2012 Inky Awards - want to be a judge?

Excuse me while I interrupt the regularly scheduled reviewing for a quick bit of news...

I am going to be judging the 2012 Inky Awards!

The Inkys are international awards for teenage literature, voted for online by the readers of http://www.insideadog.com.au/. There are three awards: the Golden Inky for an Australian book, the Silver Inky for an international book, and the Creative Reading Prize, won by a young person for a creative response to a book they love, in any format they choose.

I'll be joining last year's Golden Inky winner, James Moloney, on the judging panel (he won with the wonderful 'Silvermay').

BIG thank you to the Centre for Youth Literature and State Library of Victoria for this opportunity (I'm going to read my little heart out!).

But the really cool-awesome-fantastic-amazement news is that the Inky's still need more judges! They're looking for teen readers to apply to be on the judging panel! Applicants need to be under 20 years of age (though year 11 & 12 students are discouraged from entering) and be in Australia. The judges get two months to read 20 books (which we get to keep! Booyah!) and help whittle those books down to a shortlist of 10. Plus we'll get to attend the October InkyFest event, when the winner's are announced!

So if you are, or know of any teen bibliophiles who would be well-suited to this role, check out all the info here and encourage them to get on-board. It's going to be super fun (and, no, I'm not just saying that because I will be involved... although, naturally, that is one more 'pro').

Watch this space for more Inky news!