10th Latino Book Awards Go to Popular and Under-the-Radar Titles

by Ximena Diego -- Críticas, 6/15/2008 8:59:00 AM

The winners of this year’s International Latino Book Awards included best sellers like Rhonda Byrne’s El Secreto (The Secret, Atria Books) and Isabel Allende’s La suma de los días (The Sum of Our Days, Rayo), as well as less-familiar titles from small, independent (and unorthodox) publishing houses, such as Chi Chi Rodríguez Books and Libros en Red.

Now in their10th year, the annual awards were presented on May 29 during BookExpo America (BEA) at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Unlike last year, when Villegas Editores and HarperCollins’s imprint Rayo took home most of the big awards, this year’s winners came from a more diverse list of publishing houses. In the children’s category, for example, Anna Milbourne’s La Mariposa (The Butterfly, EDC Publishing/Usborne) and Amy Costales’s Hello Night, Hola Noche (Luna Rising) won for best Spanish and best bilingual book, respectively, and Yuliana Gallego’s Mi sueño de América/My American Dream (Arte Público Press) received the prize for Best Young Adult Nonfiction–Bilingual. The less publicized There’s a Coqui in My Shoe (Chi Chi Rodríguez Books), by Marisa deJesús Paolicelli, won Best Educational Children’s Book–English, while Ariel Gonzalez’s Samuel Maximo y Niketon (Libros en Red) received the recognition for Young Adult Fiction–Spanish.

Many best sellers and popular titles received accolades in the Nonfiction (Spanish or Bilingual) category. Along with Byrne’s El Secreto (The Secret, Atria Books), which won for self-help, Allende’s La suma de los días (The Sum of Our Days, Rayo) received the award for biography and Manny Alvarez’s La lisa de salud (The List of Health, Rayo) won Best Health Book. The less-known Day of the Dead A Passion for Life/Día de los Muertos Pasión por la Vida, by Mary J. Andrade (La Oferta), won for Best Travel Book.

In the Fiction (Spanish) category, Teresa Cárdenas’s Perro Viejo (Old Dog, Groundwood) received the award for Best Novel–Historical Fiction, while Angela Becerra’s Lo que le falta al tiempo (What’s Left of Time, Rayo) and Roberto Ampuero’s Pasiones griegas (Greek Passions, Rayo) won in the mystery and romance sub-categories, respectively.

The recipients of the Mariposa Awards, a special recognition that honors first-time authors in English and Spanish, were Cecilia Samartín’s Broken Paradise (Atria) and Carolina Jaramillo Seligmann’s Fútbol en Colombia (Soccer in Colombia, Villegas).

The non-profit organization Latino Literacy Now created the Latino Book Awards in 1999 to recognize the contributions made to Latino literature by publishers and writers worldwide. The name was changed to International Latino Book Awards in 2006 to acknowledge the dramatic increase in nominations of literary works from Mexico, Central and South America, and Spain.

The recipients of the Mariposa Awards, a special recognition that honors the work of first-time authors in English and Spanish, were Cecilia Samartín’s Broken Paradise (Atria) and Carolina Jaramillo Seligmann’s Fútbol en Colombia (Football in Colombia, Villegas). For a complete list of winners, go to The Latino Book & Family Festival’s website.

The Latino Book Awards were created by the non-profit organization Latino Literacy Now in 1999 to recognize the positive contributions made to Latino literature by publishers and writers worldwide. Its name was changed to International Latino Book Awards in 2006 to acknowledge the dramatic increase in nominations of literary works from Mexico, Central and South America, and Spain.