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Japan Society, Anime NYC Announce 1st American Manga Awards
posted on by Alex Mateo
Japan Society and Anime NYC announced on Monday that they are launching the first American Manga Awards. The new ceremony will take place at Japan Society's Lila Acheson Wallace Auditorium in Midtown Manhattan on August 22, the night before this year's Anime NYC event begins. The American Manga Awards will commemorate manga creators and publishers who have made significant contributions in manga's popularity, both in North America and Japan.
Categories include Best New Manga, Best Continuing Manga Series, Best Translation, Best Lettering, Best New Edition of Classic Manga, Best Publication Design, Mangaka Hall of Fame, and Manga Publishing Hall of Fame.
A panel of judges will select nominees for each category. Translators and authors Matt Alt (Pure Invention: How Japan's Pop Culture Influenced the World) and Hiroko Yoda (Yokai Attack!) will select the Best Translation nominees. Comic letterers Tom Orzechowski (Uncanny X-Men) and Nate Piekos (The Essential Guide to Comics Lettering) will pick the Best Lettering nominees. The latter also contributed to the American Manga Awards' logo design. Kinokuniya Bookstores East Coast Regional Manager Shiegkazu Watanabe and publication designer Sasha Head are deciding the Best Publication Design nominees. Brigid Alverson (ICv2, School Library Journal), Shaenon Garrity (Otaku USA, Publishers Weekly), Minovsky (@MinovskyArticle), New York Public Library Senior Librarian - Young Adult Services' Renee Scott, and ANN's Lynzee Loveridge are picking the nominees for Best New Manga, Best Continuing Manga, and Best New Edition of Classic Manga.
The American Manga Awards will announce the nominees for the manga, translation, lettering and publication design categories in July. Professionals working in an editorial capacity with North American manga publishers will vote to determine the winners. Frederik L. Schodt, translator and author of Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics, will be the first recipient of the Manga Publishing Hall of Fame award.
Deb Aoki (Publishers Weekly, Comics Beat, Mangasplaining podcast) leads the American Manga Awards Planning Committee. Translator and author Matt Alt, who is also a judge, is hosting the event.
The invite-only ceremony will be held for manga industry professionals and press.
Anime NYC 2024 will take place on August 23-25. The event will take over the full main building of the Javits Center for the first time in 2024. Ticket sales began on December 5.
Disclosure: ANN's executive editor Lynzee Loveridge is serving as a judge for the American Manga Awards.
Source: Press release
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