Speaking of book awards, it's getting close to the big show that presents the only book awards that are voted on by the reading public. The Quill Awards happen in New York on October 22 and most NBC stations will broadcast the awards show as a special presentation on October 27.
Monday evening, Oct. 22, at Manhattan's Jazz at Lincoln Center, Byrne puts on the third-annual Quill Awards with Today's Al Roker and Ann Curry hosting, Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central opening and an A-list of celebrities presenting as a score of authors are honored--Al Gore and former Time magazine Managing Editor Walter Isaacson among them. Roker's production company will produce the evening for an hour-long broadcast airing Oct. 27....
But aren't there already too many book awards? Byrne's rationale for creating the Quills: The other awards are all chosen and handed out by the industry, to the industry. "It's inside baseball," he says. "The Quills are the only awards on which the public does the voting."Most of the awards have been announced already, but it should be fun to see some of the glitz involved in the process of handing them out. I think that all but "Book of the Year" have been announced, but here's a short list of winners from a few of the 19 different categories being awarded.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road won in General Fiction, while Diane Setterfield will be honored as Debut Author of the Year for The Thirteenth Tale. Other winners include Al Gore (History/Current Events/Political), Nora Roberts (Romance), Amy Sedaris (Humor), Walter Isaacson (Biography) and David Wiesner (Children's Picture Book).It should be fun if I can just remember to turn on the television that night. I've been out of the habit of watching TV for so long now that I tend to let this kind of thing slide right past me before I realize I've missed it
Might be interesting to watch... although I disagree with most of the award winners. I'm not sure awards voted on my reading public are any better because 80-90% of readers only read the "bestsellers" and other titles marketed to them by the bookstores and publishers.
ReplyDeleteI guess it's sort of like the People's Choice Awards,isn't it, Annie. The winners are always going to be what people are actually exposed to rather than some of the quality stuff that slips through the cracks because the money wasn't there to get them it in front of the public.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. But it's kind of fun to see authors being turned into big time celebrities even if it's only for a couple of hours on one night...and taped, at that.
I was a judge this year! I was asked to vote in June and sent an electronic invitation to their website ballot in September. I felt very confident in my votes in all catagories except graphic novel. I turned to one of my librarian friends for his knowledgable opinion. I neither picked Nora Roberts nor Al Gore! ;D
ReplyDeleteGood choices, IMO, Maggie not to choose Roberts or Gore's fiction.
ReplyDelete