Finalists Announced For The 2018 Excellence In Graphic Literature Awards

As we’ve reported previously, Pop Culture Classroom, the educational non-profit behind Denver Comic Con, is launching the inaugural Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards this summer of 2018. Winners will be announced at Denver Comic Con in June.

Pop Culture Classroom created the Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards to “help grow awareness, legitimacy and respect for the comics medium, the graphic novel format and its creators, and drive growth for the graphic novel publishing category”.
Bruce MacIntosh, director of programming for Pop Culture Classroom says:

We are both thrilled and honored to officially unveil the finalists for 2018, our inaugural year of the Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards. We’d like to express our deepest thanks and congratulations to the nominees, our esteemed judging committees, our advisory board, and to all the creators, editors and publishers who submitted entries.

Pop Culture Classroom has also established a partnership with content streaming website KidLit TV. The partnership grants KidLit TV the rights to stream announcements for the awards leading up to Denver Comic Con 2018, and KidLit announced the finalists for the awards on their platform.
During the event, hosts Rocco Staino of KidLit TV and Carol Fitzgerald of The Book Report Network introduced the Judging Committee Chairs for each of the following award categories. The Committee Chairs each unveiled their finalist picks, reporting onsite from local book stores, comic shops, and libraries from across the U.S.
The chairs were:

• Best in Children’s Books — Committee Chair: Betsy Bird
• Best in Middle Grade Books — Committee Chair: Dr. Katie Monnin
• Best in Young Adult Books — Committee Chair: Mike Pawuk
• Best in Adult Books — Committee Chair: Alicia Holston
• Mosaic Award — Committee Chair: Alicia Holston
• Book of the Year — Committee Chair: Betsy Bird

The finalists were announced as:
Finalists: Best in Children’s Books
Fiction

• Bolivar by Sean Rubin (BOOM! Studios)
• Good Night, Planet by Liniers (TOON Books)
• Real Friends by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham (First Second)
• The Big Bad Fox by Benjamin Renner (Macmillan)
• Where’s Halmoni? By Julie Kim (Little Bigfoot)

Nonfiction

• Bats: Learning to Fly by Falynn (Koch First Second)

Finalists: Best in Middle-Grade Books
Fiction

• As the Crow Flies by Melanie Gillman (Iron Circus Comics)
• Cici’s Journal by Joris Chamblain and Aurelie Neyret (First Second)
• Dawn and the Impossible Three by Ann M. Martin and Gale Galligan (Scholastic Graphix)
• Solution Squad by Jim McClain (Solution Squad Publishing)
• Soupy Leaves Home by Cecil Castellucci and Jose Pimienta (Dark Horse Comics)
• The Witch Boy by Molly Ostertag (Scholastic Graphix)
• Brave by Svetlana Chmakova (YEN Press)**

** Honorable Mention
Finalists: Best in Young Adult Books
Fiction

• Home Time: Book One by Campbell Whyte (Top Shelf)
• I Am Alfonso Jones by Tony Medina, Stacey Robinson and John Jennings (TU Books/Lee & Low)
• Quince by Sebastian Kadlecik, Kit Steinkellner and Emma Steinkellner (Fanbase Press)
• Spill Zone by Scott Westerfield and Alex Puvilland (First Second)
• The Wendy Project by Melissa Jane Osborne and Veronica Fish (Supergenius/Papercutz)

Nonfiction

• Fire! The Zora Neale Hurston Story by Peter Bagge (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Lighter Than My Shadow by Katie Green (Lion Forge)
• Poppies of Iraq by Brigitte Finakly and Lewis Trondheim (Drawn & Quarterly)
• The Senses by Matteo Farinella (Nobrow Press)
• Spinning by Tillie Walden (First Second)

Finalists: Best in Adult Books
Fiction

• Mis(h)adra by Iasmin Omar Ata (Gallery 13)
• My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris (Fantagraphics)
• Park Bench by Christophe Chaboute (Gallery 13)
• Roughneck by Jeff Lemiere (Gallery 13)
• The Sound of the World by Heart by Giacomo Bevilacqua (Lion Forge)

Nonfiction

• Calamity Jane: The Calamitous Life of Martha Jane Cannary by Christian Perrissin and Mattheiu Blanchin (IDW Publishing)
• Hostage by Guy Delisle (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Taking Turns: Stories from HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371 (Penn State University Press)
• The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui (Abrams Comic Arts)
• The Hunting Accident by David L. Carlson and Landis Blair (First Second)

Finalists: Mosaic Award

• As the Crow Flies by Melanie Gillman (Iron Circus Comics)
• Good Night, Planet by Liniers (TOON-Books) Spanish and English lang. versions
• Monstress Vol. 2 by Marjorie Liu and (Image)
• Mis(h)adra by Iasmin Omar Ata (Gallery 13)
• Quince by Sebastian Kadlecik, Kit Steinkellner and Emma Steinkellner (Fanbase Press)
• Soupy Leaves Home by Cecil Castellucci and Jose Pimienta (Dark Horse Comics)
• The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui (Abrams Comic Arts)
• Where’s Halmoni? By Julie Kim (Little Bigfoot)

Finalists: Book of the Year

• Bats: Learning to Fly by Falynn Koch (First Second)
• Cici’s Journal by Joris Chamblain and Aurelie Neyret (First Second)
• Home Time: Book One by Campbell Whyte (Top Shelf)
• My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris (Fantagraphics)
• Real Friends by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham (First Second)
• Soupy Leaves Home by Cecil Castellucci and Jose Pimienta (Dark Horse Comics)
• Spill Zone by Scott Westerfield and Alex Puvilland (First Second)
• The Hunting Accident by David L. Carlson and Landis Blair (First Second)

For more information on The Excellence in Graphics Literature program founded by Pop Culture Classroom, learn more at www.popcultureclassroom.org/egl.