NBC to Broadcast Quills Awards on Saturday

Books, authors, and literacy will take center stage on network television this Saturday, when 14 NBC Universal Owned and Operated Television Stations broadcast a one-hour Quill Awards television special, hosted by NBC's Al Roker and Jane Hanson. The show will feature the winners of the inaugural Quill Awards, which were announced on October 11 at a ceremony hosted by NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams at New York City's Chelsea Piers. Jon Stewart and Robert Klein make special appearances and celebrity presenters include Tony Roberts, Matthew Modine, Kim Cattrall, Candace Bushnell, Erica Jong, Anthony Rapp, Stephen J. Cannell, and Jules Feiffer.

The Quill Award winners include Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling, illustrated by Mary GrandPre (Arthur Levine/Scholastic), named Book of the Year; Elizabeth Kostova, named Debut Author of the Year, for The Historian (Little Brown); and The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd (Viking), winner in the General Fiction category. (For the complete list of winners, go to news.bookweb.org/read/3901.)

Scheduled to air the Quills special, this Saturday are:

WNBC (NBC4 New York)
KNBC (NBC4 Los Angeles)
WMAQ (NBC5 Chicago)
WCAU (NBC10 Philadelphia)
KNTV (NBC3 San Jose/San Francisco)
KXAS (NBC5 Dallas/Fort Worth)
WRC (NBC4 Washington)
WTVJ (NBC6 Miami)
KNSD (NBC7/39 San Diego)
WVIT (NBC30 Hartford)
WNCN (NBC17 Raleigh)
WCMH (NBC4 Columbus)
WVTM (NBC13 Birmingham)
WJAR (NBC10 Providence)

(Check local listings for air times.)

Launched this year by Reed Business Information and the NBC Universal Television Stations, The Quill Awards were created to honor excellence in book publishing. A short list of titles was selected by booksellers and librarians from across the country, who chose from among titles appearing on the Book Sense Picks lists or on Barnes & Noble bestseller lists, or those earning a starred review in Publishers Weekly, among other criteria. Voting on the short list was open to consumers online from August 15 through September 15.