This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.
The what prize edition?
That is the exact reaction I am hoping from you with that post title.
Why? Because that was my reaction. But also, because one of the best things we can do to help our patrons is read about books and the book atmosphere [as my colleague Robin Bradford calls it] to find things we would not have known about if we were not actively looking for general information.
When I talk about the importance of reading about books, this is what I mean. The easiest way to "read about books" and to stay in know about what is happening in the book world, is to subscribe to newsletters that do the work for you. It is literally their job to compile it all. Why not consult them?
I get three newsletter in my email each day. They are:
Even a cursory perusal of these newsletters gives me a sense of what is going on in the larger book world. For example, the other day, Book Pulse altered me to the finalists for the Aspen Words Literary Prize. And like many of you, I had no idea what this awards was.
So I went to their about page:
Literary Prize: a $35,000 annual award for an influential work of fiction focused on vital contemporary issues
From the announcement page for this year:
ANNOUNCING THE 2022 FINALISTS
The five shortlisted titles are novels, one of them a debut (The Final Revival of Opal and Nev), that address a broad range of important contemporary social issues, including the global migrant crisis, the trauma of natural disasters and racism in America. The finalists— Hala Alyan, Myriam J.A. Chancy, Omar El Akkad, Kirstin Valdez Quade and Dawnie Walton were selected by the four-member jury Angie Cruz, Danielle Evans, Ann Friedman and Kiese Laymon.
Awards like this one, awards that are not genre based, and in fact, encourage a breadth of styles and genres are an excellent resource for general readers.
Also because in this case the award is lesser known but the books themselves are owned by most libraries, this award makes a great resource. You can hand these to a wide range of readers with confidence that most people haven't read all 5.
Plus they also have the 16 novel long list on the same page, just under the finalist announcement-- so now you have 11 more titles to display, list, and hand sell.
But then I kept digging and I found even more. The Aspen Institute does a lot of programming, offering free conversations with authors, and gives many grants and prizes. I suggest you dig around in the Author Archive for a treasure trove of RA information, resources, and ideas.
So I now I have this great new resource that I can use in a variety of ways to support my RA Services, and of course, now you do too. However, without following one of my 10 Basic Rules of RA Service-- Read About Books-- I would not have known about this at all.
I hope you sign up for these newsletters too.
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