DENVER, June 16, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- This evening,
Pop Culture Classroom, the educational non-profit behind Denver
Comic Con, introduced the first winning books for the 2018
Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards during celebrations held at
the Colorado Convention
Center.
The ceremony marked the culmination of a two-year effort in
bringing the awards to life.
With a room full of creators, fans, publishers, and educators,
nine talented creators walked away with the very first Excellence
in Graphic Literature awards.
Kicking off the evening were introductions about the program by
Director of Programming Bruce
MacIntosh, out-going Director of Education Illya Kowalchuk, and the newly-appointed
Director of Education Dr. Katie
Monnin.
Each talked about the development of the awards program, the
goals, and the unique opportunity the program created in bringing
together an advisory board and juries that represent booksellers,
librarians, academics, teachers and industry
professionals.
Here are the awards and winners in the order of introduction
during the awards ceremony:
- Best in Children's Books: Real Friends by
Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham (First Second)
- Best in Middle-Grade Books: As the Crow Flies by
Melanie Gillman (Iron Circus
Comics)
- Best in Young-Adult Books: Home Time: Book One by
Campbell Whyte (Top Shelf)
- Best in Adult Books: The Hunting Accident by
David L. Carlson and Landis Blair (First Second)
- Mosaic Award: The Best We Could Do by
Thi Bui (Abrams Comic Arts)
- Book of the Year: Spill Zone by Scott Westerfield and Alex Puvilland (First Second)
The Book of the Year and the Mosaic winners were awarded the
first Saga sculptures. The winners of the Children's, Middle Grade,
Young Adult, and Adult categories were awarded the first Saga
Medallions.
The sculptures and medallions were created by the amazingly
talented team of Colin Poole and
Kristine Poole.
While the Book of the Year awards the best in all publishing,
the Mosaic award celebrates stories about and from our diverse
communities, ethnicities, nationalities, faiths and
orientations.
Highlights of the evening included the Mosaic award presentation
by Charles McDaniel, aka DMC of
ground breaking rap group Run DMC.
Len Vlahos, co-owner of the
Tattered Cover bookstore along with his wife Kristin, presented the
Book of the Year award.
The remaining presenters were:
- Children's Books: Amanda Jacobs
Foust
- Middle-Grade Books: Dr. Katie
Monnin
- Young-Adult Books: Cait
Zaksheske
- Adult Books: Alicia Holston
"This is really the icing of the cake for us," said MacIntosh.
"We have a fantastic Advisory Board, as well as some amazing people
who served as the chairs, assistant chairs and jury
members. There were a lot of great books to
read, and some really difficult choices to make, when it came down
to the final ballots."
Kowalchuk added, "We had such a great response from such a wide
range of publishing houses. There were books from all the major
traditional publishers and, honestly, we discovered some really
great small houses with fantastic titles as well."
"One of our goals for next year's submissions is to double the
number of books from this first year and to encourage more
nonfiction works for consideration. We'd also like to see this
awards program help teachers justify adding more graphic novels to
the school environment," added Kowalchuk.
The awards were followed by a special VIP reception and party
for all award winners, the 2018 Advisory Board members, jury
members and other special guests.
For the entire list of nominated titles, information on the
awards, background on the creation of the awards, and a complete
listing of Advisory Board and jury members, please visit the
Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards link on the Pop Culture
Classroom website.
Books published in 2018 are eligible for the 2019 Excellence in
Graphic Literature Awards. Submissions for the 2019 awards will
begin this Fall.
About Pop Culture Classroom
Pop Culture Classroom is the educational non-profit organization
behind Denver Comic Con. Founded in 2011, Pop Culture Classroom is
on a mission to ignite a love of learning, increase literacy,
celebrate diversity and build community through the tools of
popular culture and the power of self-expression. Learn more at
www.PopCultureClassroom.org.
About the Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards
The Excellence in Graphics Literature program was begun by Pop
Culture Classroom to help define and grow needed awareness for
quality graphic literature, grow legitimacy and respect for the
format, the comics medium and its creators, and drive growth for
the graphic novel publishing category. Learn more at
www.popcultureclassroom.org/egl.
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SOURCE Pop Culture Classroom