Awards

2009 February 16

by RJ

Newbery and Caldecott Winners

The American Library Association announced its 2009 children’s book awards on January 26, including the biggest children’s prizes of the year, the Newbery Medal for literature and the Caldecott Medal for illustration. This year’s winners:

Newbery: Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book (full Newbery list)
Caldecott: Beth Krommes, The House in the Night (full Caldecott list)
Printz Award for young adult literature: Melina Marchetta, Jellicoe Road (full Printz Award list)
Coretta Scott King Award for African American literature: Kadir Nelson, We Are the Ship
Coretta Scott King Award for African American illustrator: Floyd Cooper, The Blacker the Berry
To read the full list

National Book Critics Circle Award Nominees

The nominees for the second of the big three American book prizes, the National Book Critics Circle Awards, were revealed on January 24. In March the six winners, in fiction, nonfiction, biography, autobiography, poetry, and criticism, will be named. The fiction nominees include:

2666 by Roberto Bolano
Home by Marilynne Robinson
The Lazarus Project by Aleksandr Hemon
The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart by M. Glenn Taylor
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stout

2008 National Book Award Winners

The winners for the 2008 National Book Awards were announced on November 19, including a novel, three decades in the making, by a writer best known for his NBA-winning nature classic and the compelling story of an American family history that was accepted only as rumor for two centuries. Here are the winners:

Fiction: Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen
Nonfiction: The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed
Poetry: Fire to Fire by Mark Doty
Young People’s Literature: What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell

2008 Man Booker Prize Winner

The 2008 Man Booker Prize, the UK’s top literary prize and the most watched single-book award in the English-speaking world, went to Indian first-time novelist Aravind Adiga for The White Tiger, which The Economist said made its author “the Charles Dickens of the call-centre generation.” The rest of the 2008 shortlist:

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant
The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher
A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz

2008 Pulitzer Prizes

The 2008 Pulitzer Prizes were awarded on April 7. As usual, the finalists were revealed at the same time as the winners, which included, in the books categories:

Fiction: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
General Nonfiction: The Years of Extermination by Saul Friedlander
Biography: Eden’s Outcasts by John Matteson
History: What God Hath Wrought by Daniel Walker Howe
Poetry (tie): Time and Materials by Robert Hass and Failure by Philip Schwartz
Drama: August: Osage County by Tracy Letts

2009 Nominees

The Edgar Awards

The Mystery Writers of America give these awards to honor the best in mystery fiction and nonfiction produced the previous year. The awards began in 1954 and are named in honor of Edgar Allan Poe.

Best Novel:
· Missing by Karin Alvtegen
· Blue Heaven by C.J. Box
· Sins of the Assassin by Robert Ferrigno
· The Price of Blood by Declan Hughes
· The Night Following by Morag Joss
· Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz

Best First Novel by an American Author:
· The Kind One by Tom Epperson
· Sweetsmoke by David Fuller
· The Foreigner by Francie Lin
· Calumet City by Charlie Newton
· A Cure for Night by Justin Peacock

Best Paperback Original:
· The Prince of Bagram Prison by Alex Carr
· Money Shot by Christa Faust
· Enemy Combatant by Ed Gaffney
· China Lake by Meg Gardiner
· The Cold Spot by Tom Piccirilli

Best Fact Crime:
· For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder That Shocked Chicago by Simon Baatz
· American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century by Howard Blum
· Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba and Then Lost It To The Revolution by T.J. English
· The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Hans van Meegeren by Jonathan Lopez
· The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale

Best Critical/Biographical Work:
· African American Mystery Writers: A Historical and Thematic Study by Frankie Y. Bailey
· Hard-Boiled Sentimentality: The Secret History of American Crime Stories by Leonard Cassuto
· Scene of the Crime: The Importance of Place in Crime and Mystery Fiction by David Geherin
· The Rise of True Crime by 0275993884>
· Edgar Allan Poe: An Illustrated Companion to His Tell-Tale Stories by Harry Lee Poe

Best Young Adult:
· Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd
· The Big Splash by Jack D. Ferraiolo
· Paper Towns by John Green
· Getting the Girl by Susan Juby
· Torn to Pieces by Margot McDonnell

Best Juvenile:
· The Postcard by Tony Abbott
· Enigma: A Magical Mystery by Graeme Base
· Eleven by Patricia Reilly Giff
· The Witches of Dredmoore Hollow by Riford McKenzie
· Cemetary Street by Brenda Seabrooke

Grand Master Award:
· James Lee Burke
· Sue Grafton

The Michael L. Printz Award for Teen Literature

Winners and Honor Books, 2009

The Michael L. Printz Award, first given in 2000, is an award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature. The honor was named for a Topeka, Kansas, school librarian who was a long-time active member of the Young Adult Library Services Association.

