The Quill Awards to Air on NBC October 21

By Laura B. Weiss -- School Library Journal, 7/1/2006

Don't forget to tune in to NBC's October 21 broadcast of the second annual Quill Awards—the publishing world's equivalent of the People's Choice Awards. Entertainment and publishing giants will gather at New York City's Museum of Natural History on October 10 to honor excellence in writing and publishing in 21 categories, including Book of the Year, Debut Author of the Year, the Quill Corporate Literacy Award, and a new prize, the Best Book to Film.

The Quill Awards are teaming with MSNBC.com this year to create a Web site in which members of the public can view content about books and cast votes for their top picks. Booksellers and librarians expect to whittle down 2,400 titles to a list of 95 nominees, and online voting will take place from August 22 to September 30 on MSNBC.com, says Gerry Byrne, chairman of the Quills Literacy Foundation.

Sponsored by Reed Business Information—School Library Journal's parent company—and the NBC Universal Television Stations, last year's event, hosted by NBC's Brian Williams, was attended by stars such as Jon Stewart of The Daily Show and Kim Cattrall of Sex and the City. Roughly 130,000 people voted last year, and this year, Byrne says, “it wouldn't surprise me if we cracked a million.” For more information about the awards, visit www.quillsliteracy.org.