The National “Best Book” Award 2009 named Morgana Press of New Orleans’ offbeat title Hearsay from Heaven and Hades: New Orleans Secrets of Sinners and Saints by author TJ Fisher as this year’s Poetry winner. The unconventional and dark-tinged work received top honors in the “Poetry: General” category.
“I’m stunned,” said Fisher, an award-winning Southern writer, Bourbon Street resident and Faulkner Society patron, who the press previously dubbed as colorful, outrageous and eccentric. Fisher’s idiosyncratic 512-page Hearsay book of “French Quarterisms” (aphorisms) previously received standout recognition from the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance.
Local publisher Pelican Publishing received two NBBA finalist-nod awards in the categories of “Humor” and “History: United States.”
According to the event’s sponsor, USA Book News, this year’s contest yielded an unprecedented number of entries. Winners and finalists traversed the publishing landscape: Simon & Schuster, Penguin, W.W. Norton, Revell, McGraw-Hill, John Wiley & Sons, Thomas Nelson, American Cancer Society, Greenleaf Book Group, Sourcebooks, and hundreds of independent houses.
Fisher’s Hearsay book is based on the premise of “40 days, 40 nights,” down in New Orleans, beyond the watermark. Artist Jennifer Porter’s in-book New Orleans sketches illustrate and celebrate Fisher’s provocative pre- and post-Katrina musings of “Do you know what it means to live like you’re from New Orleans?”
“NBBA’s success begins with the enthusiastic participation of authors and publishers and continues with our distinguished panel of industry judges who bring to the table their extensive editorial, PR, marketing, and design expertise,” said Keff Keen, President and CEO of USA Books.
Morgana Press novel Ruins of Grandeur by author Donald G. Geddes, III won IPPY Awards Silver 2009 in the “Mystery/Suspense/Thriller” category. The micro publishing house’s critically acclaimed narrative and pictorial debut Orleans Embrace with The Secret Gardens of the Vieux Carré — a commemorative compendium by authors TJ Fisher, Roy F. Guste, Jr. and Louis Sahuc — swept multiple national honors in indepedenent publishing, including a prestigious PMA double-gold Benjamin Franklin Award 2007 win for “Best New Voice Nonfiction” and “The Bill Fisher Award for Best First Book Nonfiction.”
USABookNews.com, the premiere online magazine and review website for mainstream and independent publishing houses, announced the winners and finalists of THE NATIONAL “BEST BOOKS” 2009 AWARDS (NBBA) on October 20, 2009. Winners and finalists were announced in over 140 categories covering print and audio books.
Morgana Press publishes books with unique stories about the people, places, things, powers, passions, visions and voices of New Orleans.
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