Blooks come of age with Lulu Blooker Prize
Lulu announces the Short-List for the Lulu Blooker Prize, the world’s first literary prize devoted to “blooks”: books based on blogs or websites.“Blooks are the latest landmark in the history of books,” says Bob Young, CEO of Lulu.
Loretta Dillon, crime buff, essayist, and musician from Cleveland, Ohio, was named to the non-fiction short-list for the Lulu Blooker Prize, the world’s first literary prize devoted to books based on blogs or websites.
Winners of the Lulu Blooker Prize (www.lulublookerprize.com) will be announced on Monday, April 3, 2006. There will be $1,000 USD awarded to the winner in each of the three categories, with an extra $1,000 USD going to one of those three who has been deemed by the judges to be the best overall. The judges are Cory Doctorow (www.craphound.com), Robin Miller (www.roblimo.com), and Paul Jones (www.ibiblio.com
Dillon’s book, “Stone Cold Guilty – The People v. Scott Lee Peterson” (http://www.lulu.com/content/130762) is one of six books on the non-fiction shortlist. It is based on her blog “Observations of a Misfit” (www.misfitting.com).
Dillon, a full-time office manager in suburban West Cleveland, writes on her own time, in her family’s living room and is an admitted true-crime buff.
“I began to blog about the Peterson case early on, when it first hit the news, but I was the only blogger covering it,” said Dillon. “As a result, I received a number of readers who sent me information about the case and heard from anonymous sources, along with a regular comment section forum that included a few dozen regular participants and hundreds of occasional posters. Eventually, I drew a regular readership of a few thousand people. I made arrangements to attend the trial twice. After around 900 blog entries, including a bunch of song parodies and spoofs, I compiled the most important ones into a book, or rather, a blook.”
Reviews of Dillon’s book at Lulu.com rave over her book. Stated Jay B. Gaskill, former Alameda County Public Defender from 1989-1999,
“Loretta Dillon’s Peterson book is stone cold proof, if any is still needed, that the blogosphere contains some of the very best writing, analysis and commentary anywhere.”
The prize is sponsored by Lulu (www.lulu.com), a self-publishing website that lets anyone publish their own book or blook at no up-front charge. “Blooks are the latest landmark in the history of books,” said Bob Young, CEO of Lulu.
“Other blooks to make the short-list include “Julie and Julia,” Julie Powell’s chronicle of “extreme cooking” in a New York apartment kitchen; “Belle du Jour,” based on the blog of a London call-girl; and “Egg Bacon Chips and Beans: 50 Great Cafes and the Stuff That Makes Them Great,” a literary tribute to greasy spoon diners.
A total of 89 blooks were submitted by “blauthors” (i.e. blook authors) from over a dozen countries, including the UK, Canada, India, Australia, Mexico, France, Spain and the Netherlands.
About the Lulu Blooker prize (www.lulublookerprize.com): The Lulu Blooker Prize is the brainchild of the folks at Lulu.com (www.lulu.com), the world’s fastest-growing provider of self-publishing technology and services — and the simplest place to turn web content into a blook. They want to raise the visibility of the growing number of talented writers who are using blogs and websites to develop quality content. (The prize’s name is also intended as an affectionate nod to another important literary prize.)
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