Spring 2010

Among the nominees for the Hammett Prize are Jedediah Berry, The Manual of Detection: A Novel, and Walter Mosley, The Long Fall. Sponsored by the North American branch of the International Association of Crime Writers, the Hammett Prize honors a work of literary excellence in the field of crime by a U.S. or Canadian author. The winner will be announced during the tenth annual Bloody Words Conference in Toronto, in May.

The Society of Midland Authors held its annual awards banquet on May 12 in Chicago. Candace Fleming received the award for Children’s Nonfiction for The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary. Donna Seaman and Charlotte Herman were among the judges.

The editors of Travelers’ Tales Books announced the winners of the Fourth Annual Solas Awards for Best Travel Story of the Year. Tom Miller received the Gold prize in the Destination category, for his story, “A Border Rat.” He also received the Bronze prize for Travel Memoir for “Notes on an Andean Pilgrim.” Joshua Berman received an Honorable Mention for his story, “Baba’s Blessing.”

Winners of the 2009 New Mexico Book Awards, organized by the New Mexico Book Co-op, included Malka Drucker, Portraits of Jewish American Heroes, in the Juvenile Book category; Elizabeth Fackler, My Eyes Have a Cold Nose, in the Novel-Historical Fiction category; and Jay Udall, The Welcome Table, in the Poetry Book category.

The Mystery Writers of America will announce the winners of the 2010 Edgar Allan Poe Awards—“the Edgars”—on April 29 in New York City. The nominees include Kathleen George, The Odds, Novel; Sophie Littlefield, A Bad Day for Sorry, First Novel by an American Author; R. A. Scotti, Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa, Fact Crime; Joan Schenkar, The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith, Critical/ Biographical. The Grand Master Award, recognizing lifetime achievement and consistent quality, and the highest honor bestowed by the MWA, will be awarded to Dorothy Gilman. The winner of the Simon & Schuster-Mary Higgins Clark Award will be announced the eve of the ceremony, at the MWA’s Agents & Editors Party. The nominees include Blaize Clement, Cat Sitter on a Hot Tin Roof, and Hallie Ephron, Never Tell a Lie.

The American Library Association announced the winners of its annual awards, which will be presented at the annual conference in Washington, D.C., in June. The winners include Walter Dean Myers, receipient of the first-ever Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement; Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith, by Dorah Heiligman, winner of the first-ever YALSA Excellence in Non­fiction Award and named a Printz Honor Book; Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream, by Tanya Lee Stone, winner of the Robert F. Sibert Medal for most distinguished informational book for children; and Stitches: A Memoir, by David Small, received an Alex Award for the 10 best adult books that appeal to teen audiences. Lois Lowry will receive the May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award, in honor of an author, critic, librarian, historian or teacher of children’s literature, who then presents a lecture at a winning host site. Several Honor Books were also named: The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, by Jacqueline Kelly, a Newbery Honor Book; Diego: Bigger Than Life, by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand (illustrated by David Diaz), a Belpré Illustrator Honor Book; Pearl and Wagner: One Funny Day, by Kate McMullan and illustrated by R. W. Alley, a Geisel Honor Book; and Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11, written and illustrated by Brian Floca, a Sibert Honor Book.

Ellery Akers (and Angelique Benicio, illus.) won the 2010 Mom’s Choice Award (Gold) in the Juvenile Books Self-Improvement Category for Sarah’s Waterfall: A Healing Story about Sexual Abuse. The book also won the 2009 Skipping Stones Magazine Award in the Teaching and Parenting Resources Category.

Beryl Lieff Benderly was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an honor that recognizes AAAS members whose efforts on behalf of science and its applications are scientifically or socially distinguished. The association chose Benderly for her outstanding science journalism and leadership in advancing and protecting the economic and creative rights of freelance science writers.

M. Ellen (Melon) Dash was named a “Power 25” winner for 2010 by the magazine Aquatics International, her second appearance on the list in five years.

Larry O. Dean was a semifinalist for the New Millennium Award for poetry, sponsored by the journal New Millennium Writings, and a semifinalist for this year’s Crab Orchard Review Series in Poetry, a competition for a poetry manuscript.

Joan Detz received the 2009 President’s Award, Com­muni­cator of the Year, from the National Association of Government Communicators.

Emil Draitser was awarded a New Jersey Council of the Arts Fellowship in Writing.

Blessing’s Bead, by Debby Dahl Edwardson, was a Junior Library Guild book selection for March, and was selected by the Notable Books for a Global Society committee of the International Reading Association. It received a starred review in Booklist and was on their top historical fiction list for April.

In Envy Country, a short story collection by Joan Frank, received the Richard Sullivan Prize for short fiction from the University of Notre Dame’s Creative Writing Program.

Bob Fussell’s Unbridled Cowboy received the 2009 Will Rogers Medallion award for nonfiction, for outstanding achievement in Western literature.

Joanne Greenberg has been appointed the Hennebach Scholar at the Colorado School of Mines, where she will teach anthropology.

Margaret Morganroth Gullette recently won the Daniel Singer Millennium Prize for her essay “The Contagion of Euphoria.” The prize is given for the best essay on the topic, “What gives you hope for a better world.” The essay was derived from her work-in-progress, There is a World Elsewhere. Gullette received $2,500 and spoke at the Left Forum in April in New York.

