I, the Judge

Ok so I hope that I'm not breaking some rule or something by talking about this, and now that I have blogged, I fear that someone will stealthily come at night and beat me with bamboo rods for my "loose lips sink ships" behavior. However, I am truly psyched that I was asked by Quang Bao of the Asian American Writers Workshop in NYC to be one of the judges this year for their annual Asian American Literary Award, in the nonfiction category.

To qualify for this very prestigious award, a work must have been written by an individual of Asian descent living in the United States and published originally in English during the calendar year preceding the award year (for example, works published in 2004 are eligible for the 2005 Literary Awards). Self-published works apparently don't make the cut. Beyond that, anyone can submit a book within these guidelines for consideration.

Here are the full guidelines and list of previous winners in the fiction, nonfiction, and poetry categories (plus there is a Members' Choice Award that is presented annually) : http://www.aaww.org/aaww_awards.html

The four books that I am currently reading and judging for this award are all thrillingly different and quite impressive in their lyrical voices, the range of research, and general insightfulness with which they each approach their book's subjects. What a treat to curl up to more books!

I won't disclose anything more for fear that I'm already disqualifying myself as judge-worthy, but here are the books in the running.