Soon to be Famous Illinois Author Project Update

It’s President’s Day and the library is closed, but the blog rolls on.

I am happy to announce the titles [and the libraries who nominated them] that have made it to the second round of the Soon to be Famous Illinois Authors Project:

• Paul J. Bartusiak – Source*Forged  Armor – Lake Forest Public Library
• Bruce Briley – The Case of the Vatican Murder – Paul V. Galvin Library, IIT
• Mary Driver-Thiel – The World Undone – Lake Forest Public Library
• Dianne Gallagher – Too Dark to Sleep – Chelsea School Library (Frankfort)
• Loretta Giacoletto - Chicago’s Headmistress - Collinsville Memorial Library Center
• Mary Hutchings Reed - Warming Up: a novel – Mount Prospect Public Library
• Sharon Kay – Wicked Wind – Naperville Public Library
• DL Larson – Promises My Love – Earlville Library District
• K.D.Lassiter - Parable of the Tooth – Messenger Public Library of North Aurora
• Katherine Lato - Making Family – Warrenville Public Library District
• Cat Mann - A Beautiful Fate – Springfield HS Library
• Amanda Meredith – Dark Mountains – Deer Creek District Library
• Rick Polad - Change of Address – Philips Library, Aurora University
• Joanne Zienty – The Things We Save – CCSD 62 Forest School, Des Plaines

As I have mentioned before, I am a judge on this project and I am happy to say that one of the three books I previewed made this list. We began with over 100 nominated, unpublished manuscripts, so creating this this paired down list is no small feat.

Now that we have got a long list, the committee is working on the rubric which all of the judges will use to pick an eventual winner.  So far, I am impressed with how well everything is going considering how new all of us are to this process.

Congrats to the authors who made it this far.  Your work may be unpublished but it stood up to the scrutiny of at least a few librarians for inclusion here.  

Now the work gets interesting for us judges.  I’ll keep you posted.