The Chitter Radio Literary Awards (CRLA) has added a new category to its already sizeable list of honours: speeches.
In a short communiqué issued this morning, CRLA director Guadalupe Tucán cited the need to expand the term, “literary,” and to continue to acknowledge the artistic elements of non-fiction as her reasons for adding the category.
“We need to continue to broaden our horizons and reward those artists whose work may not fit easily into the established categories,” the communiqué said.
Tucán, who has been CRLA director since 2015, began taking the awards in a different direction last year, when she allowed celebrity chef Tab Tricolore to serve his “Liberation Libation” to attendees. Though it was a controversial move, it illustrated what many call Tucán’s “sense of the bigger picture.”
“I’ve known Guadalupe for years and I know what she’s thinking when she does things like that,” said a longtime friend. “She believes that art and even literariness can be found as much in the mundane as in grand canvasses or great books. So, I’m not surprised by anything she does.”
Tucán said the category expansion is not expected to add more than a few minutes to the evening, which will be broadcast live on AVN Television.
The Chitter Radio Literary Awards take place June 15. Nominations will be announced in mid-May.
