FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2016 Independent Publisher Book Award Winners Announced:
IPPY Awards Celebrate 20th Anniversary and Reflect the Powerful Role of Women in Publishing
(April 13, 2016 – Traverse City, MI) – Independent publishing has always been a voice for deserving causes, and the medal-winning books in this year’s Independent Publisher Book Awards highlight many of today’s pressing issues, including the long struggle for women’s equality. The 20th annual IPPY results, announced last week, are a testament to the weighty contributions women are making in literature today.
The role of women in book publishing has grown steadily over the decades, and this year the woman’s “roar” is heard loudly in the work of many female authors and publishers. From the Children’s Ebook gold medalist, Believe in Yourself, by nine year-old Trisha Rao, to the Canada-West Fiction gold medalist, The Hivernante, by 95 year-old Mary Willan Mason, women of all ages, races and religions received medals.
As gold medalist Peter Freed writes in the preface of Prime: Reflections on Time and Beauty, his photo-essay book featuring portraits and words of 130 women, “Women are born storytellers gathering information and insights the way a bee gathers pollen, totally immersed and coated in their experiences.” The experiences portrayed in the array of award-winning books are both diverse and nuanced, showing the range of these powerful storytellers.
“At our 10th anniversary celebration we honored ‘Ten Outstanding Women of Independent Publishing,’ but for this 20th anniversary we’d have to say ‘100 Women’ or even a 1000,” says Jim Barnes, Awards Director. “As always, our medalists reflect what’s happening out there in our society and our politics.”
The success of one company, She Writes Press, “dedicated to connecting and serving women writers everywhere,” epitomizes the rise in women writers getting their work published. No less than 17 of this year’s medal-winning books came from SWP, all exhibiting first-rate writing, editing, and design – as well as powerful new voices.
And these female voices emerging in literature are truly worth hearing; take author Elena Ferrante, whose masterful The Story of the Lost Child led the all-female medalists in the Literary Fiction category. Ferrante’s uniquely passionate voice is a powerful addition to a genre historically dominated by male authors.
The IPPY Awards were launched in 1996 and are conducted each year to honor the year’s best independently published books, offering an alternative to “the big five” conglomerated media publishers. Thanks to small presses, university presses, and self-publishing services that give experimental and entrepreneurial authors a platform, the IPPY universe is rapidly expanding — and that gives adventurous readers an abundance of new choices.
The medal-winning books will be celebrated on May 10th during the annual BookExpo America publishing convention in Chicago, with gold, silver and bronze IPPY medallions awarded in 80 national, 22 regional, and ten e-book categories. This year’s contest drew nearly 5,000 entries, with winning medalists in 42 U.S. states plus DC, six Canadian provinces, and nine countries overseas.
Congratulations to all the medalists for their independent spirit and dedication to excellence the always-changing world of publishing and bookselling!
See complete results for the 2016 Independent Publisher Book Awards: http://www.
Regional and E-Book Awards: http://www.
Outstanding Books of the Year: http://www.
For more information about the awards, visit the website here: http://www.