Indiana Authors Awards

The Indiana Authors Awards, also known as the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Awards, is a literary awards program that recognizes and honors authors from Indiana and literary works about Indiana. In 2020, awards were given in eight categories, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, children’s literature, young adult literature, drama, genre and emerging. The awards program runs biennially, with books published in 2020 and 2021 honored in 2022.[1] Winners receive a cash prize, an Indiana limestone award trophy, and the opportunity to select an Indiana library to receive a donation.[2]

Indiana Authors Awards
Sponsored byGlick Philanthropies
CountryUnited States
Presented byIndiana Humanities
First awarded2009
Websitewww.indianaauthorsawards.org

History edit

The awards program was founded in 2009 by philanthropists Eugene and Marilyn Glick, partnering with The Indianapolis Public Library Foundation to create a program which recognized authors annually. Honors were awarded to authors in the three main categories of national, regional, and emerging, with some years including recognition for lifetime achievement and general excellence.[3]

In 2018, Glick Philanthropies announced a desire to expand the awards program. After a year hiatus, in 2019 Glick Philanthropies partnered with Indiana Humanities to offer an expanded program, awarding honors to books every other year and a new Literary Champion Award. The 2020 awards included books in eight categories and recognized the Indiana Writers Center as Literary Champion.[4] In the spring of 2022, the Indiana Authors Awards Tour will bring recent award-winning authors to Indiana communities.[5]

Winners of awards for lifetime bodies of work edit

Following is a subset of the awards granted, focusing just on top honors that are for authors' complete lifetime works. These primarily are just the National Winners, the Regional Winners, and the Lifetime Achievement Awards which were all granted on basis of persons' entire body of works. It omits two National Finalist and four Regional Finalist awards given in 2009-10, the first years of the program, and not offered in any later year.[note 1] It includes two "Excellence" awards given, and it omits "Emerging Winner" and "Emerging Finalist" awards. In 2019, no awards were granted, and the focus of the program shifted to make awards for recent books in various categories (therefore not for entire bodies of work). No awards were given in 2021. In 2020 and 2022, there appears to be only one "Lifetime Achievement" award granted, included below. All the other awards were for best recent book in various categories (Children's, Drama, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Fiction, Nonfiction) and are not included below.

The remaining 26 awards through 2022 make up a set of authors comparable to other writers' halls of fame. These awards, for entire bodies of authors' complete work, are:

YearAwardAuthor
2009National WinnerJames Alexander Thom
Regional WinnerSusan Neville
2010National WinnerScott Russell Sanders
Regional WinnerRay Boomhower
2011National WinnerMargaret McMullan
Regional WinnerHelen Frost
2012Lifetime AchievementDan Wakefield
National WinnerJohn Green
Regional WinnerBarbara Shoup
2013National WinnerMichael Martone
Regional WinnerJames H. Madison
2014National WinnerMichael Shelden
Regional WinnerNorbert Krapf
2015Lifetime AchievementMari Evans
National WinnerMarianne Boruch
Regional WinnerAdrian Matejka
2016National WinnerKaren Joy Fowler
Regional WinnerPhilip Gulley
Genre Excellence Winner

(children’s picture books)

April Pulley Sayre
2017National WinnerKekla Magoon
Regional WinnerLori Rader-Day
Genre Excellence Winner

(middle-grade fiction)

John David Anderson
2018National WinnerKimberly Brubaker Bradley
Regional WinnerSandy Eisenberg Sasso
Lifetime AchievementJames Alexander Thom
2020Literary ChampionIndiana Writers Center
2022Lifetime AchievementJames H. Madison

Notes edit

  1. ^ Three of those six persons: Margaret McMullan, Scott Russell Sanders and James H. Madison later won National Winner, Regional Winner, or Lifetime Achievement awards and are included in the table presented.

References edit

  1. ^ Christy, Matt (4 August 2022). "Indiana Authors Awards shortlists 40 books written by Hoosiers". fox59.com. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
  2. ^ Trares, Ryan (29 August 2020), "Local writers honored among best Indiana authors of the year", Daily Journal, retrieved 7 April 2022
  3. ^ Bongiovanni, Domenica (27 August 2019), "You know about eating and shopping local. This big change will encourage you to read local.", IndyStar, retrieved 7 April 2022
  4. ^ Newman, Mark (September 3, 2020). "IPBS proudly supports Indiana Authors Awards". ipbs.org. Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations (IPBS). Retrieved 2022-04-07.
  5. ^ Gouveia, Marisol (7 April 2022). "Indiana Authors Awards Tour features Ashley Ford". Indianapolis Recorder. Retrieved 7 April 2022.