Connecticut Center For The Book Call For Entries

HARTFORD — Read a good book lately?

If it was by a Connecticut author or had a Connecticut setting, it could become the next Connecticut Book Awards winner.

The Connecticut Book Awards, presented annually by the Connecticut Center for the Book, a program of Hartford Public Library, recognizes and honors authors who represent the best writing in and about our state each year. The public is being asked to consider some of the best books of the past year and add those titles into this year’s list of considerations.

Books entered must be written by an author who lives or has lived in the state or have a Connecticut setting. This year’s nominees must be published between January 1, 2002 and December 31, 2002. Anthologies will be accepted if all the authors are Connecticut-based. An author may be recognized for more than one book per year.

Entry forms are available at Hartford Public Library or online at www.hplct.org. Click on Connecticut Center for the Book under “At HPL” on the left of the screen. Once in Connecticut Center for the Book’s homepage, click on Features and scroll down to 2003 Connecticut Book Awards Call for Entries.

Entries must be postmarked no later than June 15, 2003 for consideration. A book can be nominated for one of seven categories: biography and memoir, children’s book – author, children’s book – illustrator, design, fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.

Every category will have its own judging panel. Panels will be comprised of scholars, publishers or booksellers, journalists, librarians or educators and writers. An entry may be reassigned a different category upon consideration of the judges. Judges will defer to the committee chair to determine the winner in the case of a tie vote in any category.

Awards will not be made if there are insufficient entries in a given category.

Finalists will be announced early October and winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in Hartford on November 16. At that time, an award for Lifetime Achievement in Service to the Literary Community will also be presented.

The Connecticut Center for the Book celebrates books, writers, readers, authors, illustrators, printers and publishers and the literary heritage of the state.

The Connecticut Center for the Book is an affiliate of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

For more information call  860-695-6320 or send email to KLyons@HartfordPL.lib.ct.us.