Event Recap: The Libris Awards 2010!

What?! : Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Awards, Saturday May 29th, Toronto

(Mandy and Bronwyn on the right)

"The CBA Libris Awards honour outstanding achievement by authors and editors, sales reps and distributors, booksellers and publishers"

A whirlwind weekend, to be sure. The main focus and excitement generator was the Libris Awards on Saturday night, hosted by CBC Radio's Shelagh Rogers. She shook my hand. She had a great smile and was wearing white that night.

The dinner tables were beautifully laid out on a white theme. The napkins were little peacock bums, and chicken and risotto was served. For dessert, there was a mango cheesecake with a stencilled pattern decorating the edges.

They also smartly laid out the shortlist of moninees program under all our plates. So our table had a friendly (see: cutthroat) betting pool for the awards announced--winner got bragging rights. Here's a pic of the program once a bunch of know-it-all booksellers got at it:

Some notable wins include:

Linden MacIntyre, author of The Bishop's Man, wins twice for Author of the Year and Fiction Book of the Year.

Raincoast Books wins Distributor of the Year.

Wade Davis, author of The Wayfinders, wins Non-Fiction Book of the Year.

Marie-Louise Gay, author of When Stella Was Very, Very Small, wins Children's Picture Book of the Year.

Shane Peacock, author of Vanishing Girl: The Boy Sherlock Holmes, His Third Case, wins Young Readers' Book of the Year.

Coach House Books wins Small Press Publisher of the Year.

House of Anansi Press wins Publisher of the Year.

And this year the CBA announced a new award, sponsored by Chase Paymentech, for Young Bookseller of the Year. It's a little weird to be doing this recap as I was the winner, but I'm very happy to see the CBA recognize booksellers under 30 in the industry. All weekend I had this overwhelming sense of excitement for the next generation of booksellers. I'm grateful to Bronwyn for taking the time to fill out the lengthy application--actually, she deserves an award as a talented and persuasive wordsmith!

All in all, it was a fabulous and very busy weekend.

Mandy