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ANN ARBOR, Mich., Nov. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Borders today announced the nominees for the 2008 Original Voices Awards. Now in its 13th year, the Original Voices Awards recognize fresh, compelling and ambitious works from the new and emerging talents of 2008 in fiction, non-fiction, young adult/independent reader and children's picture books. The winners in the four categories will each receive $5,000 in prize money from Borders, and their books will be featured in the company's more than 500 superstores across the country.

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"Through our exclusive Original Voices program, we are able to share our employees' passion for discovering and recommending unique books directly with our customers, and recognize the work of some of this year's finest authors," said Rob Gruen, executive vice president of Merchandising and Marketing.

Borders selects innovative and inspiring new books from first-time authors, as well as works that represent a new direction for established authors for the Original Voices program. Throughout the year, more than 100 contemporary authors and illustrators from around the world are highlighted to customers through in-store features that rotate on a monthly basis. Earlier this month, nominees for the Awards were chosen by both corporate and store employees via an online voting process. A committee of corporate staff members representing each of the four categories will read and discuss each finalist and select the winners, which will be announced in January and recognized at an awards ceremony this spring.

    The nominees for the 2008 Original Voices Awards are:

    Fiction
    -- "Dear American Airlines," by Jonathan Miles (Houghton Mifflin)
    -- "The Cellist of Sarajevo," by Steven Galloway (Riverhead)
    -- "The Good Thief," by Hannah Tinti (The Dial Press)
    -- "The Lace Reader," by Brunonia Barry (William Morrow)
    -- "The Somnambulist," by Jonathan Barnes (William Morrow)
    -- "The White Tiger," by Aravind Adiga (Free Press)

    Non-Fiction
    -- "The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the
       Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler,"
       by Thomas Hager (Harmony)
    -- "The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese
       Food," by Jennifer 8 Lee (Twelve)
    -- "The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in
       the World," by Eric Weiner (Twelve)
    -- "The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood," by
       Helene Cooper (Simon & Schuster)
    -- "The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a
       Great Victorian Detective," by Kate Summerscale (Walker & Company)
    -- "We Bought a Zoo: The Amazing True Story of a Young Family, a Broken
       Down Zoo, and the 200 Wild Animals That Change Their Lives Forever," by
       Benjamin Mee (Weinstein Books)

    Young Adult/Independent Reader
    -- "Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go," by Dale Basye (Random House Books for
       Young Readers)
    -- "I Am Apache," by Tanya Landman (Candlewick)
    -- "The Patron Saint of Butterflies," by Cecilia Galante (Bloomsbury USA
       Children's Books)
    -- "Tunnels," by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams (The Chicken House)
    -- "Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines," by Nic Sheff (Ginee Seo Books)
    -- "Wake," by Lisa McMann (Simon Pulse)

    Children's Picture Books
    -- "Do You Do a Didgeridoo?," written by Nick Page and illustrated by Sara
       Baker (Make Believe Ideas)
    -- "Ladybug Girl," written by Jacky Davis and illustrated by David Soman
       (Dial)
    -- "Little Bunny Kung Fu," written and illustrated by Regan Johnson
       (Blooming Tree Press)
    -- "Those Darn Squirrels!," written by Adam Rubin and illustrated by
       Daniel Salmieri (Clarion Books)
    -- "Wave," written and illustrated by Suzy Lee (Chronicle Books)
    -- "What's Under The Bed?," written and illustrated by Joe Fenton (Simon &
       Schuster Children's Publishing)

About Borders Group, Inc.

Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Mich., Borders Group, Inc. (NYSE: BGP) is a leading retailer of books, music and movies with more than 28,000 employees. Through its subsidiaries, the company operates more than 1,100 stores worldwide primarily under the Borders(R) and Waldenbooks(R) brand names and recently launched Borders.com for online shopping. For more information, visit www.borders.com/aboutus.