Heading into its third year of pomp and literary circumstance, the Quills Book Awards program is getting an overhaul by its organizers, NBC Universal and Reed Business Information. The awards program will still feature five finalists in nineteen categories—everything from poetry and fiction to biography/memoir and best debut author—but instead of the public voting for each winner, booksellers and librarians will decide who takes home a Quill.
For the third annual Quill Book Awards, the public will only vote for the winner in the twentieth category: book of the year. Quills founder Gerry Byrne told the Associated Press yesterday that organizers wanted to streamline the process and "add to the credibility of those who are named winners."
The Quills will again be presented at a star-studded, televised ceremony in the fall—at Frederick P. Rose Hall in New York City on October 22—but the event will be shorter than in previous years. Last fall's ceremony, held at the American Museum of Natural History, lasted three hours. Some winners didn't attend, and many people left before it was over. This year, winners in every category except Book of the Year will be announced a month in advance.
The finalists in each category will be announced on June 2. Winners in the first nineteen categories will be announced on September 9.
