Quills Nomination Process Now Open

Voting by the Quills Nominating Board to select the five finalists in 19 categories for the 2006 Quill Book Awards began on Saturday, July 1, and continues through Tuesday, August 15. Booksellers who indicated a willingness to serve on the Board should have received an e-mail and/or a letter from the Quills Literacy Foundation with a unique ID number, which allows them to access a password-protected area of the Quills site. ABA member booksellers with Book Sense who served on the Quills Nominating Board last year were invited via e-mail to participate again this year, and those who are new to the Quills were invited to join by sending an e-mail to Quills Executive Director Karen Mender by June 30.

Booksellers who did not receive an invitation but would like to inquire about becoming a member of the Nominating Board should contact Mender, at karen.mender@quillsliteracy.org, or Abby Raphel, at abby.raphel@quillsliteracy.org.

The Quills long list includes titles appearing on the Book Sense Picks and titles with starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, among others. To be eligible, books must be English language books published in North American between August 1, 2005, and June 30, 2006.

The shortlist of titles selected by the Nominating Board will be presented to consumers for voting, beginning Tuesday, August 22. Booksellers will be able to direct consumers to the MSNBC voting site by adding the link www.quillsvote.com to their own websites, when the finalists are announced.

Sponsored by Reed Business Information (RBI) and the NBC Universal Television Stations, the Quill Awards were established last year to honor books in a wide variety of popular categories. This year's awards will be presented during a ceremony on October 10 at the American Museum of Natural History's Milstein Hall of Ocean Life in New York City. The ceremony will be aired on Saturday, October 21, on NBC-TV owned and operated stations and will be syndicated through NBC Universal Stations.