Broken Frontier

On the heels of winning the Howard E. Day Memorial Prize, THE LONE AND LEVEL SANDS has now claimed another award: Honorable Mention (4th place) in the Graphic Novel category of ForeWord Magazine’s annual Book of the Year Awards.

For seven years, ForeWord has recognized quality books published by independent presses, but this is only the third year a Graphic Novel category has existed. Archaia Studios Press has won an award in each of the three years, a distinctive honor. This year’s awards were announced at a special ceremony on May 19 at BookExpo America in Washington D.C.

Writer David Lewis and colorist Jennifer Rodgers will be at this week’s Wizard World Philadelphia at the ASP booth #223. Also at the booth will be publisher Mark Smylie and Mouse Guard creator David Petersen.

The LONE AND LEVEL SANDS was up against stiff competition from nine different finalists, including titles from NBM and Tokyopop. Mark Smylie, ASP’s publisher said, “I’m extremely happy for David [Lewis], Marv [Mann] and Jennifer [Rodgers]. THE LONE AND LEVEL SANDS was their labor of love and to see it earn such praise is rewarding.  And I hope we can continue our streak next year!”

This year’s award follows 2004’s Gold Award for Smylie’s acclaimed Artesia. Artesia Afire, the second book in the Artesia series, claimed the Silver Award in 2005.

This year more than 1,500 titles were submitted in 55 fiction and nonfiction categories; 619 were declared finalists leading up to the top awards. Winners for Gold, Silver, Bronze and Honorable Mention were determined by the magazine’s readership of booksellers and librarians. The BOTYA program is designed specifically for them to share in the process of discovering distinctive books across a number of genres with judgments based on their own authority in each category and on their patron/customer interests. For a complete list go to: http://www.forewordmagazine.com/botya/