Secret of the Night Ponies, by Joan Hiatt Harlow, received the Gold Medal for Children’s Literature in the 2009 Florida State Book Awards, and was given a Parents’ Choice Recommended Seal.

Libby Hathorn received First Prize in the Society of Women Writers NSW Inc.’s 2009 Biennial Book Awards for Georgiana: Woman of Flowers. She also received two commendations, for Letters to a Princess and Fire Song.

Anna R. Hayes’s biography Without Precedent, The Life of Susie Marshall Sharp won the 2008 North Caroliniana Book Award from the North Caroliniana Society, and the 2009 Ragan Old North State Award Cup for Nonfiction from the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association.

Marthe Jocelyn received the Vicky Metcalf Award for Children’s Literature, sponsored by the Metcalf Foun­dation and administered by the Writers’ Trust of Canada. The prize, which awards $20,000 to the winner, honors the author of a body of work in children’s literature that demonstrates the highest literary standards. It was announced at the 9th annual Writers’ Trust Awards in Toronto in November.

Two stories by the late Marjorie Kemper, an Authors Guild member until her death last November, were nominated for the Pushcart Prize. “Rayleen and R.L. Bury Their Luck” was nominated by The Sun Magazine, and “Discovered America” by Southwest Review.

Maxine Hong Kingston received a 2010 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award, established by Poets & Writers to recognize authors who have given generously to other writers or to the broader literary community. The award was presented at the Poets & Writers’ 40th anniversary benefit dinner, In Celebra­tion of Writers, on March 18 in New York City.

Jax Peters Lowell is the recipient of the Leeway Foundation’s 2009 Transformation Award honoring her work as a poet; the novel Mothers; and her best-selling books and activism on the subject of gluten intolerance. The award, given in recognition of female artists whose work promotes cultural change and social justice, carries a $15,000 honorarium.

Tom Miller has been chosen as a Road Scholar for 2010–2012 for the Arizona Humanities Council’s Speak­ers Bureau program. Road Scholars provide presentations at libraries, museums and other community venues through the state, and he will speak on “Thornton Wilder’s Arizona Days” and “U.S.-Mexico Border Literature,” among other topics.

The Fire, by Katherine Neville, received the Silver Nautilus Award for Visionary Fiction. The Nautilus Book Awards recognize books promoting spiritual growth, conscious living, and positive social change. The Fire was also a finalist for the Library of Virginia’s People’s Choice Award.

The Howell Book of Dogs, by Liz Palika, received a 2009 Maxwell Award from the Dog Writers Association of America and was nominated for a 2009 San Diego Book Award for best nonfiction reference book.

The Kid from Pittsburgh, by Marion Rosen, received the IRWIN Award (Industry Recognition of Writers in the News) for the most inspirational book of 2009 from the Book Publicists of Southern California.

Dating from the Inside Out, by Paulette Kouffman Sherman, was a finalist in the Conscious Living/Self-Help category of the Coalition of Visionary Resource’s Visionary Awards, presented at the International New Age Trade Show banquet on June 27 in Denver.

The American Academy of Arts and Letters presented Gerald Stern with the 2010 Award of Merit Medal for Poetry, a medal and prize of $10,000 given once every six years to an outstanding poet. The award was presented in May at the Academy’s annual Ceremonial in New York City.

Deanne Stillman’s Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West was named a “best book 08” by the Los Angeles Times and won a California Book Award silver medal for nonfiction. The new, updated edition of her book Twentynine Palms: A True Story of Murder, Marines, and the Mojave won a Foreword Magazine silver medal for true crime.

The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Foundation of a Nation, by Nancy Rubin Stuart, received the 2009 Historic 1699 Winslow House Book Award for the best book published each year on early New England’s interaction with the wider Atlantic world. Stuart was also appointed director of the Cape Cod Writers Center Conference, which will be held in August in Centerville, Mass.

Up the Rouge! Paddling Detroit’s Hidden River by Joel Thurtell was named a Michigan Notable Book by the Library of Michigan. The list is an annual selection of 20 books reflecting Michigan’s diverse ethnic, historical, literary and cultural experience.

The Lucky Place, by Zu Vincent, is an Honor Book for the 2009 Paterson Prize, a 2008–2009 Pennsylvania School Librarian’s Top 40 Young Adult Book and a 2008 Kansas State Reader’s Circle Recommended Book.

Raven West was a winner in the 2009 National Novel Writing Month Contest, “NaNoWriMo,” sponsored by the Office of Letters and Light, a nonprofit organization. To win, participants must submit a 50,000-word novel composed within the month of November.

Gretchen Woelfle received the Once Upon a World Children’s Book Award in the Young Adult category for Jeannette Rankin: Political Pioneer. The award is given by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles for a book reflecting tolerance, diversity, human understanding and social justice. The biography also won the Children’s Literature Council of Southern California Award for Nonfiction and was chosen for the Amelia Bloomer Project List.

Ramsay Wood received an Honor in the 2009 Storytelling World Resource awards for Kalila and Dimna: Fables of Friendship and Betrayal. The National Storytelling Network and Storytelling Magazine/ Storytelling World sponsors the awards, which honor audiobooks.

Pamela Samuels Young will receive the 2010 Fiction Award for Buying Time from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA). The award will be given at the American Library Association’s Conference in Washington, D.C., in June. ✦