Awards

Booksellers who have signed up to be a part of the inaugural Quill Awards Nominating Board can now vote on the final wave of categories.

Among BookExpo America's (BEA) many parties and gala festivities were several award ceremonies celebrating some of the best of the best, including the presentation of the 2005 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards, recognizing independent booksellers' handselling favorites, at ABA's Celebration of Bookselling.

The Quills Literary Foundation has extended its invitation to all booksellers with Book Sense to be part of the inaugural Quill Awards Nominating Board. Launched this year by Reed Business Information (RBI) and the NBC Universal Television Stations, The Quill Awards will honor excellence in book publishing and will include consumers in the voting process.

This year's winners of the Lucile Micheels Pannell Award for Excellence in Children's Bookselling, announced by the Women's National Book Association (WNBA) on May 11, are Reading Reptile Books and Toys for Young Mammals in Kansas City, Missouri, in the children's specialty category, and BookPeople in Austin, Texas, in the general bookstore category.

WNBA Announces Pannell Winners

On Wednesday, May 11, the Women's National Book Association announced the winners of this year's Lucile Micheels Pannell Award. This year's award for a general bookstore goes to BookPeople in Austin, Texas, which is also the recipient of this year's Publishers Weekly Bookseller of the Year Award. The winner in the children's specialty category is Reading Reptile Books and Toys for Young Mammals in Kansas City, Missouri.

"Susanna Clarke astonishes with a tale full of wonders! The vivid characters, richly defined world of 1806 England, and mystical elements keep the pages turning in this story of how magicians helped the English defeat Napoleon." --Emery Pinter, Chapter 11, Atlanta, Georgia -- From the July 2004 Book Sense Picks

Steve Bercu, co-owner of the self-proclaimed "Largest Bookstore in Texas -- A Community Bound by Books," received a call about a month ago informing him that BookPeople had been named Publishers Weekly Bookseller of the Year. The 24,000-square-foot store, originally named "Grok Books" when founded in 1970, has been an Austin landmark for decades and is a founding member of the city's influential Austin Independent Business Alliance (AIBA).

HarperCollins Launches Speakers Bureau

Candidate Duck has high aspirations in running the farm, as one thing leads to another, and soon the presidency is at hand. Complete with Cronin's version of the 'hanging chad' and a late-night saxophone appearance on television. Fun for the whole family," said Carl Wichman of Varsity Mart in Fargo, North Dakota --from the 2004 Book Sense Summer Kids' Picks

"Robert Kurson tells the story of a close-knit band of deep-sea wreck divers trying to determine the identity of a Nazi sub sunk off the New Jersey coast," said bookseller Peter Guadagni of Bonanza Books in Clayton, California. " Shadow Divers combines a moving story of personal relationships with an inside look into a world most of us will never experience.