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta–Winner!

Honor Books

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II, The Kingdom on the Waves by M.T. Anderson
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
Nation by Terry Pratchett
Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

The Audie® Awards

Since 1996, the Audio Publishers Association has hosted the The Audies® to honor excellence in audiobook publishing. The Audies® is the only awards program in the U.S. entirely devoted to recognizing distinction in audiobooks and spoken word entertainment.

The Chopin Manuscript, by Jeffery Deaver, Lee Child, Joseph Finder, Lisa Scottoline, David Hewson, and more — Winner!

Achievement in Abridgement
· I Am America (And So Can You!), by Stephen Colbert
· The Race, by Richard North Patterson — Winner!
· Reclaiming History, by Vincent Bugliosi
· The Reagan Diaries Abridged Selections, by Ronald Reagan
· The Terror, by Dan Simmons

Achievement in Production
· Dune, by Frank Herbert
· Inspired by…The Old Testament, with full-cast narration
· The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick
· Radio Theatre’s Amazing Grace, by Paul McCusker and Dave Arnold
· Sweeney Todd and the String of Pearls, by Yuri Rasovsky — Winner!

Audio Drama
· Princess Academy, by Shannon Hale
· Radio Theatre’s Amazing Grace, by Paul McCusker and Dave Arnold
· Star Beast, by Robert Heinlein
· Sweeney Todd and the String of Pearls, by Yuri Rasovsky — Winner!
· Vienna Prelude, by Bodie Thoene

Audiobook Adapted From Another Medium
· Douglas Adams Live: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy , by Douglas Adams
· Selected Shorts: Pets!, produced by Symphony Space
· Selected Shorts: Wartime Lives, produced by Symphony Space
· The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas Collection 11 — Winner!
· Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me: The Best of ‘Not My Job’

Biography/Memoir

· Einstein, by Walter Isaacson -- Winner!

· My Lobotomy, by Howard Dully and Charles Fleming
· Schulz and Peanuts, by David Michaelis
· Shakespeare, by Bill Bryson
· Tearing Down the Wall of Sound, by Mick Brown

Business Information/Educational
· The Dream Manager, by Matthew Kelly
· The House of Mondavi, by Julia Flynn Siler
· How to Get to the Top, by Jeffrey Fox
· The Tao of Warren Buffett, by Mary Buffett and David Clark
· Words That Work, by Dr. Frank Luntz — Winner!
· Do You!, by Russell Simmons

Children’s Titles: Ages 12 +
· Bloody Jack, by L.M. Meyer — Winner!
· InterWorld, by Neil Gaiman
· A Mango-Shaped Space, by Wendy Mass
· M Is for Magic, by Neil Gaiman
· Slam, by Nick Hornby

Children’s Titles: Ages 8-11
· Clementine, by Sara Pennypacker — Winner!
· The Great Christmas Kidnapping Caper, by Jean van Leeuwen
· Rosa, by Nikki Giovanni
· Skulduggery Pleasant, by Derek Landy
· The Wednesday Wars, by Gary D. Schmidt

Children’s Titles: Ages up to 8
· In Aunt Giraffe’s Green Garden, by Jack Prelutsky
· Goodnight Hawaiian Moon, by Dr. Carolan
· More About Paddington, by Michael Bond — Winner!
· Ogre in a Toga, by Geoffrey McSkimming
· The One and Only Shrek!, by William Steig

Classic
· 1984, by George Orwell
· The Call of the Wild and White Fang, by Jack London
· Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
· A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
· Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson — Winner!

Fiction
· Exile, by Richard North Patterson
· The Friday Night Knitting Club, by Kate Jacobs
· Tallgrass, by Sandra Dallas — Winner!
· The Tenderness of Wolves, by Stef Penny
· The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, by Maggie O’Farrell

Humor
· Don’t Make a Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings, by Tyler Perry
· I Am America (And So Can You!), by Stephen Colbert — Winner!
· Our Dumb World, by The Onion
· Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar, by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein
· The Ultimate David Sedaris Box Set, by David Sedaris

Inspirational/Faith-Based Fiction
· Ever After, by Karen Kingsbury
· Not Easily Broken, by T.D. Jakes
· The Penny, by Joyce Meyer and Deborah Bedford
· Renovating Becky Miller, by Sharon Hinck
· River Rising, by Athol Dickson — Winner!

