2007 BOTYA Winners Announced
May 23, 2008—Foreword Reviews is pleased to announce the winners of its tenth annual Book of the Year Awards. At a ceremony today at BookExpo America in Los Angeles, 212 winners in 60 categories were honored. These books, representing the best work from independent publishers in 2007, were selected by a panel of librarian and bookseller judges.
Two books were also named Editor’s Choice Prize winners, a distinction that comes with a $1,500 cash prize. The Editor’s Choice Prize for Fiction was given to Other Press for The Folded World by Amity Gaige (978-1-59051-248-7).
“The Folded World is a beautifully crafted novel, from word choice to sentence construction to its unfolding plot,” Editor-in-Chief Heather Shaw said. “It takes the time to look closely at what most people would call mundane—high school, career, marriage, babies—and then presents the reader with a convincing tribute to the extraordinary in ordinary life.”
Gibbs Smith was presented with the Editor’s Choice Prize for Nonfiction for their book, Women of Courage: Intimate Stories From Afghanistan by Katherine Kiviat and Scott Heidler (978-1-4236-0253-8).
“This book is a collection of interviews with forty courageous Afghan women, including teachers, Olympians, soldiers, and journalists,” Managing Editor Whitney Hallberg said. “They discuss what their lives were like during the Taliban rule, and what they are doing now that they have some freedom back. Beautiful photos, probing questions, and revealing comments make this a truly remarkable book.”
The other 210 winners were selected by dozens of Foreword readers from across the country, who are experts in the subject matter of the books they judged, and who make purchasing decisions daily for their collections or bookstores.
“I was very happy to be part of this project. I always enjoy seeing what new titles are being published,” said one of this year’s judges, a Maryland librarian.
Foreword’s founder and publisher, Victoria Sutherland, spoke at the event and presented the awards.
“These carefully chosen titles affirm our notion that the best ideas in written form are coming from the independent press community, and that with some distinction, will find a broader audience among the reading public,” she said.
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Since 1998, Foreword Reviews has provided trade book reviews of the best titles from independent presses. In print, and online, its FOLIO: award-winning design and editorial content makes the magazine a favorite among librarians, booksellers, and readers—an excellent resource when it comes to purchasing books. Foreword INDIES and the fee-for-review Clarion service complement our online content and print magazine, helping to showcase diverse independent presses and their authors for over 26 years.
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