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ABOUT THE 2006 TOURNAMENT OF BOOKS
THE SEVEN VEILS OF SELF-IMPORTANCE BEHIND MOST LITERARY AWARDS
 TRYING TO PACK AN EXTREMELY PISSED-OFF ROOSTER INTO A FED-EX BOX
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The Morning News and Powells.com are pleased to announce the 2006 Tournament of Books, the publishing world's bloodiest awards contest in which 16 of the past year's best novels are pitted against each other in a battle royale for the coveted Rooster award.
(Click here for a complete list of this year's judges, or here to download the tournament's brackets. There's also a complete list of all matches and the chance to purchase all participating novels from Powells.com .)
Last year, David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas beat out media favorites The Plot Against America and Cynthia Ozick's Heir to the Glimmering World. On Mitchell's behalf, The Morning News bought chickens for an African family through the Heifer Foundation; this year we're hoping to FedEx live poultry to the winner. Whose literature will reign supreme? Last year's competition, in play-by-play coverage, was called "sporty" and "breezy" by the New York Times--this year we're hoping for "gory," or at least "ridiculous."
What better way to encourage gambling in libraries and English departments than hot NCAA action applied to contemporary fiction? Chaired by author and TMN contributing writer Kevin Guilfoile, and TMN editors Andrew Womack and Rosecrans Baldwin, the second annual Tournament of Books brings the bloodlust so lacking in the publishing world's awards.
The Morning News is an online magazine published weekdays, founded in 1999, featuring a mix of satire, reviews, profiles, and personal essays.
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