"Dear Ms. Price," the email began. "It is my honor to notify you that your book, Naked at Our Age, was selected by the AASECT Awards Committee as the 2012 Book Award winner."
The email listed the AASECT members who had nominated and endorsed my book, and continued,
This award is presented to the author(s) of a book that makes a significant contribution to AASECTs vision of sexual health and to the clinical and educational standards of the field. The nominated book can be written for a professional audience or for a general audience and must have been published in English in 2011.
AASECT is The American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists, the primary professional organization of this field. As the website explains,
In addition to sexuality educators, sexuality counselors and sex therapists, AASECT members include physicians, nurses, social workers, psychologists, allied health professionals, clergy members, lawyers, sociologists, marriage and family counselors and therapists, family planning specialists and researchers, as well as students in relevant professional disciplines. These individuals share an interest in promoting understanding of human sexuality and healthy sexual behavior..
Do you see why I'm thrilled by this award? These are the people I learn from at conferences and through their books and websites. These are the people who showed me the diversity of sexuality education and how much it's needed at all points of our lifelong journey. These are the people who have chosen sexuality education as their life's work.
And they have chosen Naked at Our Age as the best sexuality book of the year!
As proud as I am, I know it's not just my book. It's compelling because of your concerns and questions that comprise the 135 candid reader stories. It's a solid guidebook to solutions for age-related sex problems because of the 45 experts -- most AASECT members themselves -- who graciously provided the answers to your questions. I'm also grateful to those of you who reviewed Naked at Our Age on your blogs, in publications, and on Amazon, so that potential readers learned about it.
I'll receive this award personally at the AASECT conference in Austin next month -- where I'll also present a session on blogging about sexuality.Thank you for making this book what it is, and for recognizing it with this honor.