Award Finalists!

It's spring and that means finalists are being announced for various book awards. Of course, for me, the ACFW Carol Awards and the Christy Awards are the creme de la creme because they honor so many categories of Christian fiction! The Christy Award finalists will be announced in mid-April, and you know I will have them right here as soon as they are announced. The Carol Award finalists will be announced a bit later--in July, if I remember correctly. But some other important awards also announced finalists in the past few days, so I wanted to share those with you. The ones I have read/reviewed are hyper-linked to that review.

Earlier this week Romance Writers of America (RWA) announced the finalists for the RITA Award. The 2012 RITA honors romance fiction published in 2011. More than 1,200 novels and novellas were judged in 12 categories.

Winners of the awards will be announced July 28, 2012, at the RITA and Golden Heart Awards Ceremony to be held at the 2012 RWA Annual Conference in Anaheim, Calif.

The awards honor primarily books in the secular romance category. In the Inspirational Romance category, the finalists are:

• The Christmas Child by Linda Goodnight (Harlequin Love Inspired; Allison Lyons, editor)
• Deadly Pursuit by Irene Hannon (Revell; Jennifer Leep, editor)
• Katie's Way by Marta Perry (Berkley Publishing Group; Ellen Edwards, editor)
• The Ladies' Room by Carolyn Brown (Avalon Books; Lia Brown, editor)
• Love on the Line by Deeanne Gist (Bethany House Publishers; David Long and Julie Klassen, editors)
• The Measure of Katie Calloway by Serena Miller (Revell; Vicki Crumpton, editor)
• My Foolish Heart by Susan May Warren (Tyndale House Publishers; Karen Watson, editor)
• Save the Date by Jenny B. Jones (Thomas Nelson; Natalie Hanemann and Jamie Chavez, editors)
• To Win Her Heart by Karen Witemeyer (Bethany House Publishers; Karen Schurrer, editor)

Yesterday, the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) announced 40 finalists in seven categories for the 2012 Christian Book Awards. Below are the finalists as listed in the press release:

The 2012 Christian Book Award finalists are:

Category: BIBLES

• ESV Student Study Bible (Crossway) 9781433523045
• KJV400 Study Bible (Thomas Nelson) 9781418545352
• NIV Student Bible, Tim Stafford, Philip Yancey (Zondervan) 9780310437246
• NLT Parallel Study Bible (Tyndale House Publishers) 9781414339252
• NKJV Evidence Bible, Commentary by Ray Comfort (Bridge Logos Publishers) 9780882705255

Category: BIBLE REFERENCE

• Acts, Derek Thomas (P&R Publishing Group) 9781596380486L
• The Baker Illustrated Bible Handbook, J. Daniel Hays and J. Scott Duvall (Baker Books/ Baker Publishing Group) 9780801012969
• Dictionary of Christian Spirituality, Glen G. Scorgie (Zondervan) 9780310290667
• Did Adam and Eve Really Exist?, C. John Collins (Crossway) 9781433524257
• Galatians, Ephesians: Reformation Commentary on Scripture Series, Gerald L. Bray, Editor (InterVarsity Press) 9780830829736
Operation World, Jason Mandryk (Biblica/ InterVarsity Press) 9780830857234

Category: CHILDREN

• Horse Dreams, Dandi Daley Mackall (Tyndale House Publishers) 9781414339160
• My First Hands-On Bible, Group Publishing and Tyndale House Publishers (Tyndale House Publishers) 9781414348308
• Ronnie Wilson’s Gift, Francis Chan (David C Cook) 9780781404778
• The Story Bible, Edited by Edward A. Engelbrecht and Gail E. Pawlitz (Concordia Publishing House) 9780758619020
• The Story for Children, A Storybook Bible, Max Lucado, Randy Frazee, and Karen Davis Hill (Zonderkidz) 9780310719755

Category: FICTION

• Freedom’s Stand, Jeanette Windle (Tyndale House Publishers) 9781414314761
• Mine Is the Night, Liz Curtis Higgs (WaterBrook Press) 9781400070022
• The Queen, Steven James (Revell/ Baker Publishing Group) 9780800733032
• The Reluctant Prophet, Nancy Rue (David C Cook) 9781434764966
• The Touch, Randall Wallace (Tyndale House Publishers) 9781414343662

Category: INSPIRATION

• Hope for Your Heart, June Hunt (Crossway) 9781433503979
• The Law of Happiness, Dr. Henry Cloud (Howard Books) 9781439176993
• Live Loved, Max Lucado (Thomas Nelson) 9781404190061
• Long Story Short: Ten-Minute Devotions to Draw Your Family to God, Marty Machowski (New Growth Press) 9781935273813
• The Love and Respect Experience, Dr. Emerson Eggerichs (Thomas Nelson) 9780849948176
• The One Year Uncommon Life Daily Challenge, Tony Dungy with Nathan Whitaker (Tyndale House Publishers) 9781414348285

Category: NEW AUTHOR

• The Healer’s Apprentice, Melanie Dickerson (Zondervan) 9780310721437
• Kisses from Katie, Katie Davis (Howard Books) 9781451612066
• Love Amid the Ashes, Mesu Andrews (Revell/ Baker Publishing Group) 9780800734077
Not a Fan, Kyle Idleman (Zondervan) 9780310331933
• Surprised by Oxford, Carolyn Weber (Thomas Nelson) 9780849946110
• The World-Tilting Gospel: Embracing a Biblical Worldview & Hanging on Tight, Dan Phillips (Kregel Publications) 9780825439087

Category: NON-FICTION

• Close Enough to Hear God Breathe, Greg Paul (Thomas Nelson) 9781400203000
• Jesus + Nothing = Everything, Tullian Tchividjian (Crossway) 9781433507786
• Nearing Home, Billy Graham (Thomas Nelson) 9780849948329
• The Resolution for Men, Stephen Kendrick and Alex Kendrick (B&H Publishing Group) 9781433671227
• Sanctuary of the Soul: Journey into Meditative Prayer, Richard J. Foster (InterVarsity Press) 9780830835553
• What Women Fear, Angie Smith (B&H Publishing Group) 9780805464290
• What's It Like to Be Married to Me, Linda Dillow (David C Cook) 9781434700568

One title from each category will be chosen as the Christian Book Award winner. In addition, one title will be chosen among all the finalists to receive the highest honor of 2012 Christian Book of the Year. These winners will be announced at the upcoming ECPA Awards Banquet held April 30 in Chicago.


CONGRATULATIONS to all of the finalists!