lambda Literary Foundation, ForeWord Magazine, and the Audio Publishers Association each announced their award winners, and Reed Business Information (RBI) and the NBC Universal Television Stations announced this year's nominees for the Quills.

The Lambda Literary Awards

On May 31, the winners of the 19th annual Lambda Literary Awards were announced by the Lambda Literary Foundation at a gala celebration attended by 300 people. Awards were presented in 25 categories. Winners were chosen by a jury of judges who come from all walks of literary life: journalists, authors, booksellers, librarians, playwrights, and illustrators. In all, 85 judges participated in the selection of winners from the pool of 381 books that were nominated by 147 publishers. In addition, Marijane Meaker and Martin Duberman were recognized for their lifetime achievements by receiving the Pioneer Award from Lambda Literary Foundation.

Among the winners were:

• Love, Bourbon Street, edited by Greg Herren & Paul J. Willis (Alyson) in the Anthology category;
• The Night Watch by Sarah Waters (Riverhead) in the Lesbian Fiction category; and
• Suspension by Robert Westfield (HarperCollins) in the Gay Fiction category.

The full list of winners is available on the Lambda website, www.lambdaliterary.org.

ForeWord Book of the Year Award Winners

During BookExpo America, ForeWord Magazine announced the winners of its 2006 Book of the Year Awards. A panel of judges composed of librarians and booksellers named 216 winners, narrowed from nearly 1,400 entries, representing the work from today's independent publishing community.

Two books were named the Editor's Choice Prize winners, a distinction that comes with a $1,500 cash prize. The Editor's Choice Prize for Fiction was awarded to Sojourn by Jana Oliver (Dragon Moon), the first Science Fiction book to be chosen for this honor. The Bible of Illuminated Letters by Margaret Morgan (Barron's Educational) was named the Editor's Choice Prize for Nonfiction. The book is a combination of history, art, and how-to, with details and examples of this historic art form.

The other 214 winners of Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards were selected by a process involving dozens of ForeWord readers - including librarians and booksellers who are immersed daily in the selection and recommendation of books. Each entry was judged on criteria including originality, writing and production quality, and patron/customer interest in the subject matter.

The complete list of winners and finalists searchable by publisher, author, title, category, and ISBN can be accessed through ForeWord Magazine's website.

The 2007 Audies

On June 4, the Audio Publishers Association (APA) announced the winners of the 2007 Audies in 32 categories, including a special Judges' Award for titles in the Politics category and the Audiobook of the Year Award.

Inspired by ... The Bible Experience: New Testament (inspired by Media Group/Zondervan's Today's New International Version Bible Translation), with multiple narrators, was picked as Audiobook of the Year (Zondervan).

Other winners included:

• Hubris (Blackstone Audio) by Michael Isikoff and David Corn, and narrated by Stefan Rudnicki in the Politics category; and
• Narrow Dog to Carcassonne by Terry Darlington, and narrated by Steve Hodson, in Nonfiction, Unabridged, category.

The full list of winners is available in PDF format on the APA website. Additionally, APA and AudioFile Magazine have joined together to provide an interactive way to listen to this year's Audies winners. The website, www.theaudies.com, allows listeners to read a review about the winning audiobook, as well as listen to a sample of the audiobook.

The Quills Nominees

On June 2, at BookExpo America, Reed Business Information (RBI) and the NBC Universal Television Stations announced the five nominees in each of 18 categories for the 2007 Quill Awards. The 2007 Quill Awards will be presented on October 22, during a gala ceremony at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Broadway at 60th Street, in New York City. The one-hour Quill Awards television special will be carried by the NBC Universal Television Stations and syndicated through NBC Universal Television.

The five nominees in the Fiction category are:

• Brothers by Da Chen (Shaye Areheart/Crown)
• American Youth by Phil LaMarche (Random House)
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Knopf)
• Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl (Viking)
• Jamestown by Matthew Sharpe (Soft Skull).

The full list of nominees can be found on the Quills website.