Congratulations to all the 2011 San Diego Book Awards Winners!
I am especially delighted that Mara Price‘s bilingual picture book, Grandma’s Chocolate/El Chocolate de Abuelita, won in the published picture book category. This story of a grandma’s visit from Mexico is deep and rich and sweet (sounds like chocolate, eh?).
However, I would not have wanted to be the judge for that round – the other finalists are pretty extraordinary as well.
Rumor is that the SDBAA put on a fabulous event Saturday night, complete with delicious food and literary love all around.
So, perhaps you wonder, who is the SDBAA?
The San Diego Book Awards Association (SDBAA), is a volunteer organization dedicated to enriching the large, diverse, and vibrant literary community of the nation’s third largest county.
Founded in 1994, the SDBAA honors the best published books and unpublished manuscripts by San Diego County residents each year. Winning authors report that receiving a San Diego Book Award boosts sales of their books, and several winners of our unpublished novel, memoir, and poetry chapbook competitions have said that receiving a San Diego Book Award played an instrumental role in their later securing a publisher for their work.
A 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, the SDBAA promotes literacy in San Diego County schools through the Read-4-Fun program. Specially designed for fifth graders—the grade in which reading for pleasure dramatically declines—Read-4-Fun gives away approximately 2,500 books a year to student readers. For many of these children, the books they receive through Read-4-Fun are the first books they have ever owned.
Sounds like a winning organization!
Sarah Wones Tomp
WRITING ON THE SIDEWALK
