Spring 2013

Lydia Davis was awarded the 2013 Man Booker Inter­national Prize “for achievement in fiction on the world stage,” at a ceremony at the Victoria and Albert Mu­seum in London on May 22. The author of nine collections of short stories and one novel, Davis is the fifth winner of the prize, and the second American to be honored.

The Crystal Kite Awards are awarded annually by the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators to recognize great books from 15 regional SCBWI divisions around the world. Guild winners include Orel Protopopescu’s Thelo­nious Mouse, New York region; Lee Wardlow and Eugene Yelchin’s Won Ton: A Tale Told in Haiku, California/Hawaii region; Holly Thomp­son’s Orchards, East/India/Asia region; Larry Brim­ner’s Black & White: The Confrontation between Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene “Bull” Connor, South­west region; Kathryn Erskine’s The Absolute Value of Mike, At­lantic region, and Kirby Larson’s The Friend­ship Doll, West region.

The winners of the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Awards were announced on February 28, 2013 during a ceremony at the New School’s Tishman Auditorium. Robert A. Caro won in the Biography category for The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson. Lisa Cohen’s All We Know: Three Lives was a finalist in Biography, and David Quammen’s Spill­over: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic was a finalist in Nonfiction. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar received the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award for their work in feminist criticism.

The AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books celebrates outstanding science writing and illustration for children and young adults. Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm won the 2013 Best Chil­dren’s Science Picture Book Award for Ocean Sunlight: How Tiny Plants Feed the Seas.

Lucy Jane Bledsoe won The Saturday Evening Post’s Great American Fiction Contest for her story “Wolf.” The story was featured in the January/February 2013 issue and will be published in Best Short Stories from The Saturday Evening Post Great American Fiction Contest 2013. She and the runners-up were honored at a reception co-hosted by The Saturday Evening Post and Pub­lishing Executive at Michael’s New York on January 8.

Karen Blumenthal’s Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different was a finalist for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults.

Jess Bravin received the 2012 Excellence in Online Journalism Award from the National Press Foundation for his coverage of the Supreme Court’s Affordable Care Act decision. This award was shared with his colleagues at The Wall Street Journal, Peter Landers, Tim Hanrahan and Sheila Courter.

Meredith Broussard was named a fellow for the 2012 USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Program.

Debra Cash was a 2012 Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Research Award recipient for her current project, Adapting Gold Age Strategies Contemporary Feminist Poetry.

Greg Dinallo’s The German Suitcase was named a 2012 Nook Best Book.

Laura Durnell received a Professional Development Grant from the Illinois Arts Council for work on her short story collection, Transition.

Jennifer Egan was elected to PEN American Center’s Board of Trustees.

The Paris Review presented Paula Fox with the Hadada Award for her distinguished contribution to the writing community. She was honored at the annual Paris Review Spring Revel on April 9 at Cipriani.

Agewise: Fighting the New Ageism in America by Mar­garet Morganroth Gullette won a 2012 Eric Hoffer Book Award in the Health category.

Deborah Henry’s The Whipping Club was named one of Kirkus Reviews’ Best of 2012 and one of O Magazine’s Hottest Summer Reads.

David Huddle’s Nothing Can Make Me Do This won the Library of Virginia’s Annual Literary Award.

Linda S. Johnston was presented with the Kansas Historical Society’s Edward N. Tihen Historical Re­search Grant to complete her book Hope Amid Hard­ship: Voices from Kansas Territory, due out in August 2013.

Kim Kavin won the Dog Writers Association of America’s Merial Human-Animal Bond Award for Little Boy Blue: A Puppy’s Rescue for Death Row and His Owner’s Journey for Truth. The award honors a work that best exemplifies the bond between dog owner and pet. The DWAA Awards were presented at the Affinia Manhattan Hotel on February 10.

The Boston Globe named Steven Kemper’s book, A Labyrinth of Kingdoms: 10,000 Miles Through Islamic Africa, one of the best 11 nonfiction books of 2012.

Patricia Laurence received a Fulbright Award at the University College Cork in 2012 for teaching and work on her biography of the Anglo-Irish writer Elizabeth Bowen.

The second edition of Invertebrate Medicine, edited by Gregory A. Lewbert, received a “Texty” Textbook Ex­cellence Award in the College Life Sciences category from the Text and Academic Authors Association. It also received the American Medical Writers Associ­ation’s Medical Book Award, in the Health Care Professionals (Non-Physicians) category.

Truth Like the Sun by Jim Lynch was nominated for the Hammett Prize, presented by the International Association of Crime Writers. The winner will be announced during the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association Fall Conference in Somerset, NJ in late September.

Mark Massé was presented with the American Psycho­analytic Association’s 2012 Award for Excel­lence in Journalism for his “commitment to covering mental health issues with integrity and sensitivity.” The award was for the chapter titled “Transformer” that appears in Trauma Journalism: On Deadline in Harm’s Way (2011).

Rusty Morrison’s short story, “Aftermath: Addition,” from his collection After Urgency was nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

The Trunk Key by Carolyn Nash was named one of the 10 Best Kindle Singles of 2012.

Jim Nichols was a finalist for the 2012 Maine Literary Award for Fiction for his novel Hull Creek. His book also received the silver medal for the 2012 Indepen­dent Publisher Award for Regional Fiction.

Katherine Paterson was awarded the 2013 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, which honors an author or illustrator whose books have made a substantial and lasting contribution to children’s literature.

Laura Pedersen’s Unplugged: Ella Gets Her Family Back, received the Gold Mom’s Choice Award, which recognizes authors for creating quality family-friendly media, products and services.

The Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of the American Library Association, presented Tamora Pierce with the 2013 Margaret A. Edwards Award for her lasting contribution to writing for young adults for her Song of the Lioness quartet and The Protector of the Small quartet.

Mara Purl’s What the Heart Knows won the USA Book News Award for Best Romantic Fiction. Her short story, “When Hummers Dream,” won the Award for Best Short Story.

Lois Roma-Deeley was named the 2012 Outstanding Community Colleges Professor of the Year by the Car­negie Foundation for the Advancement of Teach­ing and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). She teaches creative writing at the Paradise Valley Community College in Phoenix.

Pen American Center presented Philip Roth with the PEN Literary Service Award at the Pen Literary Gala on April 30 during the PEN World Voices Festival.

Seven Living Splendors by Albert Russo was a 2013 Great Southwest Book Festival Honorable Mention in the category of Photography/Art. The awards were presented on March 23 in New Orleans. He also received the Life Achievement Award for Literature from Calcutta University. That award was presented on January 25.

Cheryl Strayed won the 2012 Barnes & Noble Dis­cover Award for Nonfiction for her memoir, Wild. The Dis­cover Awards were presented on March 6 in New York City.

Ross Terrill is currently a Senior International Visiting Fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra, writing and lecturing on China’s challenges for the United States and Australia.

Crossing Borders: Personal Essays by Sergio Troncoso was chosen as a winner in ForeWord Reviews’ Book of the Year Award for Essays.

Rachel Vail’s Flabbersmashed About You was named a 2013 Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book, which is given annually for outstanding writing in picture books. Her YA novel, Kiss Me Again, is nominated for a Teen Choice Book of the Year Award.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein was an American Library Association Printz Honor Book.