A Book Awards Roundup

Among BookExpo America's (BEA) many parties and gala festivities were several award ceremonies celebrating some of the best of the best, including the presentation of the 2005 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards, recognizing independent booksellers' handselling favorites, at ABA's Celebration of Bookselling. Other awards presented, or announced, at BEA include the Benjamin Franklin Awards, given by the Independent Book Publishers Association for the best in independent publishing; the Lambda Literary Awards, given by the Lambda Literary Foundation, honoring the best in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender literature; and the Audio Publishers Association's Audies for the year's best audio books.

Here are some of the winners, with links to the complete lists.

Adult Fiction: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)
Adult Nonfiction: Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II, by Robert Kurson (Random House)
Children's Literature: Chasing Vermeer, by Blue Balliett, illustrated by Brett Helquist (Scholastic Press)
Children's Illustrated: Duck for President, by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Betsy Lewin (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

To see the list of Book Sense Honor Books, click here.

Arts (Art/Music/Photography): Skirting the Issue: Stories of Indiana's Historical Women Artists, by Judith Vale Newton, Carol Ann Weiss (IHS Press)
Autobiography/Biography/Memoirs: Miles Gone By, by William F. Buckley, Jr. (Eagle Publishing)
Children's Picture Book: I Love the Alphabet, by Dar Hosta (Brown Dog)
Mystery/Suspense: Relative Danger, by Charles Benoit (Poisoned Pen Press)

For the full list of Benjamin Franklin Award winners and finalists, click here.

Lesbian Fiction: A Seahorse Year, by Stacey D'Erasmo (Houghton Mifflin)
Gay Men's Fiction: The Master, by Colm Toibin (Scribner)
Lesbian Debut Fiction: Cry Baby Butch, by Judith Frank (Firebrand)
Gay Men's Debut Fiction: Clay's Way, by Blair Mastbaum (Alyson)

For more information, visit the Lambda Literary Foundation's website. http://www.lambdalit.org/

Audiobook of the Year: My Life, by President Bill Clinton, read by Bill Clinton (Random House)
Fiction, Unabridged: The Darling, by Russell Banks, read by Mary Beth Hurt (BBC Audiobooks America)
Fiction, Abridged: Brimstone, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, read by Rene Auberjonois (Time Warner AudioBooks)
Nonfiction, Unabridged: The Island at the Center of the World, by Russell Shorto, read by L.J. Ganser (Recorded Books, LLC)
Nonfiction, Abridged: Chasing the Devil: My Twenty-Year Quest to Capture the Green River, by Sheriff David Reichert, read by Dennis Boutsikaris, and conversation with the author, and excerpts from Sheriff Reichert's interviews with Gary Ridgeway and Ted Bundy (Time Warner AudioBooks)

For the full list of Audie winners, click here.

The Southeast Booksellers Association recently announced the winners of the SEBA Book Awards, which recognize great books of Southern origin, as voted upon by SEBA core bookstore members. The winners for 2005 are:

Fiction: Saints at the River, by Ron Rash (Henry Holt)
Nonfiction: We're Just Like You, Only Prettier, by Celia Rivenbark (St. Martin's)
Cookbook: Frank Stitt's Southern Table: Recipes and Gracious Traditions from Highlands Bar and Grill, by Frank Stitt (Artisan)
Poetry: A Companion for Owls, by Maurice Manning (Harcourt)
Children's: Peter and the Star Catchers, by Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry (Hyperion)