Ahmed A. Khan story wins award from Ragged Edge

Ahmed A. Khan's story "The Book of Pain," reprinted recently at Ragged Edge Publishing, has won their Best of the Best award.

Matt Hughes interview at Fantasybookspot

An interview with Matt Hughes is up at Fantasybookspot, a new fan forum and review site.

Joël Champetier novel to be published in France

Joël Champetier's latest novel, Les Sources de la magie, published in Canada by Alire, will also be published in France this autumn, at Bragelonne.

Cory Doctorow, Jo Beverley eligible for Quills Award

Cory Doctorow's novel Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town (Tor) is one of the science fiction novels eligible for the new Quills Award. Jo Beverley's romance novel A Most Unsuitable Man (Signet) is eligible in the romance category.

To be eligible, a book must have been published in English in North America and marketed to the United States between August 1, 2004, through July 31, 2005, and must meet one of the following criteria:

• Received a starred review in Publishers Weekly
• Named to Barnes and Noble's Discover Great New Writers Program
• Named to BookSense Picks
• Named to Borders' Original Voices
• Appeared on bestseller lists from Publishers Weekly, BookSense, Barnes & Noble, and Borders

The 6,000 members of a by-invitation-only national board of booksellers and librarians will each nominate one finalist in each of the 19 categories. The five titles in each category that get the most votes will become the consumer short-list. Consumers will then vote on the short-listed books from August 15 to September 15, online at www.wnbc.com/quills and at Borders book stores across the U.S. Consumers will also vote for a Book of the Year from all nominees, and a special Quills committee will choose a winner in the Design and Books into Film categories. Finally, a special Book Club Award category winner will be selected by Bookspan.

On October 11 a black-tie gala to be held at New York’s Chelsea Piers to present the awards; NBC Universal Stations will carry a one-hour special on October 22.

First novel from Holly Phillips coming next year

Holly Phillips reports that Prime Books, imprint of Wildside Press, the publisher of her short story collection In the Palace of Repose, is going to publish her first novel, a dark fantasy called The Burning Girl. It should be appearing spring or summer of 2006.