Award Winners

The Alabama Authors Award
The Alabama Authors Award presented by the Alabama Library Association during its annual convention seeks to encourage and recognize Alabama authors and promote interest in local authors' books whether the books are about Alabama or another subject. Awards are based on literary merit. A recipient must be an Alabamian or must have lived in Alabama for at least five (5) years. The book for which the recipient is honored must have been published within the past three (3) calendar years prior to the convention at which the award is presented. Reprints of works originally published prior to the cutoff year of the award are not eligible; neither are an author's body of works. An editor or translator may be considered if the book is of value to the permanent record of the state. Recipients must be living. Each year the Authors Awards Committee may recommend to the Alabama Library Association Council that awards be given to one book in each of three categories: Juvenile/Young Adult, Fiction, and Nonfiction. In any given year, the committee may recommend that no award be given in a particular category is no book of sufficient quality is under consideration.

Naslund, Sena Jeter. Ahab's Wife or, The Star-Gazer. William Morrow & Son, 1999. The Alabama Library Association's annual convention in Montgomery in April of 2001, Sena Jeter Naslund, a Birmingham native, was presented the 2001 Authors's Award in the fiction category for Ahab's Wife. The opening sentence-- "Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last"--has led numerous readers into a beautifully written story which, in addition to other themes, recounts the tale of Captain Ahab and the great whale Moby Dick. But mostly it is the story of Una Spenser, daughter of a tyrannical father, who leaves the Kentucky frontier for a peaceful New England lighthouse island to live with an aunt, uncle, and young cousin. While there she simultaneously falls in love with two young men, one of whom she eventually marries. Disguised as a boy, she earns a berth on a whaling ship and encounters the power of nature, death, and madness and gets her first glimpse of Captain Ahab. Naslund portrays Una's love for and marriage to the tragically driven Ahab with rich and original writing.

Anthony Award: (1986- )
The Anthony Awards are announced at the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention, the largest annual gathering of mystery fans, writers, booksellers and assorted other partners in crime. Both the award and the convention is named in honor of the late Anthony Boucher (William Anthony Parker White), a well-known writer, influential critic, and enthusiastic fan of the mystery genre.

Carr, Caleb. The Alienist. Random House, 1994. (1995 Anthony Award)  What creature stalks lower Manhattan at the turn of the century and mutilates its victims in unspeakable ways? John Moore, New York Times reporter and Lazzlo Kreizler, "alienist" (psychologist) combine efforts with the police, headed by Theodore Roosevelt, to track down this ruthless killer. Seemingly disconnected events, autopsies and actions build the profile of the mutilator/ murderer as the central question of free will versus psychological determinism is played out. Appearing at cameo intervals, TR once makes the profile-clinching suggestion that the sicko is acquainted with the Sioux style of mutilation. With that idea, Moore and Kreizler unlock the case, eventually cornering their prey atop a water reservoir. With a fascinating cast of characters, this highly satisfactory fictionalized social history is worth taking the time to read even though 500 pages long. It is filled with evocative period detail and it must be said that the motivation of the demented killer is worked out with chilling, pitying conviction.

Booker Award: (1969– )
The Booker Prize (or The Booker McConnell Prize) was founded in 1969 by Booker McConnell, a multinational conglomerate company. Administered by the National Book League in the United Kingdom, this prestigious award is awarded to the best full-length novel written in English by a citizen of the UK, the Commonwealth, Eire, Pakistan, or South Africa.

Fitzgerald, Penelope. Offshore. Houghton Mifflin, 1979. (1979 Booker Award) Offshore is set in the 1960s among the houseboats along the Thames on London's Battersea Reach. The winner of the 1979 Booker Prize, Fitzgerald's novel chronicles the lives of the inhabitants of the area's houseboats, including Nenna and her two truant daughters on the Grace, Richard an ex-naval reservist on the Lord Jim, Maurice, a male prostitute on the Maurice and Willis, a marine artist trying to sell his leaky Dreadnought. Fitzgerald's novel has a charming cast of characters in an eccentric setting. Highly recommended.

