Quality Paperback Books, a division of Book-of-the-Month Club, Inc., and Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D., author of the best-selling Women Who Run With the Wolves, announce the establishment of a new literary award, THE QPB/ESTÉS INTERNATIONAL STORYTELLER PRIZE, to be formally announced at the 25th anniversary celebration for QPB in New York City on November 11.

The prize of $5,000 will be awarded annually to an author whose work demonstrates remarkable achievement in crossing national, cultural, ethnic, geographical, class, gender and/or age boundaries. QPB editors and Dr. Estés will join forces as the Awards Committee to select the most outstanding book, published in English during the previous calendar year, which meets the award criteria. QPB will offer the winner's book in paperback to its nearly one million book club members. In addition to the Storytelling Prize, four Honor Prizes will be awarded.

Dr. Estés, editor and author of the introduction to The Tales of the Brothers Grimm (Book-of-the-Month Club/Quality Paperback Books; November 1999), states her philosophy:We do not possess stories. Stories possess us. Embedded in novels, mythos, common and uncommon life stories, are the ancient red blood lines of Pathos, Ethos, Eros and Thanatos. These great themes comprise a violent, excruciatingly sweet nourishment of intellect, heart, and soul. Compared to the pitiful clink the culture has prepared for us on most days, the passion of stories influences our sleep and dreams, and our actions after. Whether Los remedios sagrados, or tikkun olam, the crafting of story is a commitment to repair, with increasing animation, the unraveled soul of the world.

It is in this spirit that Quality Paperback Books and Dr. Estés are establishing this new prize to recognize and honor those great storytellers who enrich our lives.

David Rosen, Vice-President, Editorial Director of QPB explains, "From its beginnings in 1974 to the present, QPB has demonstrated an unparalleled record of championing talented writers whose voices and visions offer us fresh and diverse perspectives. This Prize follows in that tradition and seeks to honor the storytellers whose work crosses boundaries and informs our shared community of humankind."

Submissions should be made by publishers to Quality Paperback Books. The deadline is May 31 and the winners will be announced on October 15.

Quality Paperback Books, a division of Book-of-the-Month Club, Inc., which is celebrating its 25th anniversary, provides an eclectic selection of paperbacks to its members, and has an unparalleled record of bringing classics back to life. QPB was founded to offer adventurous minds and restless readers something they wanted but had not been able to find before-handsome, sturdy, affordable paperback editions of hardcover books. Known for introducing quality literature often overlooked by the mainstream press, QPB has helped foster talented new writers. Each year, in addition to the QPB/ESTÉS INTERNATIONAL STORYTELLER PRIZE , QPB will continue to present the New Voices and New Visions Awards which respectively honor the most distinctive and promising works of non-fiction and fiction offered by the Quality Paperback Book Club.

Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D., is a world-recognized poet, scholar, Jungian psychoanalyst, and cantadora, (keeper of the old stories in the Latina tradition). She is the author of many works, among them, The Gift of Story; and Women Who Run With the Wolves (145 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list and published in 26 foreign languages). She is the founder and Director of La Sociedad de Guadalupe. Her forthcoming work is The Dangerous Old Woman: Myths and Stories of the Archetype of Wisdom (Knopf).

In conjunction with its 25th anniversary, QPB has re-launched its website which can be visited at www.qpb.com. QPB has also created a timeline about the history of the paperback which can be visited at www.qpb.com/timeline