Matia Burnett

A joyful celebration of the taco and a novel based around a famed work of art were named winners of the 2021 Selfies Book Awards U.S. in a virtual ceremony held during the American Library Association annual conference June 24. How to Fold a Taco (Con Todo Press, ISBN 978-1-7337103-6-7) by Mexican-American TV personality and journalist Naibe Reynoso, won the grand prize in the children’s category, which was added to the prize awards this year.

There’s a storied history behind Party: A Mystery (Black Sheep/Akashic), a new picture book written by Jamaica Kincaid and illustrated by Ricardo Cortés. Kincaid originally wrote Party as a piece for adults to be published in the Talk of the Town section of the New Yorker in 1980. The literary inspiration for the piece, however, goes back much further than that. In the New Yorker story, three girls attend a party celebrating the publication of the Nancy Drew books.

Perseverance, talent—and the BookLife Prize—led to a writerly milestone for indie author Carrie Rubin. Using her BookLife Critic's Report to help speak to the quality of her work, she recently signed with an agent. Rubin is more than familiar with the landscape of self-publishing and the options available to writers, but has long hoped to publish a book traditionally. Rubin, a pediatrician, has been writing medical thrillers that “blur the genre’s margins a bit” since 2001.