Feature
2018 Independent Publisher Book Awards Press & Medalist Page
Congratulations to the winners of the 2018 Independent Publisher Book Awards!
Below you will find the 2018 results press release and important links to merchandise, artwork, photos from the award ceremony. Photography by Andrew Lipovsky.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
IPPY Award Winners Announced for 2018 – "Compassionate Storytelling from Diverse Points of View”
(April 18, 2018 – Traverse City, MI) -The medalists in the 22nd Annual Independent Publisher Book Awards have been announced, and they represent a snapshot of America today: a melting-pot of colorful, vibrant immigrant voices and cultural influences. Independent publishing has long been known for its dedication to diversity and gender equality, and this year’s IPPY winners prove that out, with over 60% female authorship among the winners.
Launched in 1996 and conducted each year to honor the year's best independently published books, the “IPPY” Awards recognize merit in a broad range of subjects and reward authors and publishers who “take chances and break new ground.” Small presses, university presses, and self-publishing services give experimental and entrepreneurial authors a platform to share their stories, impart wisdom, and speak out against ignorance and prejudice.
IPPY medal-winning books will be celebrated on May 29th during the annual BookExpo publishing convention in New York, with gold, silver and bronze IPPY medallions awarded in 83 national, 24 regional, and 11 e-book categories. A special prize package will go to the 5,000 medalist of the program's 22-year history. This year’s contest drew 4,500 entries, and medals will go to authors and publishers from 43 U.S. states, 6 Canadian provinces, and 12 countries overseas.
As an example of the worldliness of the medalists, the Literary Fiction silver medalist, Us & Them (Stanford University Press) tells of Iranian immigrants living in Los Angeles, while bronze medalist, The Hemingway Files (Blank Slate Press), is about an American living in Japan. The protagonist in the LGBT+ Fiction category gold medalist, The Clothesline Swing (Nightwood Editions) is a gay Syrian refugee; struggling with both the loss of his homeland and the death of his lover.
The contest’s only double gold medal-winner, in both Anthology and Women’s Issues categories, is the stunning Before All Memory is Lost: Women’s Voices of the Holocaust (The Azrieli Foundation), featuring the survival stories by twenty women of “family, fear and the ways they resisted, and, ultimately triumphed over extreme adversity.” The collection “gives voice to the many women who endured in the face of horrifying brutality and memorializes the families and friends whose voices were silenced.” In a modern-day parallel, Current Events category silver medalist, Ten Cultures, Twenty Lives (Amaya Books) profiles twenty women who’ve fled violence and oppression in countries like Rwanda, Iraq and Bhutan to start new lives in Abilene, Texas. Their resettlement stories represent hope in the midst of today's refugee crisis of 65 million displaced people worldwide.
“Two words can describe this year’s IPPY medal-winning books – compassion and action," says Jim Barnes, director of the Awards. “In both the compelling storytelling of the fiction and the solution-based information of the non-fiction, independent publishing is all about passion for people and their causes, and dedication to sharing their stories with a world of readers.”
A title that won the special Freedom Fighter of the Year Award sums up the spirit of the IPPY Awards: The Good Fight: America’s Ongoing Struggle for Justice (Against All Odds Productions II). Todd Brewster says in his introduction, “Indeed, it is our contribution to human progress that we Americans play out our national story year after year, generation after generation, struggle after struggle, learning this one truth, unlearning it, and then learning it all over again. Freedom is more righteous than tyranny.”
Amen to that, and congratulations to all the medalists for their independent spirit and dedication to reminding us of the struggle!
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Regional and E-Book Awards:
http://www.independentpublisher.com/article.php?page=2303
Outstanding Books of the Year:
http://www.independentpublisher.com/article.php?page=2304
2018 IPPY Award Medalist Bookstore:
http://www.ippyawards.com/128/medalists/2018-medalists-categories-1-42
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For more details about the Awards, to attend the event, or to interview recipients, please contact:
Jim Barnes, Managing Editor & Awards Director
IndependentPublisher.com / Jenkins Group
Ph: 1.800.644.0133 x1011
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Important IPPY Awards medalist links:
IPPY Awards merchandise site:
http://www.jenkinsgroupinc.com/store/index.php?p=catalog&parent=4&pg=1
IPPY Awards "IP" logo artwork:
http://www.independentpublisher.com/includes/IPPY/IPPY_Logo_master(1).pdf
IPPY Awards Gold Medal artwork:
http://www.independentpublisher.com/images/ippy_goldmedal_LR.jpg
IPPY Awards Silver Medal artwork:
http://www.independentpublisher.com/images/ippy_silvermedal_LR.jpg
IPPY Awards Bronze Medal artwork:
http://www.independentpublisher.com/images/ippy_bronzemedal_LR.jpg
White paper entitled "Using Book Awards to Boost Your Book Sales": http://www.independentpublisher.com/ipland/SellMoreBooks_2014.pdf
Article: "10 Ways to Market Your Book After Winning an Award"
http://www.independentpublisher.com/article.php?page=2066
2018 IPPY Award Ceremony - Be There!
http://www.independentpublisher.com/article.php?page=2319
2018 Ceremony Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/132949138@N02/sets/72157667807930537/
IPPY Awards blurb:
The Independent Publisher Book Awards were conceived in 1996 as a broad-based, unaffiliated awards program open to all members of the independent publishing industry. The awards are intended to bring increased recognition to the thousands of exemplary independent, university, and self-published titles produced each year, and reward those who exhibit the courage, innovation, and creativity to bring about change in the world of publishing.
