Khayat's memoir wins prestigious award
Posted on: May 20,2014
OXFORD— Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer Robert Khayat’s The Education of a Lifetime (Nautilus Publishing) won the 2014 Silver IPPY Award for best memoir in the nation published by a small press. The IPPY Awards are bestowed each year by the Independent Publishers Association of America.
Robert Khayat as an Ole Miss Rebel.
Awards director for the association Jim Barnes said “Robert Khayat’s memoir is an inspiring life story, very well told.” Barnes noted that the Independent Publishers Association received over 4,000 entries in all categories for the 2014 contest. “The memoir category was particularly competitive with 100+ nominees,” Barnes added.
Robert Khayat, the author, former NFL All-Pro, and Chancellor Emeritus of The University of Mississippi, said, “We’re honored to have been recognized by the IPPY judges, but my greatest hope for this story was to let the world know that Ole Miss and Mississippi are no longer stuck in 1963. The reality of today’s Mississippi has very little to do with how we’re perceived by others. Our goal, in writing this book, was to shift that perception.”
The New York Times ranked The Education of a Lifetime among the top selling educational books in the country in 2013. The book was also a top seller among independent bookstores in the South. Khayat added, “Nautilus Publishing made remarkable contributions to the production and distribution of the book.”
Neil White, Creative Director & Publisher at The Nautilus Publishing Company, said, “Of course, we’re proud of Robert for this accomplishment, but we’re even more honored to have shared this story with readers. What happened at Ole Miss between 1995 and 2008 was nothing short of miraculous.”
The book is available in hardcover ($24.95) at bookstores everywhere. It is also available on Kindle ($5.99).
Nautilus also will publish a coffee table book, featuring Mississippi Sports Hall of Famers due out in in October, 2014.
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