Awards

Nominees for the seventh annual Firecracker Alternative Book (FAB) Awards, have been announced. The awards honor the best in alternative publishing in such categories as Sex, Drugs, Music, Graphic Novel, and Zine in addition to the traditional categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poety. The deadline for votes is April 20, and awards will be presented at BookExpo America on May 3 in New York City. Among this year’s nominees are: FICTION

The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) has announced the nominees for the 37th Annual National Magazine Awards, which will be awarded in a ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria on May 1. The New Yorker again took away the most nominations -- with nine nominations in eight categories -- and 19 print magazines were nominated for more than one award, including The Atlantic Monthly and Time, with five nominations in five categories. The awards were established to honor "editorial excellence and encourage editorial vitality."

On March 20, at a ceremony held at the New York Public Library, author Colson Whitehead was honored with the Young Lions Fiction Award [YLFA] for his novel John Henry Days (Doubleday). Established in 2001, YLFA awards a $10,000 prize to a writer age 35 or younger for a novel or a collection of short stories. Remarkably, this year, all the nominees for YLFA were also Book Sense 76 picks. John Henry Days was a July/August Book Sense 76 pick.

Nominees were announced, on March 14, for the 2002 James Beard Foundation Awards, now in their 12th year. The announcement was made at a reception held at the historic James Beard House in Greenwich Village, New York.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Harvard Book Store has won the prestigious 2002 Bookseller of the Year Award from Publisher’s Weekly. "We are overjoyed," said Frank Kramer, owner of the Harvard Book Store. "We work very hard. To get this recognition is very gratifying."

On March 6, the Audio Publishers Association (APA) released the names of the 69 finalists for the Seventh Annual Audie Awards. This year, the Audie Awards, which honor excellence in audio publishing, will be presented in 23 categories. The finalists were selected by a panel of over 100 judges who were responsible for reviewing 522 audiobooks, which were released between November 1, 2000, and October 31, 2001. In the Abridged Fiction category, the finalists are:

Finalists for the Book Sense Book of the Year were announced on February 13. Detailed below are the finalists in the two Children's categories -- Children’s Literature and Children’s Illustrated.

In a March 11 ceremony, held at the Tishman Auditorium at New York University Law School in New York, the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) announced the winners of its annual book awards. The fiction prize was awarded posthumously to W.G. Sebald for Austerlitz (Random House). Sebald died in an automobile accident in December 2001. His agent, Andrew Wylie, accepted the award.

Booksellers are reminded that by now they should have received by mail from ABA ballots for both the 2002 ABA Officers/Board of Directors and the Book Sense Book of the Year Awards. Appearing on the ballot for members’ ratification is the slate of officers elected by the ABA Board at its January meeting. The Board chose:

By Robin Whitten Awards bring a useful focus to audiobook recommendations, and spring produces a fine crop. On February 27, the Recording Academy’s Grammy Awards were splashed across the entertainment press, soon to be followed by the Academy Awards.