ILA Awards - don't forget!

Hey blog world. I am not at BEA this week, in part because I could never justify spending that much money at this stage in my life (read: neither husband nor I are (am?) employed because we are so overwhelmed with studying right now) and because I am on day six of my accelerated nursing program and pre-nursing program life seems as if it was years ago. Fortunately the blog hasn't taken too much of a hit so far - I'm hoping that I can keep it up through these next 15 crazy months! But I'm not here to talk about myself - I am writing to talk about the Independent Literary Awards, and remind those of you who ARE at BEA to be thinking about the ILAs as you enjoy your tote bags of bright shiny ARCs.

If you are unfamiliar with the Indie Lit Awards, I am here to inform! The ILAs are awards bestowed on books in various categories based on nominations by independent bloggers. Starting in September, bloggers may nominate books published in that year for an award. A shortlist of five books will be consolidated and then a panel of bloggers will read said books and choose a winner and runner up. These are books chosen by people who would read all day if it would pay the bills, so their opinion is quite valid (I have no bias, of course).

Here's the catch - none of this can happen without nominations from fabulous bloggers who have come across fantastic 2011 releases in their book-devouring. Those of you at BEA this week are in an especially good position to find great new releases to nominate this year. So please, if you find anything exceptional in the categories of

Biography/Memoir

GLBTQ

Literary Fiction

Mystery

Non-fiction

Poetry

or Speculative Fiction,

file it away in your little mental filing cabinet, write it on your September calendar, put a sticky note on your computer, but please remember to nominate it for the ILAs. (Particularly non-fiction, because that is what I will be reading!) If you have any questions about the process, want to learn about the voting members, want to see past winners, etc., please go to the ILA website. I hope your experience with BEA is fantastic for those of you who are present, and for those of you who are at home, studying, working, caring for kids, or whatever you are doing like me, let's meet there in five years when I can afford it!