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Annual Best Book Award Guidelines

Goal
The goal of the CALA Annual Best Book Award is to heighten awareness of the best books of Chinese topics or literature written by authors of Chinese descent. The Award is to honor English or Chinese language books originally published in the United States. Winners of the Award will be announced by CALA during the ALA annual conference.

Award
Each category of the Award consists of an award certificate and will be honored at the CALA Annual Award Banquet. A press release will be sent to various national publications. Honor books may be named in addition to the winning titles. If no books are found to meet the selection criteria, no awards will be given.

Eligible Works

  1. Works eligible must have had premier publication during the previous calendar year from January 1 to December 31, and must have been published for general commercial release in the United States. Nominations may be accepted from the field and Committee up to April 18.
  2. Works must be related to Chinese culture heritage and deal with Chinese subject matters, or written by authors of Chinese descent.
  3. Works must have been published by a publishing house, trade or small press/publisher located in the North America or one of its territories. Self-published works and exclusive Internet publications are not eligible.
  4. Anthologies or books containing the work of more than one author are not eligible.
  5. Works must be in Chinese or English. This requirement does not limit the use of words or phrases in another language where appropriate in context. Translations of original works may be considered by the committee.
  6. Works that have previously won other prizes or recognition are eligible.

Entry of Works
Entries may be submitted by an author, publisher, agent, publicist or individual. A self-addressed, stamped postcard should be submitted with each
entry. Upon receipt of entry, the Award Committee members will return the postcard to the sender for notification of receipt of entry. The Award Committee is not responsible for lost submissions. An author, publisher, publicist, agent or individual may submit more than one entry per author, but not more than one entry per work.

Submission of Entry
Nominations must be submitted the Best Book Award Nomination Form by April 18. Please label on the envelope "CALA Best Book Award" when mailing book(s).