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Oh What a Night at the Copa

Celebrating the 2019 IPPY Medalists

by Jim (the IPPY Hippie) Barnes

Oh, what a night is was, as we hosted the 23rd Annual Independent Publisher Book Awards ceremony at the Copacabana Times Square night club in New York City. The legendary disco dance club was packed to the brim with authors, illustrators, photographers, publishers, editors, family and friends, from around the world, all applauding the hard work, creativity and passion that led to these award-winning books. The atmosphere was celebratory and supportive, an audience of 300 united in the common cause of "recognizing excellence in independent publishing."

And yes, it truly is my favorite night of the year, because I love to meet IPPY winners whose books I've discovered and fallen in love with, and learn about their diverse publishing journeys. Everyone has their own story and their own style. And I really do "Love New York," especially when I'm with lovely ladies like Traci Ison Schafer, author of The Anuan Legacy (Inkana Publishing) and her daughter Destany.

 

Here's a trio of talented ladies, all gold medal winners for the book 

 

 

 

As I introduced Barbara Hannah Grufferman, author of gold medal-winning Love Your Age: The Small-Step Solution to a Better, Longer, Happier Life (National Geographic/AARP), I jokingly said, "My mother told me to never ask a woman's age..." and Barbara sang out, "I'M SIXTY TWO!" 

Loving her age, indeed!

She Writes Press, the hybrid publishing company founded seven years ago and designed as a platform to launch the careers of talented women writers, garnered 12 IPPY medals in this year's awards, and here are four of the medal-winning SWP ladies:  Cheryl Suchors, author of 48 PEAKS: Hiking and Healing in the White Mountains;  Linda Gartz, author of Redlined: A Memoir of Race, Change, and Fractured Community in 1960s Chicago;  Barbara Stark-Nemon, author of Hard Cider; and Dena Moes, author of The Buddha Sat Right Here: A Family Through India and Nepal.  Four spectacular books by four wonderful women!

Here are the gold, silver and bronze medalists in the Animals/Pets category: Daniel and William Clarke, 20 and 22-year-old brothers from Australia, authors of Tears in the Jungle: Fight for Survival, about the increasing plight of the orangutan; Kristen Hellstrom, photographer for Adventures with Durango Pete: Life and Poetry with a Cow Dog Philosofur, by Stephen Himman; and T.R. Todd, author of Pigs of Paradise: The Story of the World-Famous Swimming Pigs (Skyhorse Publishing).

All three Horror category medalists: Bill Thompson, author of Callie: The Bayou Hauntings 1 (Ascendente Books); Jess Hagemann, author of Headcheese (Cinestate); and Preston Fassel, author of Our Lady of the Inferno (Fangoria).

Two medal-winning Erotica category medalists: Jamie Schmidt (pen name Lissa Trevor), author of Domme Quixote (Riverdale Avenue Books) and Markus Taylor (writing with Camille English under pen name Jackie Notter) author of Pop Secrets (Climate Publishing).

See the entire IPPY Award ceremony photo album on Google Photos. 

All photography by Janice Yi.

Cheers and thanks to all the attendees who made the 23rd Annual IPPY Award ceremony such a memorable night!

 

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