Organizers for the Southern Kentucky Festival of Books have announced the nominees for the Kentucky Literary Awards for excellence in fiction and nonfiction publications. Its the only statewide literary award given in Kentucky, said Jonathan Jeffrey, chairman of the Kentucky Literary Award committee and special collections librarian at Western Kentucky Universitys Kentucky Library and Museum. The contest, which had no entry fee, took nominations from individuals, organizations and companies. It ran from May of last year through Jan. 15 for books that were published and distributed between Jan. 1, 2002, and Dec. 31, 2002. The contest is based on merit, Jeffrey said. Five judges will read nominees work and choose winners. The judges are Terri Kirk, librarian at Reidland and former president of the Kentucky Library Association; Jesse Mountjoy, an Owensboro attorney with the firm Sullivan, Mountjoy, Stainback & Miller; Bob Darrell, professor of English at Kentucky Wesleyan University; Keith Runyon, the Courier-Journals book editor; and Jeffrey. Winners in each category will receive a commemorative certificate and cash prize of $1,000 and will be announced at the book festivals Meet the Authors reception April 11 at the Kentucky Building. For now, there are only fiction and nonfiction categories, but the committee hopes to add more in the future, Jeffrey said. Now, poetry is in the fiction category, and we have no childrens books (in the contest), he said. Its hard to compare an adult book to a childrens book. Fiction nominees are: Sallie Bingham, Steven R. Cope, Sue Grafton, Lynn S. Hightower, Silas House, Chris Offutt, Lynn Pruett, Ron Whitehead, Crystal Wilkinson, Laura Young and Joe Survant. Nonfiction nominees are: Tom Appleton, Thomas G. Barnes, Mark F. Berry, Wendell Berry, Clara Bingham, Cynthia Stokes Brown, Donna Sabino Butt, Thomas Clark, Nick Clooney, Mary Ellen Doyle, Catherine Fosl, N.O. Hammon, Walt Harrington, Steve Haskin, Melba Hay, Jim Holmberg, Brent Kelley, Margaret Lane, Bobbie Ann Mason, John Robertson, Richard D. Sears, Jess Stoddart, Kenneth B. Tankersley, Richard Taylor, Kathy Barlow Thurman, Dianne Wells and Billy O. Wireman.