Rise of The Apostle Finalist for Nat'l Book Award

ForeWord Magazine, just announced that the third book in Robert James Luedke's, Eye Witness series...Rise of the Apostle....is a finalist in the catgory of Graphic Novels in the 2008 Book of the Year Awards.

This is the second industry honor to come to Luedke's Rise of the Apostle...which has already won The 2008 National Best Book Award (for Graphic Novels), sponsored by USABookNews.com.





More than 1,400 books were entered in 61 categories for FOREWORD MAGAZINE'S annual book awards. These were narrowed to 668 finalists from 376 publishers. These books represent some of the best work coming from today's independent press community!

The winners will be determined by a panel of librarians and booksellers, selected from FOREWORD'S readership. Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners, as well as Editor's Choice Prizes for Fiction and Nonfiction will be announced at a special program at BookExpo America at the Javits Center in New York City on May 29, 2009. The winners of the two Editor's Choice Prizes will be awarded $1,500 each. The ceremony is open to all BEA attendees.

ForeWord's Book of the Year Awards program was designed to discover distinctive books across a number of genres. The list of finalists is searchable by category, publisher, title, and author.

About FOREWORD MAGAZINE:

ForeWord affects the choices of booksellers and librarians across the country who weekly advise millions what to read. Their typical publication reaches an audience of 20,000. Foreword also put the magazine in the hands of agents and editors at larger houses who are looking for leads to bring into their fold from the independent press sector. All told, readership is about 85% librarians, 12% bookstores, 3% publishing professionals…and of course, parents.

Other Finalists for the Graphic Novel catagory:

Cleburne by Justin Murphy (Rampart Press)

Good and Evil by Michael Pearl (No Greater Joy Ministries)

Gunnerkrigg by Tom Siddell (Archaia Studios)

No Girls Allowed by Susan Hughes (Kids Can Press)

1000 Years of Manga by Brigitte Koyana-Richard (Flammarion)

The Clockwork Girl by Sean O'Reilly & Kevin Hanna (Arcana Studios)

The Grand Inquisitor by John Zmirak (The Crossroad Publishing Co.)

The Spirit: A Pop-Up Graphic Novel by Will Eisner (Insight Editions)

Congratulations to all these wonderful creators for their nominations, as any these books are worthy of winning an award. We advise any fans of graphic novels, comics and manga to check out as many of these as you can!