Fall 2011/Winter 2012

The 2010 Bram Stoker Awards were presented at a banquet on June 18, during the Horror Writers Association conference in Long Island, NY. Peter Straub received the award for best novel for A Dark Matter. Haunted Legends, edited by Ellen Datlow and Nick Mamatas, was named best anthology. Ellen Datlow was also presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award. The award nominees included Lisa Manetti for Dissolution (Long Fiction) and 1926: A Fall River Halloween (Short Fiction), and Stephen King for Full Dark, No Stars (Collection).

The finalists for the 2011 Casey Award included Base­ball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game, by John Thorn; The Greatest Minor League: A History of the Pacific Coast League, 1903–1957, by Dennis Snelling; and 56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports, by Kostya Kennedy. The Casey Award, sponsored by Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine, honors the best baseball book of the year.

The National Book Foundation presented its 2011 National Book Awards at a ceremony and benefit dinner on November 16 in New York City. The nominees included Deborah Baker, The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism (Nonfiction) and Debby Dahl Edwardson, My Name Is Not Easy (Young People’s Literature). John Ashbery received the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

Anthony Bruno received a City Proclamation from New York City and a New York State Recognition Award from State Senator Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr. for his service as a New York City police officer, his service in the U.S. Army, and his memoir, In One Hand.

Joan Druett received a Stout Centre Research Grant, sponsored by Copyright Licensing Ltd. and the New Zealand Society of Authors. This fellowship provides an office and a stipend to assist writers of proven merit in the researching of either a fiction or non- fiction project.

Crosswire, by Dotti Enderle, received the 2010 June Franklin Naylor Children’s Book Award for the Best Book for Children on Texas History, sponsored by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. The award was announced at the group’s 120th annual convention on May 13.

Noël Riley Fitch received the 2011 Prix de la Tour Montparnasse for Sylvia Beach: Une Américaine à Paris, the French translation of Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation. The award carries a 2500 euro stipend and was presented at a ceremony in Paris.

Joan Frank’s story collection, In Envy Country, received first place in the short story category of ForeWord Reviews’ 2010 Book of the Year Awards.

China Galland received the 2009–2010 Courage of Conscience Award from the Peace Abbey in Sherborn, MA.

Ring of Fire: Selected Poems of Alessandra Gelmi, by Alessandra Gelmi, won first place in the creative verse category of the 2009 National Federation of Press Women’s annual awards.

Linda M. Hasselstrom received the Distinguished Achievement in the Humanities Award from the South Dakota Humanities Council for her books on life in South Dakota. The award was presented as part of the 9th annual South Dakota Festival of Books, in Dead­wood, at a ceremony on October 8.

Not Yet, Rose, by Susanna Leonard Hill, received a Mom’s Choice Award. Frances Ruley Karttunen was named a Nantucket Historical Association Research Fellow at the organization’s recent annual meeting.

La Renaissance Française, a French cultural organization, awarded J. David Markham the Médaille d’or du Rayonnement Culturel—a Gold Medal for Cultural Influence—for his body of work over a quarter of a century, which has helped promote French history and culture. The medal was presented at a ceremony during the International Napoleonic Society’s 7th Interna­tional Congress in Montreal in June 2009.

Tara L. Masih’s short story collection, Where the Dog Star Never Glows, was a finalist in USA Book News’s Best Books 2010 Awards, in the Fiction and Literature: Short Story category.

Christopher Merrill has been appointed a member of the National Council on the Humanities.

Grandmother’s Whisper, by Inette Miller, was named Book of the Year 2011 (Auto/biography) as part of the Visionary Awards, which are granted to the best spiritual writing at the International New Age Trade Show each year. This year’s ceremony took place on June 25 in Denver.

Monica Reinagel received recognition in the 2011 Apex Awards for Publication Excellence for her article “The Fun and Frugal Fashion of Home Canning,” which originally appeared in the ADA Times, the publication of the American Dietetic Association. The article received an Apex Award for Excellence in How-To Writing, and was a runner-up (bronze) for the Magnus Opus Award for Best How-To Article. The Apex Awards are sponsored by Writing That Works, a magazine for professionals who write, edit, and manage business communications.

Sherry Shahanreceived one of two inaugural Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators’ Book Launch Awards for her marketing proposal for her middle grade novel, Ice Island. The award carries a cash prize of $2,000, which enables recipients to implement their marketing plans. Shahan will create an “Idita­Read” initiative, where students compete in reading races in their classrooms.

Laura Silver received second place in the 2011 Reli­gion Newswriters Association awards in the Religion Commentary of the Year category, for first-person articles originally published by CNN and The Huffington Post: “Christmas with Claude Lanzmann’s ‘Shoah,’” “On Veterans, Crosses and Shields” and “Cus­tom Ver­sus Costume.”

Janelle Tayloris featured in the “Local Legends Exhibition” at the Augusta Museum in Georgia. The exhibition opened on October 28 and includes stories about extraordinary individuals from the region.

Hans Wilhelm was presented with a Lifetime Achieve­ment Award for Literature from the town of Westport, CT. The resident children’s book author and illustrator was honored at a ceremony on October 23.