Today we meet Anne Boles Levy, co-founder, president-for-life and chief bottle washer at Cybils.
Okay, so I don't really have a title that I like, because I don't much like titles. I'm not paying anyone to put up with me, and I have no use for the fooferaw that attends the windier appellations. My job is to think things through for Cybils and let the details work themselves out. Much more David Hume than Jeremy Bentham, if you read this article, complete with the hair-pulling and permanent state of bedraggled-ness.
There are process people and there are results people. As a journalist, I've seen when city hall would go through a painstakingly fair process to award a contract to … the mayor's sister. I learned from that that fairness is a means, not an end.
I'm more interested in Cybils coming up with a list of astonishing must-reads than in how we get there. So you'll notice that rules are subject to tweaking, bending and even sudden abandonment. Nominations are horse-traded behind the scenes to find the category where they stand the best chance, genre definitions be damned. We aim to be transparent, we try to keep it fun. I manage to enforce deadlines without shedding blood.
I have a new avocation you'll find here, but my first love is still books, and I'll be a judge in Science Fiction/Fantasy this year. Professionally, I write for a radio news wire. You've never heard my voice, but if you wake up to a non-NPR station, you've no doubt heard some little tidbit of news I've written.
Okay, so this is more of a manifesto than a bio. Whether you're a volunteer or a visitor, I hope you'll enjoy this year's contest.