Atwood, Margaret. The Blind Assassin. Bantam Doubleday, 2000. (2000 Booker Prize) The winner of the 2000 Booker Prize, Atwood's novel is the story of two sisters, one who dies under ambiguous circumstances in the opening pages of the novel. Atwood's book alternates between a novel written by Laura Chase before her death and her sister Iris Griffin's efforts to publish the novel and her memoir of sorts. A wonderful novel full of twists and turns.

Booklist Editors’ Choice Award
The Adult Books editors of Booklist magazine select titles from a variety of fiction and non-fiction categories which they feel are representative of the year's most outstanding books for public-library collections. The scope is intentionally broad, as selections for these awards are based on a title’s ability to combine literary, intellectual, and aesthetic excellence with popular appeal.

Atwood, Margaret. Alias Grace. Nan A. Talase, 1996. In 1843, at the age of 16, Grace Marks was sentenced to life in prison as an accomplice in the murder of her employer and his housekeeper. She confessed to the crime under the advice of her lawyer but later claimed no memory of the event. She was arrested in upstate New York, having run from her employer's house in Canada with the handyman, who was hanged for the crime. The novel is set 16 years after the crime when a doctor is recruited to prove Grace's innocence and determine the "truth." Grace tells her life story in episodic fashion. You learn a lot about life in colonial Canada and the life of domestics who work in homes of the wealthy. What you don't learn is whether Grace in guilty or innocent of the crime of murder. The story is long but elegantly and well written with good character development.

Caldecott Medal (1938 - )
American Library Association, Association for Library Service to Children
The medal, established in 1938, is presented annually to the illustrator of the most distinguished American picture book for children published in the United States in the preceding year. The recipient must be a citizen or resident of the United States. The winner is announced at the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting (January/February), and the award is presented at the ALA summer conference.

Willard, Nancy; illustrations by Alice and Martin Provensen. A Visit to William Blake’s Inn: poems for innocent and experienced travelers. Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, 1981. A Newbery Medal & Caldecott Honor Book. In this book of poems modeled after the works of William Blake, Nancy Willard creates a delightful fantasy: what if poet William Blake were an innkeeper? Many a weary traveler would be more than pleased to stay for a few days in Blake’s inn, where angels make certain the featherbeds are kept clean and shaken to the perfect degree of fluff; the kitchen is powered by dragon fire, and children sleep comfortably in the company of bears and tigers—or is that tygers? This is an excellent book for poetry lovers of any age.

For more information on the Newbery and Caldecott awards: http://www.ala.org

Edgar Awards: (1988- )
The Edgar Allan Poe Awards ("Edgars") are named for Edgar Allan Poe, the patron saint of Mystery Writers of America and are awarded to authors of distinguished work in various categories of the genre.

Burke, Jan. Bones. Simon & Schuster, 1999. Hannibal Lechter clone Nick Parrish is the hideous "star" of Burke's latest Irene Kelly mystery. Parrish, arrested for the torture-murder of Julia Sayre, promises to show the cops where he's buried Julia's body in the mountains above Las Piernas. Journalist Kelly has followed the Sayre case since it began, and the police grudgingly allow her to come along on the gruesome trip to Julia's grave. True to his word, Parrish leads the group to the decomposing body, then offers to show them the graves of other victims he claims he's killed. But Parrish has booby-trapped the graves, and once the bomb goes off, he escapes in the ensuing confusion. A heart-stopping chase through the mountains, with Irene as Parrish's intended victim, would provide a fitting climax for the story, but Burke has more suspense in store. Irene is rescued, but Parrish is still loose, and over the following months, he stalks Irene relentlessly. Gruesome "gifts" and a campaign of physical and psychological terror would turn most folks into basket cases, but Parrish's tricks only make Irene more determined to track him down. Burke's latest is very impressive—deviously plotted, cleverly crafted, full of screw-tightening suspense.

The Hugo Award (1960- )
The Hugo Award was named in honor of Hugo Gernsback, "The Father of Magazine Science Fiction," as he was described in a special award given to him in 1960. The Hugo Award, also known as the Science Fiction Achievement Award, is given annually by the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS). The distinguishing characteristics of the Hugo Award are that it is sponsored by WSFS, administered by the committee of the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) held that year, and determined by nominations from and a popular vote of the membership of WSFS. In general, a Hugo Award given in a particular year is for work that appeared in the previous calendar year.

