The 24th Annual Christy Award Gala, which honored the top Christian novels published in 2023, took place Thursday, Nov. 14, in Downers Grove, Illinois, with event drawing a record crowd of more than 200.
Among the winners (see the complete list here), Indigo Isle by T.I. Lowe (Tyndale House) took home the Christy Award Book of the Year, and The Amplify Award for Christian Fiction, which seeks to elevate stories from ethnically diverse perspectives, went to The American Queen by Vanessa Miller (Thomas Nelson). Prolific author and Christy Award Hall of Famer Lynn Austin introduced this year’s hall of fame inductee Sharon Hinck and the 2023 Book of the Year winner Amanda Barratt offered a keynote address and introduced the 2024 Book of the Year winner.
“From the beginning we’ve tried to elevate the gravitas of Christian fiction, which didn’t have a great reputation from a literary perspective,” said Jeff Crosby, president of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA), which administers the award. “We sought to inspire writers to achieve greater literary excellence, and I think we’ve done that.”
Crosby said that the Christy Awards have seen signficant growth in the number of nominations from publishers, as well as an increase in the number of publishers participating, in part because companies such as IVP and Kregel have started releasing more fiction, and because self-published books (which in the past were not eligible for entry) are now accepted into the competition if they meet certain criteria.
Crosby said he’s also seen more speculative and YA entries, but said there are no plans to add new categories to the nine already in place. The Christy Awards take place in person every other year and via livestream on alternative years. Next year will be livestreamed, with the 2026 gala set to be held in Nashville.
The Christy Award Gala Celebration began shortly after the Art of Writing conference, with Christy Hall of Famer Chris Fabry as emcee and special presentations titled “The Christian Imagination & J.R.R. Tolkien” by British scholar Malcolm Guite via video and in person by WaterBrook & Multnomah editor Jamie Lapeyrolerie, founder of International Inklings Day to honor Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.
“Another thing The Christy Awards has done is create a sense of community around [the gala], PubU, the Children’s Summit and Art of Writing,” said Crosby.
PubU and Children’s Summit are two-day events for Christian publishing professionals that runs before Art of Writing, which occurs between PubU and the Christy gala. The writing conference was a half-day event for aspiring and published authors that featured a number of panels and speakers addressing topics such as “The Art of Writing and the Business of Publishing,” “Processing Pain Through Writing and Reading Christian Fiction,” and “Authors as Markets: How to Build a Thriving Ecosystem.”
“I enjoyed the session on processing pain,” said Lynn Rice came from Milwaukee, Wisc., who aspires to write contemporary Christian fiction and had never been to a Christian writer’s conference before. “When I write, I write to process pain and find out what I’m thinking about something. I write a story that would entertain me.”
Kathryn Den Houter, from Grand Rapids, Mich., and another first-time writer’s conference attendee, called Art of Writing “very informative” and said it helped her realize writing is “doing a high-wire act to toe the line and make sure things are Christian, but also realistic in how novels portray characters.”
