Every year, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association bestows awards on the best five books from the region, which  independent booksellers of the Pacific Northwest vote on.  Garth has now won his second such award as The Art of Racing in the Rain was the fiction winner for 2008.

 

A PNBA award is a rare honor, and the winners spend hours coming up with the perfect, memorable acceptance speech that will remain in the annals of history forever. 

Or not.
 
We wanted to share Garth's acceptance speech with you in this newsletter.  Unfortunately, the notes for Garth's speech - jotted on hotel stationary - are now somewhere in the Portland landfill.  Fortunately, there is a video of Garth accepting his award  available on YouTube.

 

Garth previously won a PNBA award for How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets. During the award ceremony in Portland, Garth ran into a familiar face among his fellow award winners - Floyd Skloot(poetry). Coincidentally, Floyd also won another PNBA award the same year Garth won for How Evan Broke His Head.  As Floyd put it - tongue in cheek - he now realizes the only time he wins is when Garth wins.

 

 

 

Note from a bookseller:  There's an old adage in show business that you should never share the stage with children or animals. Granted, the Pacific Northwest Book Awards is NOT show business, but when Alexandra Day showed up with her "Good Dog" Carl to accept her Lifetime Achievement Award, we all expected him to steal the show. However, it was an entirely different dog that touched the audience that evening and brought anyone with a modicum of sensitivity to tears: Garth Stein's Enzo from The Art of Racing in the Rain. Acceptance speeches that express appreciation for independent bookstores are the norm at such an occasion, although never so heartfelt, funny and eloquent as Garth's.  His words were a validation for booksellers who often toil in anonymity and work to hand-sell their favorite titles "book by book" (to extend Annie Lamott's metaphor). Then when Garth opened an envelope to read a fan letter he'd received, we didn't know what to expect. Adoring stalker? Pernicious hack-writer? No. Garth shared with us the story of a family whose life had changed so significantly by reading The Art of Racing in the Rain, that I'm welling up once again in recollection. (Read the story by "P.F." here) A writer dreams of making such a connection with a reader, of affecting a person on such a profound and lasting level. And a bookseller who embraces a work and shares it with his community has the same aspiration.  Thank you, Garth, for reminding us why we all do what we do.
 
Paul Hanson
Manager
Eagle Harbor Book Co.