Amelia Island Book Festival
Press Release
Contact RM Fenn
[email protected]
February 14, 2017 2:00 p.m.
Five authors have been selected as finalists for the 2017 Book Island Literary Award, being presented by the Amelia Island Book Festival (AIBF). The winner will be announced and the award presented Friday, Feb. 17, at the festival’s Author Face-Off Gala Dinner at the Omni Amelia Island Plantation Resort.
Finalists are Linda Reynolds, for Spies in Our Midst; Nancy Blanton, for The Prince of Glencurragh; James Smith, for Silent Source; Amy Quincy, for Misadventures of a Happy Heart; and Bruce Thomason, for Perception of Power.
This is the first year that AIBF is presenting the book award, which will continue as an annual event. The festival created the Book Island Literary Award to recognize an author for an outstanding book with a distinctive voice, compelling story, originality and well-crafted writing, which exemplifies the values of reading and promoting literacy.
“We are thrilled with the outstanding caliber of books submitted and look forward to this being a competition that all our exhibiting authors aspire to in the future,” said Marie Fenn, this year’s AIBF president.
The competition was open to writers of both fiction and nonfiction (children’s and young adult books are not included this year), who are registered to exhibit at the festival’s Author Expo Saturday, Feb. 18, in Fernandina Beach. Entries were submitted from July through October of last year.
The finalists were chosen based on review and scoring by a number of judges invited by the Festival Award Committee including authors, speakers, educators and others with credentials and experience in evaluating writing and books.
Visit the Festival website, www.ameliaislandbookfestival.org, or call 904-624-1665 for more details about the Author Face-Off Gala Dinner, the Author Expo and other events of the 16th annual, three-day, Amelia Island Book Festival, coming up Feb. 16-18.
A not-for-profit 501(c)3 Corporation, the Amelia Island Book Festival (AIBF) seeks to open up the world through books. Its mission is to promote life-long learning and an appreciation for books by providing quality events featuring local area and world-renowned authors and serving our students through the award-winning Authors in Schools Literacy Program.