Using Awards Lists As a RA Tool: Niche Awards Round-Up

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.

We all know about the major awards (speaking of, the Edgars will be announced tonight and live-streamed here. I am actively rooting for The Devil Takes You Home for the to prize), but often it is with the more niche awards that we can make better, and more impactful suggestions to our readers. Why? Because these are titles they would not know about without our help.

There are so many awards given out all of the time. It is hard to keep up. That is why I actively remind everyone to subscribe to PW Daily, Shelf-Awareness (Book Trade version), and BookPulse. They are paid to stay on to of it all so you don't have to waste your time scouring the web for revenant book news. I get all of the book news that is most relevant to my job delivered to my email every day. There is a lot of overlap, but since their missions are slightly different, I always find something unique from one that the others did not provide. 

Here are some of the more useful niche award announcements I have been gathering over the past few days from those sources. Click through on each link for more details:

• The James Beard Media Awards focus on food. Here is the press release with the 2023 nominees. You can go here for backlist access.
• The Russell Prize for Humor Writing is given by the State Library of New South Wales (Australia). Here is the current short list announcement. And you can go here for backlist access.
• The Roswell Awards and New Suns Climate Fiction Award nominees. Here is the info with the nominees. And here is the website for more information. 
• The announcement of the winners of the O. Henry Prize for Best Short Stories. This one has a long history. Here is the wikipedia page with all of those winners.
• Two winners of the Gotham Book Prize were just announced. Here is the long list access. And here is backlist access Wirth more about this newer award.

Remember, you can use these current lists and their backlists of nominees and winners for suggestions, displays, and to round out your collections.