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| Shelf Awareness's partnership program manager Kristianne Huntsberger with Robert Martin, executive director of the Independent Booksellers Consortium, at the Heartland Fall Forum. | |
While attending five regional trade shows this fall, Shelf Awareness partnership program manager Kristianne Huntsberger asked booksellers to nominate titles for their very own awards.
The informal poll asked booksellers to select one title they read this year and make up an award title for it. Participants nominated 127 titles across the five regional shows: New Voices New Rooms in Baltimore, Md.; the California Independent Booksellers Alliance Fall Fest in San Diego, Calif.; the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Fall Tradeshow in Portland, Ore.; the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association Fall Con in Denver, Colo.; and the Heartland Fall Forum in Minneapolis, Minn.
No single title rose above this year, though five nominations each were recorded for Bad Words by Rioghnach Robinson, Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke, and the Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman.
Yesteryear made the most frequent appearance on the NVNR list, earning nominations for "Most Unlikeable Character" and "Longest Bookclub" awards.
Besides the popularity of Bad Words at the PNBA Tradeshow, John of John by Douglas Stuart also got attention and the "Most Likely to Break Your Heart" award.
At CALIBA, Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt by Ben Reeves was nominated for the "How to Cry in Public" award, and The Wind Beneath by Kelly Anderson was named for an award called "WTF New York Times?"
At the MPIBA Fall Con, Pirate Queen by Ariel Lawton was a popular pick and received both "Must Read" and "All Staff Holiday Pick" awards.
Heartland bookseller nominations included Etna by Paul Yoon for the "Great Dog POV" award, and Riverwork by Lisa Robertson for the "Why I became a bookseller" award.