The Guides Association of New York City (or GANYC), founded in 1974, brings together the finest independent, professional tour guides in the city. Â And since 2015 they have presented awards to the community, “honoring individuals and organizations that encourage and promote New York City tourism, culture and preservation while supporting the work and contributions of professional New York City tour guides.”
The 3rd Annual GANYC Apple Award nominations were announced last month, and we are honored to be included on this list this year for our book The Bowery Boys’ Adventures In Old New York.
The complete list of nominations are below. Tickets are available to the general public so come out and see the show! The awards ceremony this year is held on March 6 at the SVA Theatre in Chelsea, with cabaret performer Mark Nadler as your host.  Tickets are $50 and you can grab them here. And you can find more information on the event here.
Outstanding Achievement in Support of New York City Culture
Gene Russianoff, Staff Attorney & Chief Spokesman, Straphangers Campaign for NYPIRG
Billy Mitchell, Tour Director, Apollo Theater
Leslie Koch, President and CEO, The Trust for Governors Island
Alan Gilbert, Music Director, NY Philharmonic
(Past winners include Susan Henshaw Jones and Ronay Menschel of the Museum of the City of New York and Kathleen O’Connor at the New-York Historical Society)
Outstanding Achievement in Support of New York City Tourism
Evelyn Hill Inc. At The Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island Immigration Museum
Fred Dixon, President & CEO, NYC & Company
(Past winners include Gregory Wessner of Open House New York, and Justin Ferate)
Outstanding Achievement in Support of New York City Preservation
Simeon Bankoff, Executive Director, Historic Districts Council
Steve Zeitlin, Founding Director, City Lore
(Past winners include Jeremiah Moss and Friends of the High Line)
Outstanding New York City Website
(Past winners include Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York and Forgotten New York)
Outstanding Achievement in Radio Program/Podcasts (audio/spoken word)
The New Yorker Radio Hour, WNYC
There Goes the Neighborhood, WNYC
Inside New York Tourism, City World Radio
(Past winners include the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC — and the Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast)
Outstanding Achievement in New York City Food (focusing on anniversaries and special accomplishments)
Danny Meyer, USHG, Making History in the NYC Hospitality Industry
(Past winners include Yonah Schimmel Knishery and Russ & Daughters)
Outstanding Achievement in Non-Fiction Book Writing (published October 1, 2015 – September 30, 2016)
Store Front II A History Preserved: The Disappearing Face of New York, by James and Karla Murray
Food and the City: New York’s Professional Chefs, Restaurateurs, Line Cooks, Street Vendors, and Purveyors Talk About What They Do and Why They Do It, by Ina Yalof
The Bowery Boys: Adventures in Old New York, by Tom Meyers and Greg Young
Governors Island Explorers Guide by Kevin Fitzpatrick
(Past winners include Saving Place: 50 Years of New York City Landmarks, edited by Donald Albrecht and Andrew Dolkart, Iwan Baan photographer, and William B. Helmreich The New York Nobody Knows)
Outstanding Achievement in Fiction Book Writing (published October 1, 2015 – September 30, 2016)
The Dollhouse: A Novel, by Fiona Davis
Sweetbitter: A novel, by Stephanie Danler
The Swans of Fifth Avenue: A Novel by Melanie Benjamin
Murder in Morningside Heights by Victoria Thompson
(Past winners include City on Fire: A Novel by Garth Risk Hallberg)
Outstanding Achievement in Essay/Article/Series Writing (published October 1, 2015 – September 30, 2016)
A Walking Tour of 1866 New York: In the Footsteps of 150-year-old Guidebooks, by James Nevius, Curbed NY
Camera Obscura, Curbed NY
Even in New York City, Nature’s All Around Us If We Want to See It, by Ariel Lauren Wilson, Edible Brooklyn
Ian Frazier for The New Yorker
(Past winners include Grub Street: New York Magazine and Christopher Gray, formerly of Streetscapes, New York Times)
Outstanding Achievement in New York City Museum Exhibitions (October 1, 2015 – September 30, 2016)
Hidden in Plain Sight: Portraits of Hunger in NYC, Brooklyn Historical Society
America to Zanzibar: Muslim Culture Near and Far, Children’s Museum of Manhattan
Jacob A Riis: Revealing New York’s Other Half, Museum of the City of New York
Yiddish Theater From Bowery to Broadway, Museum of the City of New York
(Past winners include Frida Kahlo: Art, Garden, Life, New York Botanical Garden and Palaces for the People: Guastavino and the Art of Structural Tile, Museum of the City of New York)
Outstanding Achievement in New York City Photography (singular image, published October 1, 2015 – September 30, 2016)
Mike McLaughlin, Manhattan Bridge, Curbed Photo Pool
Nathan Kensinger, Bronx CasitasÂ
Nathan Kensinger, Port MorrisÂ
(Past winners include Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao with his winning image High Bridge for the New York Times)
Author and tour leader Anthony W. Robins will be presented with the 2017 Guiding Spirit honor.  And the 2017 GANYC Apple Award Lifetime Achievement Winner will be given to cabaret icon Steve Ross! Here’s a bit of Ross tackling some Cole Porter…..
The image at top is F. V Carpenters’ paper artwork Manhattan Skyline, courtesy Museum of the City of New  York
