2015 Winners & Finalists

BIOGRAPHY
Winner: Carolyn Newton Curry, Suffer and Grow Strong: The Life of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas, 1834-1907
Finalist: James T. McAffee, Jr., To Make a Difference

CHILDREN’S BOOK
Winner: Charmain Zimmerman Brackett, Little Pearl’s Circus World
Finalist: Gloria Ludlam Bennett, Summers at Howard Creek

DETECTIVE/MYSTERY
Winner: David Darracott, Wasted
Finalist: Larissa Reinhart, Death in Perspective

 ESSAY
Winner: Kate Sweeney, American Afterlife: Encounters in the Customs of Mourning
Finalist: Sam Williams, The CEO as Urban Statesman: Harnessing the Power of CEOs to Make Cities Thrive

FIRST NOVEL
Winner: Debra Bowling, The Memory of Flight
Finalist: Brandon Daily, A Murder Country
Honorable Mention: Stan Waits, Another Long, Hot Day
Honorable Mention: Richard Judy, THRU–An Appalachian Trail Love Story

HISTORY
Winner: Alvin Townley, Defiant: The POWs Who Endured Vietnam’s Most Infamous Prison, the Women Who Fought For Them, and the One Who Never Returned
Finalist: David Beasley, Without Mercy: The Stunning True Story of Race, Crime, and Corruption in the Deep South

HUMOR
Winner: Jameson Gregg, Luck be a Chicken
Finalist: Todd Sentell, Toonamint of Champions and Why Golf is So Exciting

INSPIRATIONAL–SECULAR
Winner: Letitia Sweitzer, The Elephant in the ADHD Room: Beating Boredom as the Secret to Managing ADHD
Finalist: Peter Bowerman, The Well-Fed Self-Publisher

INSPIRATIONAL–RELIGIOUS
Winner: Connie Carey, Falling Up: Lessons Learned on the Way Down

LITERARY FICTION
Winner: Michael K. Brown, Somewhere a River
Finalist: Raymond Atkins, Sweetwater Blues
Finalist: Victoria Wilcox, Gone West: Book Two from Southern Son, The Saga of Doc Holliday Series

MEMOIR/AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Winner: Clifton Crais, History Lessons
Finalist: Bahram Darugar, Out of Iran

POETRY
Winner: Anya Krugovoy Silver, I Watched You Disappear
Finalist: Alice Friman, The View from Saturn

ROMANCE
Winner: Debbie Kaufman, Journey of Hope
Finalist: Richard Taylor, Return to Eden

SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY/PARANORMAL
Winner: Jack McDevitt, Coming Home
Finalist: Sandra Hood, Blood Exchange

SHORT STORY
Winner: H. William Rice, The Lost Woods
Finalist: Evan Guilford-Blake, American Blues

SPECIALTY BOOK
Winner: Gordon L. Jones, Confederate Odyssey
Finalist: George Justice, Courthouses of Georgia

YOUNG ADULT
Winner: Elizabeth O. Dulemba, A Bird on Water Street