Book Award Round Up: Part 2: Women
Hello again!
Today, I have a few book award details to wrap up, and these are some fun ones. The two awards I have to share with you today are special in that they are aimed at amplifying and supporting emerging authors through monetary grants and publicity.
Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award
This grant is intended to support the recipient in crime fiction writing and career development activities. She or he may choose activities that include workshops, seminars, conferences, and retreats, online courses, and research activities required for completion of the work.
Winner: Jessica Martinez
Jessica Martinez was the 2019 winner of this prize. Her novel-in-progress features Teia Santiago, a police detective whose father-in-law blackmails her into kidnapping a textile manufacturing heiress—who also happens to be her sister-in-law.
In a joint statement, judges Cheryl Head, Mia P. Manansala, and Tonya Spratt-Williams said, “Ms. Martinez has great potential as a fresh new voice within the crime fiction community and capably displays a proficiency with humor. Her submission introduced the committee to a fun and witty protagonist and left the committee looking forward to her completed novel.”
Since 1976, the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies and the Department of English at the University of Rochester have awarded the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for fiction by an American woman. Each year a substantial cash prize is awarded annually to a woman and who has written the best book-length work of prose fiction, whether novel, short stories, or experimental writing. The judges are particularly interested in calling attention to the work of a promising but less established writer.
Winner: The Past is Never by Tiffany Quay Tyson
Tiffany Quay Tyson’s The Past is Never is a haunting meditation on the limits and possibilities of repair. When a young girl goes missing, her siblings set out to find her, unearthing family secrets along the way. It is a coming-of-age story that becomes an inquiry into the ways in which our stories precede us, bound up as they are in long legacies of race, gender, class, and community.
Thanks for reading. I will be back in the next few weeks with more recommendations, reading updates and awards!
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