Thursday, July 7, 2011

The results of the 2011 Georgia Authors of the Year Awards

     The Georgia Writers Association (GWA) recognizes Georgia's authors of excellence by presenting the Georgia Author of the Year Awards (GAYA) each year.  The GAYA honors independently published authors, those whose books are published by traditional publishing houses.
     Over 100 books were nominated for the 2011 Georgia Author of the Year Awards.  The GAYA covers not only the traditional categories of Poetry and Fiction, but also the growing Creative Non-Fiction genre.  The guidelines are revised each year to parallel the changing literary marketplace.
     Terry Kay, whose latest book is "Bogmeadow's Wish," a love story set in Ireland, was this year's recipient of The Lifetime Achievement Award at the GAYA banquet, held in June on the campus of Kennesaw University in Kennesaw, Georgia.
     The author of 11 published novels, Kay is a 2006 inductee into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, and is a 2009 recipient of the Governor's Award in the Humanities.  Other honors include the Townsend Prize, the Lindberg Award, and the Appalachian Heritage Writers Award.  He is also a three-time winner of GWA's Author of the Year Award in Fiction, and has appeared three times on the Twenty-five Books All Georgians Should Read list.  Look at our library's PINES System to see the list of  his books you can check out.
     Other GAYA winners are:
     * Fiction - Joseph A. Skibell for A Curable Romantic
     * First Novel - June Hall McCash for Almost to Eden
     * Poetry - Phillip Lee Williams for The Flower Seeker: An Epic Poem of William Bartram
     * Biography - Larry L. McSwain for Loving Beyond Your Theology: The Life and Ministry of Jimmy Raymond Allen
     * Essay - Peter Augustine Lawler for Modern and American Dignity: Who We Are as Persons, and What that Means for Our Future
     * Inspirational - Justin Spizman and Robyn Spizman for Don't Give Up...Don't Ever Give Up
     * Memoir - D. Craig Rikard for Hidden Epidemic: "Mama, Why Don't You Remember Our Names Anymore?"
     * History - Tony P. Anderson for Tell Them We Are Singing for Jesus: The Original Fisk Jubilee Singers and Christian Reconstruction, 1871 - 1878
     * Specialty Book - John A. Burrison for From Mud to Jug: The Folk Potters and Pottery of Northeast Georgia
     * Children's Picture Book - Grady Thrasher for Tim and Sally's Year in Poems
     * Young Adult Fiction - Ted Dunagan for Secret of the Satilfa
     * Children's Mid-Reader - Peggy Mercer for Peach: When the Well Run Dry.
Congratulations to all the winners!  And good reading to all those who love reading!

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