Florida Book Awards 2011

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.— Its sixth annual competitions now complete, Florida Book Awards announces winners for books published in 2011 in seven categories of competition. “The Florida Book Awards exists to identify and profile the Sunshine State’s best books and their authors,” notes FBA Director Wayne A. Wiegand. “These FBA winners clearly demonstrate the quality and depth of Florida’s increasingly rich literary culture.”

Submissions were read by eight juries of three members each nominated from across the state by cosponsoring organizations. Jurors are authorized to select up to three medalists (including one Gold Winner, one Silver Runner-up, and one Bronze Medalist) in each of the eight categories; jurors are also authorized to make no selections in a given year.

Children’s Literature

·         Gold: Margaret Cardillo and Julia Denos, Just Being Audrey (HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray)

·         Silver: Marianne Berkes, Over in Australia: Amazing Animals Down Under (Dawn Publications)

·         Bronze: Angela DiTerlizzi, Say What? (Beach Lane Books)

Florida Non-Fiction

·         Gold: William McKeen, Mile Marker Zero (Crown)

·         Silver: Virginia Lynn Moylan, Zora Neale Hurston’s Final Decade (University Press of Florida)

·         Bronze: Martin A. Dyckman, Reubin O’D. Askew and the Golden Age of Florida Politics (University Press of Florida)

General Fiction

·         Gold: Lynne Barrett, Magpies (Carnegie Mellon University Press)

·         Silver: Elizabeth Stuckey-French, The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady (Doubleday)

·         Bronze: Caren Umbarger, Coming To: A Midwestern Tale (Create-Space)

Poetry

·         Gold: Stephen Kampa, Cracks in the Invisible (Ohio University Press)

·         Silver: David Kirby, Talking about Movies with Jesus (Louisiana State University Press)

·         Bronze: Gianna Russo, MoonFlower (Kitsune Books)

Popular Fiction

·         Gold: Ward Larsen, Fly By Night (Oceanview Publishing)

·         Silver: David Hagberg, ABYSS (Macmillan)

·         Bronze: Senator Bob Graham, Keys to the Kingdom (Vanguard Press)

Visual Arts

·         Gold: Jerald T. Milanich and Nina J. Root, Hidden Seminoles: Julian Dimock’s Historic Florida Photographs (University Press of Florida)

Young Adult

·         Gold: Ryan G. Van Cleave, Unlocked (Walker Books for Young Readers)

·         Silver: Jessica Martinez, Virtuosity (Simon & Schuster/Simon Pulse)

·         Bronze: Alex Flinn, Cloaked (HarperCollins/Harper Teen)

Spanish Language

No Awards given this year.
 

The Florida Book Awards –the nation’s most comprehensive state book awards program– was established in 2006 to recognize, honor, and celebrate the best Florida literature published the previous year. It is coordinated by The Florida State University Libraries, and co-sponsored by the Florida Center for the Book, State Library and Archives of Florida, Florida Historical Society, Florida Humanities Council, Florida Literary Arts Coalition, Florida Library Association, “Just Read, Florida!,” Florida Family Literacy Initiative, Florida Association for Media in Education, Florida Center for the Literary Arts, the Friends of FSU Libraries, Florida Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America, and the Florida Writers Association.

The eight Gold Medal Winners will be recognized on March 21 at the Historical and Cultural Awards Ceremony sponsored by the State of Florida’s Division of Cultural Affairs at the R.A. Gray Building in Tallahassee. All award recipients will be recognized at the Florida Library Association Conference Banquet on April 19 in Orlando.

For information about the banquet, contact Sharon Gray at aplantomeet@earthlink.net.

For more information go to Florida Book Awards website