Connecticut Center for the Book to Host Annual Book Awards

For further information contact:
Kat Lyons, Coordinator
Connecticut Center for the Book
Hartford Public Library
860.695.6320




Finalists announced for Connecticut Book Awards

The Seventh Annual Connecticut Book Awards will be held at 2:00 p.m., Sunday, September 21, 2008 in the atrium of Hartford Public Library. This celebration recognizes the rich history and present vibrancy of literature in Connecticut by honoring authors, illustrators and book designers who have ties to the state.

The Awards program is free and open to the public. The following reception and book signings will be a ticketed event: nominated books will be for sale and all attending finalists will be available to sign their books. Tickets are $40. per person and will be held at the door; call 860.695.6320 by 15 September to reserve.

Richard Sugarman of the Connecticut Forum will serve as Master of Ceremonies, Connecticut writer and radio host Colin McEnroe will deliver the keynote, and John Y. Cole, Director of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., will offer additional remarks.

The Lifetime Achievement in Service to the Literary Community Award will be presented by Sam Pickering, prolific writer and Professor of English at the University of Connecticut, to Suzy Staubach, manager of the General Books Division at the UConn Co-Op. Suzy has, for over two decades, served the book community in Storrs and beyond: she is a founding member and co-chair of the Connecticut Children's Book Fair, on the board of Curbstone Press, a past president of the Connecticut Center for the Book and the New England Booksellers Association, and has served two terms on the American Booksellers Foundation for Freedom of Expression. In addition to her professional accomplishments, she is simply, as Sam Pickering said, "nice and …has worked hard to better the place of books in Connecticut and not simply to better the lots of readers but to create readers." The Center is proud to recognize Ms. Staubach, and thrilled that Sam Pickering will do the honor of presenting this award to her.

This program is made possible in part by support from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.

Following is the list of finalists for 2008:

Biography & Memoir

House of Good Hope
Michael Downs

I'll Fly Away
Edited by Wally Lamb

The 17 Traditions
Ralph Nader

Children's Author

The Day My Mother Left
Simon & Schuster
Written by James Prosek

Miss Crandall's School for Young Ladies and Little Misses of Color
Wordsong: Boyds Mills Press
Written by Elizabeth Alexander and Marilyn Nelson

Scribble
Alfred A. Knopf: Random House
Written by Deborah Freedman

The Tale of Pip & Squeak
Dutton Children's Books: Penguin Group
Written by Kate Duke

When Dinosaurs Came with Everything
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Written by Elise Broach

Children's Illustrator

The Busy Little Squirrel
Illustrated by Nancy Tafuri

Hey Batta Batta Swing!
Illustrated by Ross MacDonald

Sitting Bull Remembers
Illustrated by Wendell Minor

The Tale of Pip and Squeak
Illustrated by Kate Duke

Design

Drawn to Enchant
Designed by Howard Gralla

Opium Season
Designed by Georgiana Goodwin

Smotherhood
Designed by Jane Sheppard

Fiction

Exit Ghost
Philip Roth

Last Night at the Lobster
Stewart O'Nan

On Borrowed Wings
Chandra Prasad

Soul Catcher
Michael White

Spaceman Blues
Brian Slattery


Nonfiction

Children in Room E4
Susan Eaton

Kitchen Literacy
Ann Vileisis

Slave No More
David W. Blight

Poetry

One Body
Margaret Gibson

Teeth
Aracelis Girmay

The Wife of the Left Hand
Nancy Kuhl

Lifetime Achievement in Service to the Literary Community

Suzy Staubach

It is the mission of the Connecticut Center for the Book at Hartford Public Library to celebrate books, writers and readers who engender and sustain the life of the imagination and to highlight authors, illustrators, printers, publishers and the literary heritage of the State of Connecticut. We are an affiliate of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.