Award-winning historical novels at ALA Midwinter, 2012

The American Library Association's 2012 Midwinter conference just wrapped up in Dallas, and a number of literary awards were announced there.  Once again (see last year's list), historical fiction made a good showing.

Relevant winners include:

The Newbery Medal and Newbery Honor books, recognizing the best in American children's literature.

- The winner: Jack Gantos' Dead End in Norvelt, an off-the-wall adventure set in small-town America in 1962;
- The Honor books: Thanhha Lai's Inside Out and Back Again, about a Vietnamese refugee family in the American South; and Eugene Yelchin's Breaking Stalin's Nose, middle-grade fiction set in Stalinist Russia.

The 2012 Reading List Awards, which recognize the best books in eight genres.

- For Historical Fiction:  Mary Doria Russell's Doc, a reinterpretation of the life of Doc Holliday.
- On the Historical Fiction shortlist:  Dominic Smith's Bright and Distant Shores, Amor Towles' Rules of Civility, Sharon Kay Penman's Lionheart, and Beth Powning's The Sea-Captain's Wife.  [links to my reviews]
- For Fantasy, Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus, a magical tale of lovers in a mysterious late 19th-century circus.
- For Romance, Loretta Chase's Silk is for Seduction, set in 1830s England.

ALA Notable Books, honoring excellent, important fiction for the adult reader.  (Understood to be literary fiction; the Reading List looks at genre fiction.)

- Patrick deWitt, The Sisters Brothers, a darkly comic Western; and Michael Ondaatje's The Cat's Table, in which a young boy comes of age aboard ship in the 1950s.  These were the only historical novels on the list; see the full slate for other honorees (including nonfiction and poetry).

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On a personal note, I was notified of some very exciting news last Friday that was formally announced at ALA on Sunday night.  The awards chair phoned me to say I'd been selected as the winner of the 2012 Louis Shores Award from the Reference & User Services Association, which is given for excellence in book reviewing for libraries.  This blog was mentioned in the press release (how cool to have a press release of my own!).

Unfortunately I wasn't able to be at the conference in person ‒ I got word just after I'd finished up my afternoon reference desk shift at the library ‒ but there'll be an awards reception at the ALA Annual convention in Anaheim this summer, and I plan on being there.  No big speeches here, but I was completely surprised and thrilled, and still am.  A huge thanks to the librarian who nominated me and to the members of the award committee.