News & Reviews

WORD: Kingsolver, Kirby among 2008 SIBA Book Award winners
Edited Press Release

The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) announced that Sarah Addison Alle, Barbara Kingsolver and David Kirby are among the winners of the 2008 SIBA Book Award, celebrating the best of southern literature as chosen by the people who would know: independent booksellers throughout the US South.

Each year, hundreds of booksellers across the South vote on their favorite hand-sell books of the year. These are the Southern books they have most enjoyed selling to customers; the ones that they couldn't stop talking about; the ones most often pushed into a customer's hands with the words, "You have got to read this!"

The SIBA Book Award was created to recognize great books of Southern origin, as determined by people whose business it is to know great books-the independent booksellers of the South. Books are nominated in five categories, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, cooking and children's. For a book to be eligible, it must be set in the South, and it must have been published within the calendar year.

The 2008 SIBA Book Award Winners include the following authors and categories:

FICTION: Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen, Bantam Books

"Asheville, N.C resident Sarah Addison Allen has made a fan out of us! In her first novel, Allen gives us great characters, a pinch of magic and a beautiful cover that draws us in." ~ Two Sisters Bookery

POETRY: The House On Boulevard Street by David Kirby, LSU Press

"Kirby's narrative poems are so amazing and thought-provoking, funny in places you would never expect, and wise and humble. Like the very best in poetry, they need to be read out loud. You have the feeling you have set out on a journey with a fascinating companion, lost track of the way, and when you are sure you are lost you suddenly find yourself, if not exactly where you intended to be then in a new place even better than you expected to find." ~ Inkwood Books

COOKBOOK: A Love Affair with Southern Cooking by Jean Anderson, William Morrow

"Black-eyed pea hummus--yummy!" ~ Park Road Books

NONFICTION: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, HarperCollins

"A fascinating and beautifully written book that is about so much more than merely eating locally." ~ City Lights Bookstore

CHILDRENS: Deep in the Swamp by Donna Bateman, illustrated by Brian Lies, Charlesbridge

"I absolutely love selling this book to children.  The swamp in the book is in Georgia, but relates to our Louisiana swamps, too. I love giving kids books about their own land and heritage. Beautiful illustrations on every page." ~ The Raven Bookstore

Beginning in 2008, the SIBA Book Awards Ceremony will be held as part of the Decatur Book Festival on Labor Day Weekend in Decatur, GA. The festival, which attracts upwards of 60,000 attendees each year, is open to the public and promises to garner increased exposure for the Awards and the award-winning books and authors.

For more information about the SIBA Book Awards and the Decatur Book Festival, please visit SIBA's website.

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