Do New York City publishers snub out-of-state awards? Washington City Paper reports that one big city publisher wouldn't help publicize the fact that their author was a semifinalist for the Arts Club of Washington's National Award for Arts Writing.

Organizers alleged that some New York publishers ignore anything outside the island of Manhattan, but wouldn't reveal which publisher poo-pooed the $15,000 award.

Award administrator Kim Roberts had this to say: "The whole problem we have here ... is that any book event that doesn't happen in New York is really not taken very seriously by New York publishers, despite the fact that our award is larger than the Pulitzer Prize and, in fact, is one of the largest monetary awards for books in the U.S."