Anime Encyclopedia Author Wins IMAF Award

BERKELEY, CA – December 27, 2006 - Stone Bridge Press is pleased to announce that Helen McCarthy, co-author of the newly released guidebook The Anime Encyclopedia: Revised and Expanded Edition, has been awarded the International Manga and Anime Festival's 2006 award for Outstanding Contribution to Anime and Manga. The distinguished panel of judges included Paul Gravett (Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics) and Andrew Prentice, director of Trocadero Studio.

McCarthy, a veteran of the international anime industry, is the former editor of Anime UK and Manga Mania magazines and the author of several books, including The Anime Movie Guide and Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation. McCarthy’s latest book, The Anime Encyclopedia: Revised and Expanded Edition, released in November 2006, includes over 3,000 entries exploring Japanese animation since 1917. It weighs in at over three pounds and 867 pages. Both McCarthy and her co-author Jonathan Clements, former editor of Manga Max, have also been winners of the Japan Festival Award for outstanding contributions to the understanding of Japanese culture.

The International Manga & Anime Festival (IMAF) was founded in 2004 in order to meet the growing demand for Manga & Anime related activities in the UK. The festival is free to the public, made possible by sponsors such as Neo and CineAqua. This year’s awards ceremony took place at County Hall, Westminster, London.

ABOUT STONE BRIDGE PRESS: Stone Bridge Press is an English-language publisher specializing in books about Japan and Asia. Founded in 1989 by publisher and editor-in-chief Peter Goodman, the company has over 150 titles in print and has received numerous awards for publishing excellence, including two Benjamin Franklin Awards. Among its authors are Donald Richie (The Inland Sea, The Japan Journals) and Leonard Koren (Wabi-Sabi). Stone Bridge's books about anime, manga, and film have established the press as a leading source of information about Japanese popular culture.

IMAF:
URL: http://www.imaf.co.uk