Barbour Publishing is hosting fans of bestselling Amish fiction author Wanda Brunstetter for a weekend with the author in Amish country, Sugar Creek, Oh., September 19-20. The program includes dinner with Brunstetter featuring Amish cuisine, a game night with Amish-themed prizes, a quilting class, tours of the countryside and local museums, and shopping in local Amish stores. The event concludes with a performance Saturday night, September 20, of the play Half-Stitched: The Musical, which is based on Brunstetter’s novel, The Half-Stitched Amish Quilting Club. The Healing Quilt, the third book in her Half-Stitched series, releases August 5.
The Catholic Press Association announced its book awards June 20. Among the honorees was Liguori Publications for Meditations on Vatican Art by Mark Haydu, which placed first in the Spirituality-Hardcover and Design & Production categories. Haydu took second place in the First-time Author category, and Meditations on Vatican Art was also recently honored with an Excellence Award from the Association of Catholic Publishers. Judith Valente’s Atchison Blue (Ave Maria) was awarded first place in the Spirituality-Softcover category.
Baker Publishing Group has won five Word Awards, which are sponsored by the Word Guild, a Canadian organization for writers. Baker took top honors in five categories: Academic; Apologetics/Evangelism; Biblical Studies; Culture; Novel—Suspense.
HOLT Medallion winners for 2014 were announced on June 14. Abingdon Press’s Seeds of Evidence by Linda J. White won the HOLT for Best Book by a Virginia Author; the novel also received an Award of Merit in the Romantic Suspense category. Irene Hannon won a 2014 HOLT Medallion Award of Merit in the Long Inspirational category for her book Vanished (Baker/Revell). The HOLT Medallions were created by the Virginia Romance Writers (VRW), a statewide chapter of Romance Writers of America, to recognize excellence in romantic fiction. For a history of the award and to see the entire list of HOLT winners and merit recipients, click here.
Crossway author James Anderson’s What’s Your Worldview? has been named Book of the Year by World Magazine in the Popular Theology category. Winners in the other two categories include Mission at Nuremberg by Tim Townsend (Wm. Morrow) in History, and The Tyranny of Experts by William Easterly (Basic Books) in the Analysis category.
