2013 Christy Awards

The Christy Awards were started in the spring of 1999 when nearly a dozen Christian publishers confirmed the need for establishing a Christian fiction award to recognize novelists and novels of excellence in several genres of Christian fiction. By late summer, ideas and planning had come together to launch The Christy Award, named in honor of Catherine Marshall’s novel, Christy, and of her contribution to growth of the fiction Christians love to read.
 
The Christy Award is designed to:
 
·         Nurture and encourage creativity and quality in the writing and publishing of fiction written from a Christian worldview.
 
·         Bring a new awareness of the breadth and depth of fiction choices available, helping to broaden the readership.
 
·         Provide opportunity to recognize novelists whose work may not have reached bestseller status.
 
The 2013 Christy Awards were presented tonight in St. Louis. Literary agent, Chip MacGregor, said in his talk that novelists are people who reflect God by speaking new worlds into existence, and these novels represent excellence in Christian fiction.
 
The Christy Hall of Fame award, honoring authors who have won four or more Christy's, was debuted by inducting authors Lynn Austin, winner of eight awards, and Karen Hancock, winner of four awards.
 
The event also premiered the Christy Book of the Year Award, showcasing the novel that had the greatest impact when placed against a set of criteria that includes literary quality, sales, and life impact. A jury of three people read the year’s nine Christy Award winners and identified Into the Free by Julie Cantrell as best exemplifying those factors.
 
Try some of this year's nominees and winners for a great reading experience:

FIRST NOVEL

Into the Free by Julie Cantrell
Also won of Book of the Year award

Nominated:

Tangled Ashes by Michèle Phoenix

Wedded to War by Jocelyn Green

CONTEMPORARY STANDALONE

Not in the Heart by Chris Fabry

Nominated:

The Air We Breathe by Christa Parrish

Borders of the Heart by Chris Fabry

CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

The Breath of Dawn by Kristen Heitzmann

 

Nominated:

Lethal Legacy by Irene Hannon

Wildflowers from Winter by Katie Ganshert

CONTEMPORARY SERIES, SEQUELS, AND NOVELLAS

You Don't Know Me by Susan May Warren

 

Nominated:

Two Destinies by Elizabeth Musser

Waiting for Sunrise by Eva Marie Everson

HISTORICAL

 Flame of Resistance by Tracy Groot

 

Nominated:

Wedded to War by Jocelyn Green

A Wreath of Snow by Liz Curtis Higgs

HISTORICAL ROMANCE

Against the Tide by Elizabeth Camden

 

Nominated:

Be Still My Soul by Joanne Bischof

Love's Reckoning by Laura Frantz

SUSPENSE

Rare Earth by Davis Bunn

 

Nominated:

Downfall by Terri Blackstock

The Last Plea Bargain by Randy Singer

Submerged by Dani Pettrey

 

VISIONARY

 

Soul's Gate by James L. Rubart

 

Nominated:

Daughter of Light by Morgan L. Busse

Starflower by Anne Elisabeth Stengl

 

 

YOUNG ADULT 

Child of the Mountains by Marilyn Sue Shank

 

Nominated:

Failstate by John W. Otte

Interrupted: A Life Beyond Words by Rachel Coker

 

 

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If you've read any of these books, please share your thoughts. The only two I've read are The Air We Breathe by Christa Parrish and Be Still My Soul by Joanne Bischof. Both were excellent and well deserving of award. Michele Phoenix's second book, In Broken Places, was one of the best Christian fiction books I've ever read, so I'll be reading the book she was nominated for soon.