2009 New Mexico Book Award Winners

The New Mexico Book Co-op has announced the New Mexico Book Award winners. Every year, publishers and authors submit books they have written or published, to be considered for the New Mexico Book Awards. The fun for the Library staff begins when they sign up to review the books submitted. Other libraries and volunteers are involved. Every book was judged by at least 3 people; some books in big categories had as many as nine judges. The judges reviewed all the books. And from that 34 Winners and 115 Finalists were selected.

Our contacts at LPD Press kindly haul in boxes of books for our review, all neatly divided and marked as to category—poetry, history, children’s books, self-help, etc. The variety of the books is amazing—on all levels from pre-school books to academic tomes.

As a special treat, the reviewer may request one of the books they reviewed as a thank you. The Friends of the Library and the Santa Fe Public Library sponsor the category of Young Readers Book, (to grade 3).

Special awards are given to authors: award winners this year were Michael McGarrity, Joe Sando, Howard Bryan and Joe Wesbrook. Tony Hillerman’s Thief of Time won the People’s Choice Award. Best New Mexico Book is Martha Andrews and Richard Melzer’s The Whole Damned World (Rio Grande Books). Best of Show Book is Jillian Brasch’s The Last Gifts: Creative Ways to Be with the Dying (Andrews McMeel Publishing), and Lois Manno’s Visions Underground: Carlsbad Caverns through the artist's eye (Rio Grande Books). A tie.

This shows the best of our creative New Mexico writers and publishers. Happy reading.

by PCH @Main