StreetLiterature site *ON HIATUS*

Greetings,

This site is *on hiatus* until further notice. There are reasons:
1/ Since street lit has become pretty mainstream in publication and readership, discourse on the topic has slowed, which is actually a good thing,
2/ Recent social movements garner watchfulness as we observe and learn how readers engage social developments with narratives in literature,
3/ There's been a decrease in librarian responsiveness to working on committees for book awards, reading lists, and other resources, for street lit,
4/ Dr. Vanessa Irvin is seeking to coalesce reasons #1 - #3 into the second edition of her book, The Readers Advisory Guide to Street Literature, forthcoming 2022-ish.

For more information, contact: vanessairvinedd@gmail.com.

STREET LITERATURE BOOK AWARD MEDALS (SLBAM) ANNOUNCED FOR 2015 PUBLICATIONS

**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**  

STREET LITERATURE BOOK AWARD MEDALS (SLBAM) ANNOUNCED FOR 2015 PUBLICATIONS

Honolulu -- The 2016 Street Literature Book Award Medal (SLBAM) Committee is excited to announce the award winners for 2015 publications. The following winners and honorees were nominated based on popular demand of books as read and circulated by the reading public in school, academic, and public library settings throughout the nation. SLBAM honors what street lit readers are reading and deeming as their best authors and titles for the 2015 publication year.

ADULT NON-FICTION WINNER:             
Between The World And Me / Ta-Nehisi Coates

ADULT NON-FICTION HONOREE:         
The short and tragic life of Robert Peace: a brilliant young man who left Newark for the Ivy League / Jeff Hobbs

ADULT FICTION WINNER:                       
King Divas / De’nesha Diamond

ADULT FICTION HONOREE:                   
Animal III: Revelations / K'wan

GRAPHIC NOVEL WINNER:                   
March: Book Two / John Lewis (author), Andrew Aydin (author), and Nate Powell (illustrator)

GRAPHIC NOVEL HONOREE:               
Legend of the Mantamaji Book 3 / Eric Dean Seaton  (author), Brandon Palas (illustrator), and David Ellis Dickerson (editor)

EBOOK NON-FICTION WINNER:            
Slug: A Boy’s Life in the Age of Mass Incarceration / Tony Lewis Jr.

EBOOK FICTION WINNER:                      
King Divas (Diva Series Book Series) / De'nesha Diamond

YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE WINNER:
Brown Girl Dreaming / Jacqueline Woodson

EMERGING CLASSIC WINNER:              
The Crossover / Kwame Alexander

AUTHOR OF THE YEAR:                          
Kwame Alexander

Note: Honoree awards were conferred upon titles/authors who were within a 1-2 vote margin of the winner. 

The Street Lit Book Award Medals (SLBAM) are conferred annually and have proven to be a useful collection development resource for librarians, teachers, community leaders, and researchers. For a historical listing of the SLBAMs (1999 - present), visit the StreetLiterature.com website or email: SLBAM.Awards@gmail.com.

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Methodology: The Street Literature Book Award Medal (SLBAM) Committee conducted three nomination rounds where they reported on field research of patron readership and reader response to contemporary street literature in libraries across the United States. In response to evolving readership of the genre, two new categories were added this year: eBooks and Graphic Novels. Other special categories include the "Emerging Classic" category, which recognizes a street lit-plotted or -themed book that was published during or before the year of nomination but continues to be in popular demand by the reading public. Another special category, "Author(s) of the Year", recognizes an author or writing team whose publications were particularly well-received by the reading public during the nomination year. Aside from the "Emerging Classic" category, books eligible for SLBAM nomination were required to be published between January 1, 2015 - December 31, 2015.

2015-2016 SLBAM Committee Members:
K.C. Boyd, M.Ed., M.L.S., Chicago, IL
Marvin DeBose, Sr., M.L.S., Philadelphia, PA
D.L. Grant, Jr., M.L.S., San Antonio, TX
Patrice Grimball-Smith, Charleston, SC
Takiyah Jemison, M.L.S., Colorado Springs, CO

Vanessa Irvin, M.L.S., Ed.D., is the convener of the Street Literature Book Award Medal (SLBAM) Committee. As convener, Dr. Irvin is a non-voting member of the committee, and focuses on facilitating the committee’s research and nomination round process. Vanessa is the author of the StreetLiterature.com blog, and the award-winning publication, The Readers Advisory Guide to Street Literature (2012). A librarian with over 30 years' experience, Dr. Irvin teaches library and information science at the University of Hawai’i, in Honolulu, HI.

Note: This announcement was corrected on March 21, 2016, to add Mr. Nate Powell as the illustrator of March: Book Two, the Graphic Novel Winner for this year. /vi, 03.21.2016.

Spike Lee's Chiraq Release Date: 04 December 2015

Check out the movie trailer for Spike Lee's new film, Chiraq (release date: December 4, 2015). The film is an interpretation of the Greek comedy, Lysistrata. However, don't mistake Chiraq as a comedy. It is a satire that we should take seriously.

SLBAM Needs West Coast Members!

The Street Literature Book Award Medal Committee (SLBAM), a regionally-balanced committee, is looking to add two (2) West Coast librarians to the committee for selection of the best of urban literature for libraries in 2015. The committee seat is an open-term assignment.

If you'd like to serve, please send your nomination in the form of a CV/resume to irvinv@hawaii.edu by October 15, 2015.

Thank you for your interest and support!

Must Read: Article about Street Lit in NY Times (03 May 2015)

Greetings!

