Santa Monica resident Amnon Kabatchnik has been named a finalist in the ForeWord Book of the Year Awards.
An annual national book program, the ForeWord Book of the Year Awards was created to highlight the year’s most distinguished books from independent publishers.
This year’s awards garnered more than 1300 entries representing more than 700 publishers.
Winners will be announced at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Chicago, on Friday, June 28, 2013.
Kabatchnik’s latest work, “Blood on the Stage, 1975-2000: Milestone Plays of Crime, Mystery, and Detection” is among finalists in the Reference category of the 2012 ForeWord Book of the Year Awards.
In “Blood on the Stage, 1975-2000,” Kabatchnik, an award-winning director and professor, provides an overview of the milestone plays of crime, mystery and detection produced in the last quarter of the twentieth century.
“Blood on the Stage, 1975-2000” continues the study of Kabatchnik’s previous volumes “(Blood on the Stage, 1900-1925;” “Blood on the Stage, 1925-1950;” and “Blood on the Stage,1950-1975),” works which have garnered high critical praise.
A comprehensive and meticulously researched volume, “Blood on the Stage, 1975-2000” examines a time period that for sheer adventure, excitement and heart-pounding thrills, may be the genre’s most intriguing era.
The plays encompass suspenseful melodramas, psychological thrillers, baffling whodunits, and even musicals, including such memorable works as “Deathtrap,” “American Buffalo,” “Death and the Maiden,” “A Few Good Men,” “Sweeney Todd,” “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” and “The Phantom of the Opera.”
Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, Kabatchnik received his BS degree in theatre and journalism from Boston University where he graduated summa cum laude, and won the Rodgers & Hammerstein Award.
Kabatchnik also holds an MFA degree in directing from the Yale School of Drama. He served as Professor of Theatre at several universities, including Stanford University and Ohio State University, and directed numerous dramas, comedies, thrillers and musicals for off-Broadway, national road companies, resident theatres, summer stock, and abroad.
For more information about Kabatchnik or his books, visit www.amnonkabatchnik.com.