Inspirational/Spiritual
· Ana’s Story, by Jenna Bush
· Anger, by Gary Chapman
· Finding Home, by Jim Daly
· The Great Omission, by Dallas Willard
· Inspired by…The Old Testament, with full-cast narration — Winner!
· Vienna Prelude, by Bodie Thoene

Literary Fiction
· Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy
· The Inheritance of Loss, by Hiran Desai
· Portrait of an Unknown Woman, by Vanora Bennett
· Tree of Smoke, by Denis Johnson — Winner!
· The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, by Michael Chabon

Multi-Voiced Performance
· Dune, by Frank Herbert
· I Am America (And So Can You!), by Stephen Colbert
· Inspired by…The Old Testament, with full-cast narration — Winner!
· The Word of Promise New Testament Audio Bible, with full-cast narration
· Hollowville, by Mary Jane Hansen

Mystery
· A Fatal Grace, by Louise Penny
· Hollywood Station, by Joseph Wambaugh
· Thunder Bay, by William Kent Krueger
· The Tin Roof Blowdown, by James Lee Burke — Winner!
· Up in Honey’s Room, by Elmore Leonard

Narration by the Author or Authors
· Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver
· Here If You Need Me, by Kate Braestrup
· Michael Tolliver Lives, by Armistead Maupin
· Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
· Pontoon, by Garrison Keillor — Winner!
· The Traveler, by Ron McLarty

Nonfiction

· Banker to the Poor, by Muhammed Yunus
· The Coldest Winter, by David Halberstam
· Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage, by Alfred Lansing
· Jesus for the Non-Religious, by John Shelby Spong

· Roots, by Alex Haley -- Winner!

Original Work
· The Chopin Manuscript, by Jeffery Deaver, Lee Child, Joseph Finder, Lisa Scottoline, David Hewson, and more
· Hollowville, by Mary Jane Hansen
· Hurricane Katrina, by Pamela F. Pipes
· Bringing Peace to a Changing World, by Jimmy Carter
· Sweeney Todd and the String of Pearls, by Yuri Rasovsky — Winner!

Package Design
· The Christmas Hope Collection, by Donna VanLiere
· Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling — Winner!
· Inspired by…The Old Testament, with full-cast narration
· The One and Only Shrek!, by William Steig
· Speak in a Week: Latin American Spanish Street Smart, by William Boyd

Personal Development/Motivational
· Fit to Live, by Pamela Peeke — Winner!
· From the Heart, by Robin Roberts
· Giving, by Bill Clinton
· Mariel Hemingway’s Healthy Living from the Inside Out, by Mariel Hemingway
· Merle’s Door, by Ted Kerasote

Romance
· Beyond the Highland Mist, by Karen Marie Moning
· Consequences, by Penelope Lively
· Everlasting, by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
· On Tall Pine Lake, by Dorothy Garlock
· Natural Born Charmer, by Susan Elizabeth Phillips — Winner!
· Sugar Daddy, by Lisa Kleypas

Science Fiction
· The Draco Tavern, by Larry Niven
· Dune, by Frank Herbert – Winner!
· The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, by Jack Finney
· Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Ravens of Avalon, by Diana L. Paxson
· Selections from Dreamsongs: 1, by George R.R. Martin

Short Stories/Collections

· 20th Century Ghosts, by Joe Hill -- Winner!

· Big Country, by Louis L’Amour
· Grace Under Fire, edited by Andrew Carroll
· Growing Up Ethnic in America, by various authors
· Selected Readings from the Portable Dorothy Parker, by Marion Meade

Solo Narration: Female

· The Blood of Flowers, by Anita Amirrezvani
· Boomsday, by Christopher Buckley
· Taking Flight, by Adriana Sevan
· Tallgrass, by Sandra Dallas — Winner!
· The Teahouse Fire, by Ellis Avery

Solo Narration: Male

· Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
· The Coldest Winter, by David Halberstam
· Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling — Winner!
· The Long Walk, by Slavomir Rawicz

Spanish Language

· 20 Mil Leguas de Viaje Submarino, by Jules Verne
· El Zahir, by Paulo Coelho
· Ines del Alma Mia, by Isabel Allende
· La Isla del Tesoro, by Robert Louis Stevenson
· Malinche, by Laura Esquivel -- Winner!