It's that time of year again: The 2013 Cybils Awards for children's and young adult literature are getting underway! The call for judges was posted yesterday, and you have until August 31 to apply. Anyone 16 or older who blogs regularly about children's or young adult literature is eligible to apply. Check out the call for judges here and the eligibility criteria here. Once you've read those, you can apply at this link. (Note: due to a temporary glitch, the eligibility criteria page has an incorrect link that will be corrected this weekend. To be sure you are using the 2013 form use this link to apply).
This year we are changing the name of the Fantasy & Science Fiction category to Speculative Fiction, to better reflect the types of books we consider in that category. The actual category criteria haven't changed; the category will still include fantasy, science fiction, paranormal, talking animals, magic realism, steampunk, dystopian, and anything that stretches the bounds of reality, and we hope that the new name will better reflect that. I will be the Category Chair for the Young Adult Speculative Fiction category, as I have been every year except one, but new this year Charlotte Taylor, who blogs at Charlotte's Library, will be the Category Chair for the Elementary/Middle-Grade Speculative Fiction category. Charlotte is fantastic (pun intended) and very knowledgeable about the category. I'm confident she's going to do a great job.
The nonfiction categories have also been refactored this year. In past years, we had two nonfiction categories: Nonfiction Picture Books and Nonfiction Middle Grade/Young Adult. This year, picture books will be combined with other elementary and middle-grade books into the new Elementary/Middle-Grade Nonfiction category, and teen books will be considered separately in the Young Adult Nonfiction category. This brings the categories more in line with the way we separate the other categories, but more importantly, the Nonfiction Category Chairs Gina Ruiz and Jennifer Wharton feel that splitting by age rather than by format will make it easier to judge the nominees in those categories fairly.
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