Rowling, Stewart Score Quill Wins

by Staff, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 10/12/2005

Jon Stewart and J.K. Rowling were the big winners at last night's first-ever Quill Awards, each taking home two prizes. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was voted the book of the year by the reading public and also won in the children's chapter book/middle grade category. Stewart's America (The Book) won in the humor category, while the audio edition of the book topped the voting in the audio category.

Stewart's opening monologue poked fun at the idea of the Quills, observing that it took a long time to combine the glamour of literature with the gravitas of an awards show. He even had advice for first time authors: "Get your own TV show." Comedian Robert Klein was also on hand, bemoaning the fact that now that he is finally a published author (The Amorous Busboy of Decatur Avenue: A Child of the Fifties Looks Back), "people have stopped reading."

Among some of the more surprising winners were Deepak Chopra for Peace Is the Way in religion/spirituality and Christopher Moore for The Stupidest Angel in science fiction/fantasy/horror.

Simon & Schuster's David Rosenthal made a couple of trips to the podium, accepting awards for David McCullough's 1776 in the history/current events/politics category and for Bob Dylan’s Chronicles in the memoir category. Winners in some of the other major categories included Sue Monk Kidd in general fiction for The Mermaid Chair, and Elizabeth Kostova for The Historian as debut author of the year.

Other winners were Shel Silverstein in children's illustrated book for Runny Babbit; Ann Brashares for Girls in Pants in the young adult/teen category; Neil Gaiman, Andy Kubert and Richard Isanove for Marvel 1602 Volume I in the graphic novel category; Janet Evanovich for Eleven on Top in the mystery/suspense/thriller category; Langston Hughes for Let America Be America Again in poetry: Debbie Macomber for 44 Cranberry Point in romance; Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner for Freakonomics in business; Rachael Ray for Rachael Ray's 30-Minute Get Real Meals in the cooking category; Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo for He's Just Not That into You in the health/self-help category; and Stewart O'Nan and Stephen King for Faithful in the sports category.

An edited version of the more than four-hour event will be shown on 14 NBC Universal-owned and -operated stations October 22 from 7-8 p.m. A full list of the Quills Awards winners is posted at the Quills Web site.