Card, Orson Scott. Ender’s Game. Tom Doherty Associates, 1985. (joint winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Science Fiction/Fantasy) A high-power military operation is no place for a child . . . or is it? In Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card invites us to consider the situation of a gifted child who leaves his family and joins the military to undergo a program of intensive training to combat an alien threat. Card pulls no punches in this novel: Ender Wiggin may be young but the ethical dilemmas he faces would perplex and horrify almost anyone and there is no sense that the author is "talking down" to the child protagonist or treating his problems as less substantial than the concerns of an adult. This one will make you think twice about the supposed "innocence" of childhood.

For more information on the Hugo and Nebula Awards: http://www.explorers.whyte.com/nebhug.htm

The Giller Prize
The Giller Prize awards $25,000 annually to the author of the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English. Named in the honour of the late literary journalist Doris Giller by her husband Jack Rabinovitch, The Giller Prize was established to recognize excellence in Canadian fiction. (Alias Grace)

The Glenfiddich Food and Drink Awards
This award recognizes the work of the best food and drink writers, publishers and broadcasters. The awards are presented in May and the winners receive a case of Glenfiddich Single Malt Scotch Whisky, along with a check for £800. £1 = approx $1.40

Kurlansky, Mark. Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World. Walker Publishing Company, 1997. Winner of the Glenfiddich Best Food Book Award for 1999. Believe it or not, the codfish has played a fascinating and crucial role in world history. Wars have been fought over it, revolutions have been spurred by it, national diets have been based on it. This history spans a thousand years and four continents. The story is embellished with gastronomic detail, blending in recipes and lore from the Middle Ages to the present. The author brings to life the cod itself: its personality, habits, extended family, and ultimately the tragedy of how the most profitable fish in history is today faced with extinction.

The National Outdoor Book Awards (NOBA), sponsored by the Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education and Idaho State University, is the outdoor world’s largest and most prestigious book award program. The purpose of the Awards is to recognize and encourage outstanding writing and publishing related The National Outdoor Book Awards (NOBA), sponsored by the Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education and Idaho State University, is the outdoor world’s largest and most prestigious book award program. to outdoor recreation and education. Each year awards are given in nine categories: History, Literature, Children, Nature, Instructional, Adventure Guidebook, Nature Guidebook, Design, and Outdoor Classic. Award winners, which must be written in English, are chosen by a panel which is comprised of authors, columnists, educators, and book reviewers from across the country. Titles to be considered must be related to outdoor adventure activities, i.e. mountaineering, rock climbing, kayaking, rafting, canoeing, hiking, mountain biking, backpacking, skiing, exploration, or sailing. Works primarily dealing with nature or the environment are also eligible. A non-profit and educational program, NOBA has been rewarding authors and publishers since 1997 with the NOBA seal for their titles, and with publicity via wire service stories, press releases, and announcements at related websites.

Dixon, Ann and Evon Zerbetz. Blueberry Shoe. Alaska Northwest Books, 1999. In this delightful story, Baby loses his shoe while on a blueberry picking trip with his family. Readers follow the shoe as it is discovered, slept in, played with, and bitten by local wildlife, until it is finally lost to all its finders. For a whole year, the little shoe lies hidden, filled with dirt and covered with snow. When Baby’s family returns the next summer to pick more blueberries, they find a shoe magically transformed into a living treasure! Dixon’s story is a playful look at nature and Alaskan wildlife through the seasons. Intended for younger children (ages 3 and up), it is filled with Zerbetz’s charming and colorful linocuts overlaid on backgrounds of authentic leaf impressions also done by the illustrator. Blueberry Shoe was one of the 2000 NOBA winners in the Children’s category.

