2012 Colorado Book Awards

Doerr-Hosier Center - photo courtesy The Aspen Institute

Let me end the suspense right away. The winner of the 2012 Colorado Book Award in the Juvenile Fiction category is – City of Orphans by Avi.

Even though Letters to Juniper didn’t win, the folks at Colorado Humanities and Center for the Book went out their way to make all the finalists feel like winners. The awards event was held on Friday, June 22, at the Doerr-Hosier Center at Aspen Meadows. A few hundred people gathered for an afternoon of celebrating books in a gorgeous mountain setting. What a party! A fabulous time was had by all. 

2012 Colorado Book Awards winners and finalists

My editor/publisher Natalie Collins (Sisterhood Publications) arrived in Aspen Wednesday night. We have known each other for twelve years but this was the first time we met face-to-face. We managed to combine planning sessions with plenty of partying. Natalie and I were honored to win a seat at the table at such a prestigious awards event. We felt so fortunate to be able to share in this achievement. 

Peggy and Natalie enjoying the celebration

I met several authors for the first time, re-connected with a few I had lost touch with, and have a whole new list of books to read. What could be better than that?

Congratulations to all the Winners of the 2012 Colorado Book Awards!

Anthology/Collections:  Monumental Majesty: 100 Years of Colorado National Monument, edited by Laurena Mayne Davis, The Daily Sentinel

Biography:  The Man Who Never Died by William Adler, Bloomsbury

Children's Literature:  Light Up the Night by Jean Reidy, Disney Hyperion

Creative Nonfiction:  Dances in Two Worlds: A Writer-Artist's Backstory by Thordis Simonsen, The Fundamental Note

General Nonfiction:  Math for Life by Jeffrey Bennett, Roberts and Company

Genre Fiction:  The Soul Mirror by Carol Berg, Penguin Group USA

History:  From Jars to the Stars by Todd Neff, Earthview Media

Literary Fiction:  The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown, Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam

Pictorial:  Thomas W. Benton: Artist/Activist by Daniel Joseph Watkins, People's Press

Poetry:  Circle's Apprentice by Dan Beachy-Quick, Tupelo Press

Young Adult Literature:  Lucy Dakota: Adventures of a Modern Explorer Book 1 - Rocky Mountain Beginnings by Carol Sue Shride, My Piece of the Puzzle



Peggy Tibbetts

Now available at Amazon
PFC Liberty Stryker
Letters to Juniper – 2012 Colorado Book Award Finalist

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The folks at Underground Book Reviews are compiling their 2012 Summer Reading List and they want your opinion! Of all the amazing novels they have reviewed, they want to know your favorite. This is your chance to support Letters to Juniper.

Underground Book Review for Letters to Juniper

Click here and vote for Letters to Juniper

Voting will close on Monday, May 28
Winners will be announced Friday, June 1

2012 Colorado Book Award Finalists Readings

The 2012 Colorado Book Award Finalists Readings were held on April 19, at the Residence Inn Marriott in downtown Denver. Thank you to Colorado Humanities and their sponsors for hosting, and a special thank to Christine Goff for organizing this awesome event. Imagine me among such amazing talent on display. What an honor!

The evening was an adventure into the imaginations of twenty-two of the 39 finalists. Authors read to a packed Aspen Room of more than 75 people. We were treated to readings from three beautiful and engaging picture books. We heard drama and humor from three novels for young readers. I was third in line and read the scene in Letters to Juniper when the FBI shows up for the first time.

Nancy Oswald followed with a funny scene about Maude the donkey from Rescue in Poverty Gulch, another finalist in the Juvenile Fiction category.

We also glimpsed hunting guide Allison Coil in her element on the Roan, and were introduced to traveling beekeeper John Miller. Poet Tony Moffeit even sang the blues. All of which made for an entertaining Act I.

In Act II we sampled art journaling, geography, history, and outer space. We traveled to the Serengeti to view the lions and visited a renovated stone cabin in Greece. We hiked a trail near Moab and ran past a bighorn sheep in Colorado National Monument. On our journey to the past we met Colorado’s first woman senator, a cowboy businessman, and a jar maker who pioneered aerospace in Colorado. We also peeked inside the bedrooms of 19th Century Russian aristocracy and a brutal Nazi couple who ran Buchenwald. I want to buy all the authors' fabulous books!
Click here for the list of the authors who read and their books.

A meet and greet with a book sale and book signing followed the author readings. Nancy Oswald and I signed our books for each other.

Even though our books are competing in the Juvenile Fiction category, Nancy and I shared the limelight. Nancy came all the way from Cotopaxi and I came over from Silt. We both agreed we would not have missed this for anything. What a thrill for two women writers from up the country.

Meet the Finalists and Winners at the Colorado Book Awards in Aspen, Colorado, on Friday, June 22, 1:00 p.m. at the Doerr-Hosier Center at the Aspen Meadows. For more information go to Colorado Humanities Colorado Book Awards.

Aspen Summer Words 2012 Literary Festival, June 16-23, 2012

Letters to Juniper is a finalist!

I am thrilled to announce Letters to Juniper has been selected as a 2012 Colorado Book Award Finalist in the Juvenile Fiction category!

The award event will be held June 22, 2012 at Aspen Summer Words Literary Festival in Aspen.

Peggy Tibbetts

Now available at Amazon!
PFC Liberty Stryker
Letters to Juniper

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YAAYNHO Authors’ Books Nominated for Global eBook Awards

Three contributors to Young Adult Authors You’ve Never Heard Of have books nominated for the Global eBook Awards

Caves, Cannons, and Crinolines by Beverly Stowe McClure

has been nominated in the Teen Literature – Fiction category

The Price of Mercy by Gloria Oliver
has been nominated in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Paranormal – Fiction category

Letters to Juniper by Peggy Tibbetts
has been nominated in the Children’s Literature – Fiction category

Show your support for these authors’ books by clicking on the book titles, then rate and/or leave a comment.

"Everyone is talking about eBooks," said Dan Poynter, founder of the Global eBook Awards. "eBooks have reached the tipping point and are outselling books on paper in several categories. eBook are not replacing paper books; they are in addition to. The eReading devices such as the Kindle are increasing the amount of book reading."

According to Joseph Dowdy, the Director of Awards, the category with the largest number of entries so far is Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Paranormal. The next largest number of entries are in Historical Literature, Autobiography/Memoirs, and Writing/Publishing Nonfiction. Dowdy observes that Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Paranormal is the hot topic this season. Many people are reading and writing in this area due to the phenomenal success of Amanda Hocking and her eBooks. At the recent San Francisco Writers Conference, this was the most popular genre.

The Awards have 79 categories in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, illustration, and multimedia.

The Global eBook winners will be honored at a star-studded ceremony on August 20 in Santa Barbara, California.