Awards: Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed....

Three things I wanted to alert people to in the awards world, but I couldn't find anything blue (yet).

First the old.  The National Book Critics Circle, an organization of over 600 professional book reviewers, released the finalists for their prestigious awards.  Click here for the press release listing all of the nominees.  Remember there is fiction and nonfiction here.  Generally they pick very readable winners.

Something new.  I am very excited about this one:

The University of Alabama School of Law and The ABA Journal are requesting entries for the first annual Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. The prize will be awarded annually to a published book-length work of fiction that best exemplifies the role of lawyers in society, and their power to effect change. It honors Lee, a former law student at Alabama, and To Kill a Mockingbird’s Atticus Finch.

Judges will be novelists Linda Fairstein and David Baldacci, journalist Jeffrey Toobin of CNN and The New Yorker, Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and former American Bar Association president Robert J. Grey, Jr. The public will be invited to vote for their favorite among the finalists on the ABA Journal website.

 

The Harper Lee Prize will be presented to the winner in conjunction with the Library of Congress 2011 National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. Books first published in 2010 are eligible. The deadline for nominations is April 8, 2011, and there is no entry fee.

 

More information is available at www.HarperLeePrize.org.

Legal fiction is extremely popular, but there is no award for it.  I am happy with the choice of judges too. And, with the award being given out at the National Book Festival, it will be sure to get plenty of attention.  I will keep my eye on this one.

Finally, something borrowed.  For the past 6 years, The Morning News has borrowed the idea of the popular bracket system of the NCAA Baseketball Tourney and have their own March Madness only with books.  A few days ago they released the 7th annual finalists for the 2011 Tournament of Books.  Click here for the press release, the 16 books in the running, the judges, and your chance to take part in the Zombie Round.  The Tournament begins on March 7th.

Anyone with something blue, feel free to comment.