Nebula Award (1965- )
The Nebula Awards are voted on, and presented by, active members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. Founded as the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1965 by Damon Knight, the organization began with a charter membership of 78 writers; it now has over 1,000 members, among them most of the leading writers of science fiction and fantasy. Since 1965, the Nebula Awards have been given each year for the best novel, novella, novelette, and short story eligible for that year's award. (Ender’s Game)

Newberry Award (1922- )
The Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. (A Visit to William Blake’s Inn)

PEN/Faulkner Awards for Fiction: (1981- )
The award was founded in the spirit of and is named for William Faulkner, two time winner of both the National Book Award and The Pulitzer Prize for Literature and chosen as a Nobel Laureate. Faulkner also donated his Nobel money to young writers. The PEN/Faulkner is also affiliated with the international writers' organization PEN, this is one of the few literary awards with which writers honor their peers. It's also the nation's largest juried prize, worth $15,000. Winners are announced in April. Over two hundred books are read each year and  judged by a panel of three American novelists. (The Hours)

Roth, Philip. The Human Stain. Houghton Mifflin, 2000. It is 1998, the year in which America is whipped into a frenzy of prurience by the impeachment proceedings of a president, and in a small New England town, an aging classics professor, Coleman Silk, is forced to retire when his colleagues decree that he is a racist. The charge is a lie, but the truth about Silk would have astonished his most virulent accuser. Coleman Silk has kept a secret for fifty years: from his wife, his four children, his colleagues, and his friends, including the writer Nathan Zuckerman, who sets out to reconstruct the biography of this eminent, upright man and to understand how his ingeniously contrived life came unraveled. This 2001 Pen/Faulkner fiction award winner is a story worth talking about. Here are two quotes about the book. It is a superb book, but not for the reasons Roth wants it to be. He sells it as a  political parable. The title is Human Stain, and the exposition of the first five pages, remind us that the book's action takes place in Impeachment Summer, 1998. The stain is not just on Monica's dress, the stain is on us all, original sin, a fact that should make us more empathic, not less. Yet that summer, America's "piety binge ... revived America's oldest communal passion, historically perhaps its most treacherous and subversive pleasure: the ecstasy of sanctimony." From Beliefnet Zuckerman seems destined to discover the truth about Coleman, which reveals so many truths about the land he so passionately portrays. As Roth unfurls his hero's galvanizing tale, he protests the tyranny of prejudice and propriety, recognizes the "terrifyingly provisional nature of everything," and shakes his head in sorrow and wonder over the "inevitably stained creatures that we are."

Pulitzer Prize: (1919– )
The Pulitzer Prize is awarded for excellence in journalism, letters, music and drama. Established by newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer in 1917, the awards are given annually by Columbia University. Each prize is $3,000, with the exception of a Meritorious Public Service Award, for which a medal is given. There have occasionally been years when no award was given.

Cunningham, Michael. The Hours. Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1998. (1998 Pulitzer Prize, 1998 Pen/Faulkner Award) Cunningham has written this novel as a graceful and passionate homage to Virginia Woolf, his goddess and his muse. The Hours was her working title for what became Mrs. Dalloway, and Cunningham makes beautiful, improvisational use of every facet of Woolf's novel and life story. He neatly cuts back and forth in time among three women: Woolf, whom he portrays in the throes of writing Mrs. Dalloway and contemplating suicide; Laura, a young wife and mother suffocating in the confines of her tidy little life in L.A. in 1949; and Clarissa, who is giving a party in the present in New York City for her closest friend, Richard, a writer dying of AIDS. Clarissa is Mrs. Dalloway once removed—a distinguished book editor and mother of a teenage daughter, she has lived with her female lover for 18 years. These particulars match surprising well with the intellectual, sexual, and artistic complexities of Bloomsbury, Woolf's hothouse world, thus revealing the full extent of Cunningham's identification with his mentor. And his prose! He is almost eerily fluent in Woolf's exquisitely orchestrated elucidation of the torrent of thoughts, memories, longings, and regrets that surges ceaselessly through the mind. Even if Cunningham's moving tribute served only to steer readers to Woolf's incomparable books, he would deserve praise, but he has accomplished much more than that. He has reaffirmed that Woolf is of lasting significance, that the questions she asked about life remain urgent, and that, in spite of sorrow, pain, and the promise of death, the simplest gestures--walking out the door on a lovely morning, setting a vase of roses on a table--can be, for one shining moment, enough. (also Pen/Faulkner)

June 13, 2001