BOSTON (December 25, 2009) _ The 2009 New England Book Festival has named “Deathreats: The Life and Times of a Comic Book Rock Star/Drew Hayes” as the winner of its annual competition honoring the best books of the holiday season.

The book, published by Sirius Entertainment and edited by Mark C. Bellis, is a collection of essays taken from the work of Hayes, the late creator of “Poison Elves,” an underground comics sensation. In that tradition, the book is a combination of prefaces culled from the comics and other notes, but holds together as an outsider’s manifesto on publishing’s many travails and the creative life in general.

The deeply personal writing, stunning in its brutal honesty, serves as a fitting tribute to an under-recognized artist and all publishers who struggle to make their voices heard.

The competition’s runner-up and winner of the best book design is also a noteworthy outsider work. Author Ghlee Woodworth has been conducting cemetery tours in Newburyport, Massachusetts since 2006, taking over from her father. The research she invested to conduct the tours was turned into a book, “Tiptoe Through The Tombstones,” that chronicles the lives of the deceased Oak Hill Cemetery residents, a look back that illuminates some of the lesser-known facts of daily living in the 19th century.

All of the competition submissions will be honored at an awards ceremony to be held at the Omni Hotel in Boston on January 16, 2010.

Others winners in the competition:

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WINNER: Deathreats: The Life and Times of a Comic Book Rock Star – Edited by Mark C. Bellis
 

RUNNER-UP: Tiptoe Through the Tombstones – Ghlee Woodworth

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