Mullah Nasruddin Books by Ron J. Suresha

NM Spectrum notes Izard Award goes to Immortal Mullah Nasruddin

New Milford Spectrum, 6/14/13

Notice of the Anne Izard Award for Immortal Mullah Nasruddin, New Milford (CT) Spectrum

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New Milford author to receive Anne Izard Storytellers’ Choice Award

A collection of Turkish folktales by New Milford author Ron Suresha has been named a recipient of the 2013 Anne Izard Storytellers’ Choice Award. The Uncommon Sense of the Immortal Mullah Nasruddin, published by Lethe Press in 2010, received last year the Storytelling World Honor Title award and is now designated to be honored with a second prestigious storytelling commendation.

According to the Awards co-chair Carol Birch, a ceremony of stories and storytelling, including a presentation by Suresha, will be held 10:00am Tuesday, June 18, 2013 at the White Plains Public Library, 100 Martine Ave., White Plains, New York. The morning program is open to the public with a local bookstore supplying books and an area for authors to sign their titles.

Every two years, an (Augusta) Baker’s Dozen (13) of titles are chosen for the ANNE IZARD STORYTELLERS’ CHOICE AWARD that was established in 1990 to honor Anne Izard, noted storyteller, librarian and consultant, who had died that same year. The award was established in her name by the Westchester County Library System (New York), where she served as the Children’s Services Consultant for many years. The award highlights distinguished titles in the field of storytelling published for children and adults, and promotes the riches of storytelling to even wider audiences. Books considered for the 11th award had to be original material, reprints, or new English translations published in North America between January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2012.

Selection Criteria:

While mindful of the established standards of excellence in literature, the primary intention of this award is to honor books that can be used with confidence as resources for storytellers.

Stories must be entirely successful without depending upon illustrations, graphic elements, or audio-visual media. Collections, as well as individual picture book versions of stories, will be considered. Folk tales should be distinguished by an outstanding style, which makes the particular version notable. Authenticity, scholarship, and documentation will be taken into consideration, but are not the sole criteria. Distinguished examples of original stories should preserve, promote and/or honor an oral tradition. Non-fiction narratives, including poetry and biography, will be considered. Books which deepen and enrich a storyteller’s understanding of the meaning and uses of story, as well as books pertaining to folk traditions, aesthetics, methods and study of storytelling are eligible.

Here is the complete list of this year’s Anne Izard Storytellers’ Choice Award recipients:

• Bateman, Teresa. The Leprechaun under the Bed. Illustrated by Paul Meisel. Holiday House, 2012.
• Claflin, Willy. Rapunzel and the Seven Dwarfs: A Maynard Moose Tale. Illustrated by James Stimson. August House, 2011
• Ellis, Elizabeth. From Plot to Narrative: A Step-By-Step Process of Story Creation and Enhancement. Parkhurst Brothers, Inc., 2012.
• Ford, Lyn. Affrilachian Tales: Folktales from the African-American Appalachian Tradition. Parkhurst Brothers, Inc., 2012.
• Gotschall, Jonathan. The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012.
• Hamilton, Mary. Kentucky Folktales: Revealing Stories, Truths, and Outright Lies. University Press of Kentucky, 2012.
• Lyon, George Ella. Which Side Are You On: The Story of a Song. Illustrated by Christopher Cardinale. Cinco Puntos Press, 2011.
• MacDonald, Margaret Read. The Boy from the Dragon Palace. Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa. Albert Whitman and Company, 2011.
• Pinkney, Andrea Davis. Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America. Illustrated by Brian Pinkney. Hyperion Books an imprint of Disney/Jump at the Sun, 2012.
• Pullman, Philip. Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm. Viking Adult, 2012
• Strauss, Linda Leopold. The Elijah’s Door: A Passover Tale. Illustrated by Alexie Natchev. Holiday House, 2012.
• Suresha, Ron J. The Uncommon Sense of the Immortal Mullah Nasruddin. Lethe Press, 2011.
• Van Dusen, Chris. King Hugo’s Huge Ego. Candlewick, 2011.

Suresha, a native of Detroit, Mich., moved with his husband from New London, Conn., to New Milford in 2011, and is a licensed Justice of the Peace. An award-winning author or editor of a dozen books, Suresha is currently completing a sequel to his acclaimed collection of Turkish folk tales of the legendary Mid- and Far-Eastern hero and teacher, Mullah Nasruddin (also known as Nasreddin Hoca, Djuha, and by other names), forthcoming 2013 from Lethe Press, an indie publisher based in Maple Shade, N.J.

Order the book from Lethe Press