I am happy to share a very good article with you about Ashley and JaQuavis Coleman, and their careers as authors within the street lit / urban fiction genre.

Hot off the Press, via The New York Times, you can read the article at: http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/05/03/ashley-jaquavis-coleman-profile/?_r=1!

Enjoy

SLBAM Coming Back for 2015-2016

SLBAM will not be conferring awards for 2014-2015. However, the committee will reconvene for 2016 and beyond. Thank you for your support and see you for next year's SLBAMs!

NEW READ: Animal III: Revelations by K'wan Foye

Amazon.com #1 “Top Rated Fiction” Bestselling Crime Novelist K’WAN FOYE

Set to release
“ANIMAL III: REVELATIONS”
from CASH MONEY CONTENT/ATRIA BOOKS
On November 4, 2014

October 27, 2014 –    K’wan Foye, one of this generations most talented and gritty crime novelists, is set to release Animal III: Revelations on November 4, from Cash Money Content books, the book publishing arm of the iconic record label Cash Money Records.  Animal III: Revelations is Foye’s most anticipated release to date, and is the follow up to his 2013 bestselling novel “Animal II: The Omen.”

Animal is a bestselling urban crime series with strong sales that have not slowed since first hitting shelves in 2012.  Animal, the first in the series, released in 2012, enjoyed unprecedented success with a #1 debut on Amazon.com’s list of “Top Rated Fiction,” while also receiving recognition from Library Journal where it was named one of the “Top 5 Street Lit Novels of 2012,” as well as a Library Journal starred “Pick of the Month” for October 2012.  Additionally, Animal reached #2 on the “Power List” of bestselling books compiled by Black bookstores. Kwan was also named “2008 Author of the Year” by Black Press Radio.

In Animal III, Kwan’s most revered character, Animal, the infamous fugitive from his well known Hood Rat Series, continues his bloody saga.  In the novel, we find Animal breaking the promise that he made to his wife upon his release from prison and picking up his guns once again.  To keep his daughter and her mother safe, Animal sets out on a mission of murder, but it isn’t just any man his ex-lover, Red Sonja, has sent him after, it's one of the most powerful drug dealers in the country…her father.

K’wan Foye’s previous novels include Welfare Wifeys (an African American Literary Award-winner), Section 8, Gutter, Still Hood, Hood Rat, Eve, Hoodlum and Street Dreams. K’wan has sold a total of 520,000 books.

Catch K’wan at the following book signings in the following cities:

Sat, November 8              Detroit, MI, Hood Books
                                                20900 Dequindre Rd Warren, MI - 48091
                                                2:00pm – 6:00pm

Sat, November 15            Washington D.C. William O. Lockridge/Bellevue Neighborhood Library
                                                115 Atlantic Street, SW, Washington DC 20032
                                                12Noon – 1:30pm

Mon, November 17        Los Angeles CA, LA Public Library – Miriam Matthews Branch
                                                2205 W. Florence Street LA, CA 90043
                                                5:30 – 7:30 PM

Sat, November 22            Miami, FL, Miami Book Festival – Miami Dade College –
                                                Wolfson Campus – Bldg. 8, Room 8303
                                                300 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami FL
                                                5:30pm

Praise for K’wan
   “Animal is a masterpiece”
                                         – Ronald “Slim” Williams, Co-CEO Cash Money Records/Cash Money Content
  
 “You don’t get more hood than K’wan”
                                         – Bryan “Birdman” Williams, Co-CEO Cash Money Records/Cash Money Content

  “…the characters become so alive that watching them spin toward their inevitable ends
                  is heartbreaking.”                                                    - Entertainment Weekly on “Street Dreams”

“The big draw here is the electric prose, which is imbued with profane, comic lyricism.”
                                                                                                                         - Publishers Weekly on “Hood Rat”

“K’wan has risen from “just another street lit author” to a writer who produces thrilling plots, and his descriptive prose holds its own against many top-selling authors.”  - Library Journal on “Eviction Notice”

For more info log onto www.kwanfoye.com.  Follow K’wan on twitter @K’Wan141 or @We_R_TeamAnimal and also find him at facebook.com/We Are #TeamAnimal.

For interviews and more information about Animal II or Cash Money Content books, contact:

Donna Torrence
donna@mediasavvyr.com
201.854.7082
About Cash Money Content

Cash Money Content (CMC) is a groundbreaking partnership that pairs the Cash Money Records brand with Atria Books, a division of the publishing powerhouse, Simon & Schuster.  CMC is publishing some of the most original and influential authors of urban fiction, as well as memoirs by some of the most prominent voices of today, and life-changing books on success, motivation, money and health.  Founded by Bryan "Birdman" Williams and Ronald "Slim" Williams, the brothers who brought you Cash Money Records, home to multi-platinum recording artists like Lil Wayne, Drake, Nicki Minaj, Jay Sean, and Bow Wow, comes a whole new concept in book publishing.

For more information on Cash Money Content, log onto www.CashMoneyContent.com, follow on Twitter @CashMoneyBooks and on Facebook @CashMoneyContent.

Animal III: Revelations
by K'wan
Cash Money Content/Original
Pub Date: November 4, 2014
ISBN:  978 1 936399 932
eBook: 978-1-936399-949
Trim Size: 5 5/16 x 8 1/4
Price US: $14.99, Price CDN: $16.99
Format: Paperback
240 Pages
# # #

donna torrence
mediasavvy pr, inc.
e: donna@mediasavvypr.com
o:  201.854.7082
c:  201.417.8596
t:  @donnatorrence
www.mediasavvypr.com