NAIBA Book of the Year Awards

The NAIBA Book Awards recognize an author who was born or lived in our region, and/or a book whose story takes place in our region. The book must have been published between June 1 and May 31 (of the award year). There are five categories: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Picture Book, Children's Literature and Special Interest. The deadline for submissions is June 30 of the award year. (You may make multiple submissions in any category.) Submissions can be emailed to NAIBA at any time during the award year. The awards are presented at the annual NAIBA Fall Conference. (*Publishers are limited to two submissions per category.)

Click here to download the 2010 Books of the Year Voting Form.

2009 Book of the Year and Dashiell Hammett award winners Robert Goolrick, George Pelacanos,
Paul Auster, Greg Ames, Gayle Forman, Michael Greenberg and Peter Brown.

Fiction:
A Reliable Wife, Robert Goolrick (Algonquin)
Rural Wisconsin, 1907 - In the bitter cold, Ralph Truitt stands alone on the train platform anxiously awaiting the arrival of a visitor. The woman who arrives is not who he expects. This woman, this reliable wife, will decide whether Ralph Truitt lives or dies. Robert Goolrick is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir The End of the World as We Know It. This is his first novel. He lives in New York City.

Non-Fiction:
Hurry Down Sunshine, Michael Greenberg (Other Press)
Greenberg's memoir tells the story of the extraordinary summer when, at the age of fifteen, his daughter was struck mad. It begins with Sally's visionary crack-up on the streets of Greenwich Village, and continues, among other places, in the out-of-time world of a Manhattan psychiatric ward during the city's most sweltering months. Unsentimental, nuanced, and deeply humane, Hurry Down Sunshine holds the reader in a mesmerizing state of suspension between the mundane and the transcendent. A native New Yorker, Michael Greenberg is a columnist for the Times Literary Supplement of London where, since 2003, he has written feuilleton-style essays about New York and the often excruciating ironies of the writer's existence. He has also contributed many critical essays and cover stories to the TLS. Greenberg's fiction and essays have appeared in such varied places as The New York Review of Books, O, The Oprah Magazine, Bomb, The Village Voice, and the Boston Review. Greenberg lives in New York with his wife and son.

Picture Book:
The Curious Garden, Peter Brown (Little Brown Books for Young Readers)
While out exploring one day, a little boy named Liam discovers a struggling garden and decides to take care of it. As time passes, the garden spreads throughout the dark, gray city, transforming it into a lush, green world. The Curious Garden is an enchanting tale with environmental themes and breathtaking illustrations that become more vibrant as the garden blooms. Red-headed Liam can also be spotted on every page, adding a clever seek-and-find element to this captivating picture book. Peter Brown is a graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA and now lives in Brooklyn, NY. He was born and raised in Hopewell, NJ.

Children's Literature and YA:
If I Stay, Gayle Forman (Dutton)
Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love - music - even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind? Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it's the only one that matters. Gayle Forman is an award-winning author and journalist whose articles have appeared in numerous publications, including Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, The Nation, and The New York Times Magazine. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.

Trade Paperback Original:
Buffalo Lockjaw, Greg Ames (Hyperion)
Though James Fitzroy's old friends in Buffalo believe his life in New York City is a success, in fact he writes ridiculous taglines for a greeting card company. Now James is coming home on Thanksgiving to visit his aging father and dying mother, and unlike other holidays, he's not sure=2 0how this one is going to end. Greg Ames' stories have appeared in numerous literary journals, anthologies and websites, including The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2007, Open City, McSweeney's, The Sun, Fiction International, Pindeldyboz, failbetter.com, and Other Voices. A frequent reader at the KGB Bar in Manhattan, Ames also received honorable mention in the 2003 Pushcart Prize Awards and in the 2004 Best American Nonrequired Reading. He lives in Brooklyn and has taught fiction at Brooklyn College and at Binghamton University.

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