NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Publicity Contact: Jane Carlson   TWO SIU PRESS TITLES ARE FINALISTS FOR  FOREWORD BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDS   The editors of ForeWord have announced finalists in the magazine’s fifth annual Book of the Year Awards, which recognize excellence in publishing from independent presses—and two recent offerings from Southern Illinois University Press are on the list.   The southern Illinois murder mystery The Whisper of Leaves by SIUC alum Craig Smith was chosen as a finalist in the Mystery Fiction category. Published in 2002, the novel centers on Josie Darling, who returns to the fictional Lues State University to assume a teaching position and to come to terms with her mother’s murder. Although she takes every precaution to hide her tainted past from her colleagues, someone close remembers and the shadows of history close in. Threats come, intimate promises of violence written in a desperately psychotic scrawl, invading every aspect of her life.  Publishers Weekly called Smith’s American debut “a dark cat-and-mouse thriller” and Kirkus Reviews remarked that Smith “writes with verve and style about campus life.”    In the poetry category, Joy Katz’s Fabulae was selected as a finalist. Fabulae was copublished by Southern Illinois University Press and Crab Orchard Review in 2002 as a winner of The Crab Orchard Award Series in Poetry. “Joy Katz is the quintessential storyteller, spinning her marvelous tales out of the gossamer of the imagination, but always with the goal of capturing the flash and flicker of the real world,” praised the poet Maura Stanton, author of Glacier Wine.   Luminaries from the small press community will join ForeWord publisher Victoria Sutherland at BookExpo America in Los Angeles on Friday, May 30th to celebrate the finalists and announce first, second, and third place winners in each of the 47 categories.   The Whisper of Leaves and Fabulae are available from retail and online booksellers as well as directly from Southern Illinois University Press.  More marketing news