Here are the winners of the 2017 Edgar Awards, who were honored last night at the Mystery Writers of America banquet in New York City:
Best novel: Before the Fall by Noah Hawley (Grand Central)
Best first novel: Under the Harrow by Flynn Berry (Penguin)
Best paperback original: Rain Dogs by Adrian McKinty (Seventh Street Books/ Prometheus)
Best fact crime: The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer by Kate Summerscale (Penguin)
Best critical/biographical: Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin (Liveright/Norton)
Best short story: "Autumn at the Automat"--In Sunlight or in Shadow by Lawrence Block (Pegasus Books)
Best young adult: Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse (Little, Brown BFYR)
Best juvenile: OCDaniel by Wesley King (Paula Wiseman Books/S&S)
Best TV episode teleplay: "A Blade of Grass"--Penny Dreadful, teleplay by John Logan (Showtime)
Robert L. Fish Memorial Award: "The Truth of the Moment"--Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by E. Gabriel Flores (Dell Magazines)
S&S/Mary Higgins Clark Award: The Shattered Tree by Charles Todd (Morrow)
Grand Master: Max Allan Collins, Ellen Hart
Raven Award: Dru Ann Love
Ellery Queen Award: Neil Nyren
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Winners of the 29th annual Publishing Publishing Triangle Awards, honoring the best LGBTQ fiction, nonfiction, poetry and trans literature published in 2016, were presented last night in New York City. The winners are:
The Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction: They May Not Mean To, But They Do by Cathleen Schine (Sarah Crichton Books/FSG)
The Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction: Jazz Moon by Joe Okonkwo (Kensington)
The Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction: Conflict Is Not Abuse by Sarah Schulman (Arsenal Pulp Press)
The Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction: How to Survive a Plague by David France (Knopf)
The Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry: Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong (Copper Canyon Press)
The Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry: Play Dead by Francine J. Harris (Alice James Books)
Trans/Gender-Variant Literature Award: Even This Page Is White by Vivek Shraya (Arsenal Pulp Press)
Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Award: Chinelo Okparanta
The Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement: Michael Bronski, an author, professor and independent scholar who has been involved in gay liberation as a political organizer, journalist, writer, editor, publisher and theorist since 1969. His books include Pulp Friction: Uncovering the Golden Age of Gay Male Pulps and A Queer History of the United States. Bronski serves as the editor for two series of books at Beacon Press, Queer Ideas and Queer Action. His latest book is Considering Hate: Violence, Goodness, and Justice in American Culture and Politics, coauthored with Kay Whitlock.
Leadership Award: John Scognamiglio, the editor-in-chief at Kensington Publishing who will be launching his own imprint, John Scognamiglio Books, in 2018, "for his long-standing commitment to present the best LGBTQ literature."
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David Levithan has won the Chicago Tribune's 2017 Young Adult Literary Prize, which recognizes "an author whose work is aimed at a young adult audience, addresses themes especially relevant to adolescents, inspires young readers, and champions literacy." He will be honored at the 2017 Printers Row Lit Fest on June 10 in downtown Chicago.
Levithan, who is an editorial director at Scholastic and the founding editor of the Scholastic YA imprint PUSH, has written or co-written 23 novels. He commented: "It's important to have a range of LGBTQIA+ voices in YA literature because there is a range of LGBTQIA+ experiences in life. Every teen deserves to be represented in some way in the books he or she or they or ze reads. It's as simple as that."
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Edward Gets Messy, by Brooklyn librarian Rita Meade, illustrated by Olga Stern (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers) has won the first Anna Dewdney Read Together Award, sponsored by Penguin Young Readers, the Children's Book Council and Every Child a Reader. This award is for "a picture book that is both a superb read-aloud and also sparks compassion, empathy, and connection. The award commemorates the life and work of author/illustrator Anna Dewdney and celebrates her commitment to reading with young children and putting books into as many little hands as possible."
The organizers said that Edward Gets Messy is about "a very particular little pig discovers the joys that come with getting messy in this sweet and fun debut picture book. Edward the pig never pets friendly dogs on the street. He never, ever eats food that spills or splatters. And he never, ever, EVER uses markers or glue sticks or paint. They are just too messy. But what happens when a big tub of paint falls on Edward's perfectly neat little head? Well, it might just turn out that getting messy has its upsides, too."