TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan: June 14, 2019—Foreword Reviews, a book review journal focusing on independently published books, announced the winners of its INDIES Book of the Year Awards today. The awards recognize the best books published in 2018 from small, indie, and university presses, as well by self-published authors. You can view all of the winners here:
https://www.forewordreviews.com/awards/winners/2018/
“Being surrounded by the year’s best books from independent writers and publishers is a humbling and invigorating experience that we take seriously at every step of the judging process,” says Managing Editor Michelle Anne Schingler. “As the INDIES progress, our editors, and our librarian and bookseller judges, have the honor and the privilege of discovering and rediscovering independent titles that give us hope about the future of publishing and that, at their best, make us consider the world around us anew.”
Over 2,000 entries were submitted in 56 categories, with Foreword’s editors choosing approximately 10 finalists per genre. Those finalists were then mailed to individual librarians and booksellers charged with picking the Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners.
Guide to Shakespeare’s plays wins Gold award for Reference
Foreword editors selected the nonfiction title, Deciphering Shakespeare’s Plays: A Practical Guide to the Twenty Best-Known and Enduring Works, to receive the 2018 INDIES Gold Award for Reference. “At a time when Shakespeare’s plays are slowly disappearing from university English department reading lists, I am honored that DECIPHERING SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS has been chosen as a Foreword INDIE Book of the Year, out of ten finalists in the Reference genre,” said author Cynthia Greenwood.
“For my part, winning the top prize in the Reference category is a significant honor after the many years of effort involved in producing this book,” said author Cynthia Greenwood.
Tin House was named the INDIES’s Publisher of the Year. “Traditional publishers forget to prioritize new, exciting, and diverse voices,” says Schingler. “For the past twenty years, Tin House has helped to fill that gap, publishing brilliant works from an array of daring literary voices. We were stunned by their releases this year, from thrilling debut science fiction titles to boundary-breaking poetry collections, and we can’t wait to see what they produce next.”
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Founded in 1998, Foreword Magazine, Inc. is the publisher of the only review journal completely devoted to independent publishing: Foreword Reviews, a Folio: award-winning bimonthly print review journal. Foreword exclusively covers university and independent (non “Big 5”) publishers, the books they publish, and their authors. Foreword is based in Traverse City, Michigan, with staff based worldwide.
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Consider me a professional interpreter of William Shakespeare for intelligent readers who never warmed up to the world’s greatest playwright in high school or college. I delight in helping modern readers and audiences translate iconic texts, especially antiquated dramatic works that were meant to be experienced inside the theatre.
