NEWS

NOMINEES FOR ANNUAL NORTH AMERICAN HAMMETT PRIZE ANNOUNCED

The North American Branch of the International Association of Crime Writers is pleased to announce nominees for their annual HAMMETT PRIZE for a work of literary excellence in the field of crime writing by a US or Canadian author. The 2012 nominees are as follows:

William Landay, Defending Jacob: A Novel (Delacorte)
Jim Lynch, Truth Like the Sun: A Novel (Knopf)
Howard Owen, Oregon Hill (Permanent)
Kurt Palka, Patient Number 7 (McClelland & Stewart)
G. Willow Wilson, Alif the Unseen (Emblem/Canada; Grove/US)

A reading committee of IACW/NA members selected the nominees, based on recommendations from other members and the publishing community. The committee was headed by J. Madison Davis and included Rob Byrnes, Lynn Erickson (a.k.a. Carla Peltonan and Molly Swanton), Paul McHugh, and Del Staecker.

The winner will be chosen by three distinguished outside judges: Rob Dougherty, Manager of the Clinton Book Shop, in New Jersey; Janet Groth, author of The Receptionist: An Education at The New Yorker; and Edward D. Miller, professor of Film and Theatre (CUNY), and author of Tomboys, Pretty Boys, and Outspoken Women: The Media Revolution of 1973.

The organization will name the HAMMETT PRIZE winner, during the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA) Fall Conference, in Somerset, New Jersey, September 30-October 2. The winner will receive a bronze trophy, designed by sculptor Peter Boiger.