New literary award: One that comes with a $50,000 prize!

From the Washington Post:

Tonight at a party on the eve of the BookExpo America convention in New York, Kirkus announced its creation of three new literary awards worth $50,000 each. The annual Kirkus Prizes, which will be among the largest cash awards in the literary world, will honor works of fiction, nonfiction and young readers’ literature.

Only books that have received a starred review in Kirkus will be eligible for consideration. And since the magazine now reviews independently published books — or self-published books — these, too, will be eligible, so long as they have received the Kirkus star.

Wowza.