All Things Literary

Stepping to the stage is: All Things Literary

After years of thought and preparation, OOSA Online Book Club is pleased to present the first-ever ALL THINGS LITERARY AWARDS 2012. It is important to us to create an awards event based on the merit of work and simply not a popularity contest. Authors pour their blood, sweat and tears and days, months and years into their work and we want to recognize them. It is our desire and plan to celebrate great writing and great writers. It does not matter who an author is, who the publisher is, where an author lives, who an author is friends with, how many/few books an author has, or how popular an author is on social networking sites. All that matters is writing.

Years of thought and preparation? Why did it take so long? We listened. We watched. We observed. We dialogued. We heard your feedback – gripes and praises. We took all of that into consideration and went about building this event.

We chose to go the route of creating a process that allows everyone to be on an equal playing field. We did that by stripping away the identity of the nominees. We then set out to create a panel of fair, honest and discerning judges. Serious consideration was given to who would make up this panel. We sought judges of all ages, both sexes with various reading palettes from all over. We wanted avid readers that could dissect books for their strengths and weaknesses and would not simply be wowed by glamour, drama or action.

This panel devoted three months of their time to reading the nominated works/authors while agreeing to remain anonymous to further ensure the integrity of the process. The judging process was blind as the judges read submissions without knowing the identity of the authors or the title of the novels. Upon completion of reading the nominated works, the panel then evaluated them on elements key to writing such as development, creativity and quality. We express our sincerest and deepest thanks to all those that participated. Without them this would not be possible.

Congratulations and thank you to our nine final nominees. These nominees entrusted us with their work and we appreciate that. Most often when an author is acknowledged for their writing they want to share their good news with anyone that will listen. In this case, the nominees agreed to keep quiet about their nomination, again to ensure the integrity of the process. Not an easy task, so we thank and appreciate them for that.

The process is complete and the winners have been chosen based on their work. The winners will be announced at OOSA’s Second Annual Pajama Jam on October 27, 2012 in St. Louis, Missouri.

In addition, the Brenda Hampton Honorary Literacy Award winner will be announced. The winner of this award represents unique individuals who put forth every effort to uphold the standards of African American Literature. This honor includes writers, reviewers, editors, publishers, agents…all who have remained dedicated to the cause for years, who have inspired many others along the way and who have had a great impact on the industry as a whole.

About Us:
OOSA Online Book Club is an award-winning book club and reviewing team founded in 2005.