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] The 2024 winners include the following categories: nonfiction, fiction, debut, genre, poetry, young adult, middle grade, children's, and drama.[3]

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

History

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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.[4]

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.[5] In the spring of 2022, the Indiana Authors Awards Tour brought recent award-winning authors to Indiana communities.[6] The most recent awards cycle occurred in August 2024.[3]

Winners of awards for lifetime bodies of work

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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.

The remaining awards through 2024 make up a set of authors comparable to other writers' halls of fame. These awards, for entire bodies of authors' complete work, are:

Year Award Author
2009 National Winner James Alexander Thom
Regional Winner Susan Neville
2010 National Winner Scott Russell Sanders
Regional Winner Ray Boomhower
2011 National Winner Margaret McMullan
Regional Winner Helen Frost
2012 Lifetime Achievement Dan Wakefield
National Winner John Green
Regional Winner Barbara Shoup
2013 National Winner Michael Martone
Regional Winner James H. Madison
2014 National Winner Michael Shelden
Regional Winner Norbert Krapf
2015 Lifetime Achievement Mari Evans
National Winner Marianne Boruch
Regional Winner Adrian Matejka
2016 National Winner Karen Joy Fowler
Regional Winner Philip Gulley
Genre Excellence Winner

(children’s picture books)

April Pulley Sayre
2017 National Winner Kekla Magoon
Regional Winner Lori Rader-Day
Genre Excellence Winner

(middle-grade fiction)

John David Anderson
2018 National Winner Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Regional Winner Sandy Eisenberg Sasso
Lifetime Achievement James Alexander Thom
2020 Literary Champion Indiana Writers Center
2022 Literary Champion JL Kato
Lifetime Achievement James H. Madison
2024 Literary Champion Tony Brewer
Lifetime Achievement Susan Neville

Category Winners

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Year Award Author Book
2020 Nonfiction Ross Gay The Book of Delights
Fiction Chris White The Life List of Adrian Mandrick
Emerging Melissa Stephenson Driven: A White-Knuckled Ride to Heartbreak and Back
Genre Maurice Broaddus Pimp My Airship
Poetry Eugene Gloria Sightseer in this Killing City
Young Adult Saundra Mitchell All the Things We Do in the Dark
Children's Phillip Hoose Attucks!: Oscar Robertson and the Basketball Team That Awakened a City
Drama James Still The Jack Plays
2022 Nonfiction Craig Fehrman Author in Chief: The Untold Story of Our Presidents and the Books They Wrote
Fiction Susan Neville The Town of Whispering Dolls
Debut Ashley C. Ford Somebody's Daughter: A Memoir
Genre Paul Allor Hollow Heart
Poetry Ross Gay Be Holding
Young Adult Leah Johnson You Should See Me in a Crown
Middle Grade Helen Frost All He Knew
Children's Kim Howard Grace and Box
2024 Nonfiction Edward Fujawa Vanished Indianapolis
Fiction Tess Gunty The Rabbit Hutch
Debut Brittany Means Hell If We Don’t Change Our Ways
Genre Rebecca McKanna Don’t Forget the Girl
Poetry George Kalamaras To Sleep in the Horse’s Belly: My Greek Poets and the Aegean Inside Me
Young Adult Kekla Magoon The Minus-One Club
Middle Grade Maurice Broaddus Unfadeable
Children's Janna Matthies Here We Come!
Drama Jennifer Blackmer Predictor

Notes

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  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

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  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. ^ a b "2024 Honorees". Indiana Authors Awards. Retrieved 2024-08-27.
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ Newman, Mark (September 3, 2020). "IPBS proudly supports Indiana Authors Awards". ipbs.org. Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations (IPBS). Retrieved 2022-04-07.
  6. ^ Gouveia, Marisol (7 April 2022). "Indiana Authors Awards Tour features Ashley Ford". Indianapolis Recorder. Retrieved 7 April 2022.