by Sarah Statz Cords
The entertainment industries, with their Golden Globes, SAG Awards, Grammys, and soon their Oscars, have nothing on the book biz for naming award winners. Just a week or so ago the ALA Notable and Reading List winners were announced at ALA Midwinter, but other noteworthy awards and shortlists are popping up as well:
- ALA BCALA Literary Awards (recognizing excellence in adult fiction and nonfiction by African American authors);
- ALA Stonewall Book Awards (for English-language books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered experience);
- The Edgar Award nominees (for mysteries, thrillers, and critical and biographical works about mystery writers; awards will be announced on April 29);
- The National Book Critics Circle Awards finalists (fiction and nonfiction nominated by book critics; will be announced on March 12).
- The National Jewish Book Awards for 2009 were also recently announced.
All of this begs the question, of course, about whether readers actually care about awards and the books that win them. Do they? Do you?* Is there a particular award list you trust or look forward to each year?
*Personally, I’m usually a fan of the NBCC awards, but I think their list of finalists is a real snoozer this year.
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