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Laughter wins
The anthology, Laugh Out Loud: 40 Women Humorists Celebrate Then and Now ... Before We Forget, has been named one of the best indie humor books of 2019 by the world's largest not-for-profit book awards program for independent publishers and self-published authors.
Published in 2018 by Allia Zobel Nolan in collaboration with the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop at the University of Dayton, the book of nostalgic, humorous coming-of-age essays from 40 funny women in the U.S. and Canada was named a finalist in the humor category in the 2019 Next Generation Indie Book Awards program. The program is sponsored by the Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group.
One of the contributors has written eight books. Others have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post and other national and regional publications. A few, like Fritzy Dean, an 82-year-old great grandmother, have never seen their work published in a book.
"The Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop encourages writers to find the courage to put their words down on paper. The work of women writers in this collection is a well-deserved testament to their ability to weave funny stories in the spirit of the celebrated humorist Erma Bombeck," said Teri Rizvi, founder and director of the workshop.
The winners and finalists will be honored June 21 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., coinciding with the American Library Association Annual Conference. Top books were named as winners and finalists in more than 70 publishing categories ranging from action/adventure to young author.
Catherine Goulet, co-chair of the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, said the program "has become known as the Sundance of the book publishing world" — a reflection of the growing popularity of indie publishing.
Bowker, publisher of the Books in Print database, reported that the number of self-published titles grew to 1,009,188 in 2017, an increase of 28 percent over the previous year, surpassing the million mark for the first time, according to organizers of the awards program.
"Erma Bombeck put women's humor on the map," said Nolan, a former senior editor for Reader's Digest, who has written more than 175 books herself and shepherded this book from concept to creation. "She was to housewives what Spock was to babies. She held up a mirror to her life, burst out laughing, then sat down and chronicled it for millions to enjoy. We hope this book makes readers feel the same way."
Laugh Out Loud: 40 Women Humorists Celebrate Then and Now ... Before We Forget is available from Amazon, the University of Dayton Bookstore and as an e-book. A portion of the book's proceeds will benefit the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop endowment fund, used to keep the workshop affordable for writers.
Click here for the full list of winners.