CRITERIA FOR AUTHORS' AWARDS - 2008

The New Jersey authors’ awards were instituted in 1994 to encourage and celebrate books about New Jersey.  Awards are considered in five categories:
                non-fiction popular
                non-fiction scholarly
                fiction & poetry
                reference
                reproduction of primary resources 

Works nominated should reflect a new understanding of New Jersey’s history and culture, evidence original research in the application of New Jersey resources and/or reveal new insights into a topic.  They must have appeared in the previous two calendar years:  2006 or 2007.  There is no in-state residency requirement for authors/editors/compilers. 

Non-fiction scholarly works should utilize appropriate primary resources.  Scholarly works will be judged upon their ability to provide full citations for the text, endnotes, footnotes, photographs, illustrations, maps and charts.  A complete bibliography or list of references is also expected.  Citations should adhere to standard style manuals, such as the  Chicago Manual of Style, Turabian’s Manual for Writers of Term Papers, the MLA Style Manual, etc.  Full and complete citations and bibliographies enhance the value of the text for students, teachers and the reading public. 

The authors’ awards will also recognize those who edit or compile primary, largely inaccessible resources and make them widely available by publication in print or on the web.  The published primary resource should be accompanied by commentary and/or explanatory annotations with criteria identical to those for scholarly works. 

 Nominations will be accepted from January 1, 2008 through April 30, 2008.  The nomination packet must include an explanatory cover letter, a copy of the nominee’s resume and five copies of the publication or web address/text proposed for the 2008 award.  Packets must be mailed before April 30, 2008 to the NJ Authors’ Awards Committee, c/o Bonita Craft Grant, 169 College Ave., New Brunswick, NJ  08901-1163. 

Committee readings and deliberations will take place from May through July.  The full committee will review all nominations.  If more than one work is nominated for a specific category, the committee will choose the one that most closely meets the criteria.  If no nominations conform to the criteria, the committee may refrain from giving an award that year.

Winners will be selected in August and reported to the NJSAA membership at its September meeting.  The awards ceremony will take place in October.  Awardees receive a certificate of recognition and the opportunity to discuss their book before a Statewide audience.

Members of the committee include Chad Leinaweaver, Harriet Sepinwall, Carla Zimmerman, Richard Veit and Bonita Grant.  Award co-sponsors with the NJSAA include the New Jersey Library Association, Rutgers University Press and Rutgers Special Collections & University Archives.

The 2007 award winner was Sora  Friedman.  Additional information on the award and the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance may be found at:  http://www.njsaa/org.

Previous recipients include: Paul Wice, Firth Fabend, Merce Ridgeway, Donald Sinclair, Penelope Scambly Schott, Troy Messenger, Mark Di Ionno, Michael Immerso, Meredith Bzdak, Douglas Petersen, Michael Rockland, Delight Dodyk, Helen C. Pike, Richard Viet, Lucy Rosenfeld, Marina Harrison, Joanna Burger, Jennifer Gillan, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Edvige Giunta, S. Mitra Kalita, Kevin Coyne, Lloyd Gardner, Maxine Lurie, Marc Mappen, Dermot Quinn, Howard Gillette, Jr. , and Sora Friedman.

Five of the six 2000 award winners (Immerso, Di Ionno, Petersen, Bzdak, and Messenger) with Maxine N. Lurie, NJSAA.

Rutgers University Press book by award winners Bzdak and Petersen.