150 Award Genres
Children
- Children - Action
- Children - Adventure
- Children - Animals
- Children - Audiobook
- Children - Christian
- Children - Coming of Age
- Children - Concept
- Children - Educational
- Children - Fable
- Children - Fantasy/Sci-Fi
- Children - General
- Children - Grade 4th-6th
- Children - Grade K-3rd
- Children - Mystery
- Children - Mythology/Fairy Tale
- Children - Non-Fiction
- Children - Picture Book
- Children - Preschool
- Children - Preteen
- Children - Religious Theme
- Children - Social Issues
Christian
- Christian - Amish
- Christian - Biblical Counseling
- Christian - Devotion/Study
- Christian - Fantasy/Sci-Fi
- Christian - Fiction
- Christian - General
- Christian - Historical Fiction
- Christian - Living
- Christian - Non-Fiction
- Christian - Romance - Contemporary
- Christian - Romance - General
- Christian - Romance - Historical
- Christian - Thriller
Fiction
- Fiction - Action
- Fiction - Adventure
- Fiction - Animals
- Fiction - Anthology
- Fiction - Audiobook
- Fiction - Chick Lit
- Fiction - Crime
- Fiction - Cultural
- Fiction - Drama
- Fiction - Dystopia
- Fiction - Fantasy - Epic
- Fiction - Fantasy - General
- Fiction - Fantasy - Urban
- Fiction - General
- Fiction - Graphic Novel/Comic
- Fiction - Historical - Event/Era
- Fiction - Historical - Personage
- Fiction - Holiday
- Fiction - Horror
- Fiction - Humor/Comedy
- Fiction - Inspirational
- Fiction - Intrigue
- Fiction - LGBTQ
- Fiction - Literary
- Fiction - Magic/Wizardry
- Fiction - Military
- Fiction - Mystery - General
- Fiction - Mystery - Historical
- Fiction - Mystery - Legal
- Fiction - Mystery - Murder
- Fiction - Mystery - Sleuth
- Fiction - Mythology
- Fiction - New Adult
- Fiction - Paranormal
- Fiction - Realistic
- Fiction - Religious Theme
- Fiction - Science Fiction
- Fiction - Short Story/Novela
- Fiction - Social Issues
- Fiction - Southern
- Fiction - Sports
- Fiction - Supernatural
- Fiction - Suspense
- Fiction - Tall Tale
- Fiction - Thriller - Conspiracy
- Fiction - Thriller - Environmental
- Fiction - Thriller - Espionage
- Fiction - Thriller - General
- Fiction - Thriller - Legal
- Fiction - Thriller - Medical
- Fiction - Thriller - Political
- Fiction - Thriller - Psychological
- Fiction - Thriller - Terrorist
- Fiction - Time Travel
- Fiction - Urban
- Fiction - Visionary
- Fiction - Western
- Fiction - Womens
Non-Fiction
- Non-Fiction - Adventure
- Non-Fiction - Animals
- Non-Fiction - Anthology
- Non-Fiction - Art/Photography
- Non-Fiction - Audiobook
- Non-Fiction - Autobiography
- Non-Fiction - Biography
- Non-Fiction - Business/Finance
- Non-Fiction - Cooking/Food
- Non-Fiction - Cultural
- Non-Fiction - Drama
- Non-Fiction - Education
- Non-Fiction - Environment
- Non-Fiction - Genealogy
- Non-Fiction - General
- Non-Fiction - Gov/Politics
- Non-Fiction - Grief/Hardship
- Non-Fiction - Health - Fitness
- Non-Fiction - Health - Medical
- Non-Fiction - Historical
- Non-Fiction - Hobby
- Non-Fiction - Home/Crafts
- Non-Fiction - Humor/Comedy
- Non-Fiction - Inspirational
- Non-Fiction - LGBTQ
- Non-Fiction - Marketing
- Non-Fiction - Memoir
- Non-Fiction - Military
- Non-Fiction - Motivational
- Non-Fiction - Music/Entertainment
- Non-Fiction - New Age
- Non-Fiction - Occupational
- Non-Fiction - Parenting
- Non-Fiction - Relationships
- Non-Fiction - Religion/Philosophy
- Non-Fiction - Retirement
- Non-Fiction - Self Help
- Non-Fiction - Short Story/Novela
- Non-Fiction - Social Issues
- Non-Fiction - Spiritual/Supernatural
- Non-Fiction - Sports
- Non-Fiction - Travel
- Non-Fiction - True Crime
- Non-Fiction - Womens
- Non-Fiction - Writing/Publishing
Poetry
Romance
Young Adult
- Young Adult - Action
- Young Adult - Adventure
- Young Adult - Coming of Age
- Young Adult - Fantasy - Epic
- Young Adult - Fantasy - General
- Young Adult - Fantasy - Urban
- Young Adult - General
- Young Adult - Horror
- Young Adult - Mystery
- Young Adult - Mythology/Fairy Tale
- Young Adult - Non-Fiction
- Young Adult - Paranormal
- Young Adult - Religious Theme
- Young Adult - Romance
- Young Adult - Sci-Fi
- Young Adult - Social Issues
- Young Adult - Thriller
Illustration Award
Recommend this book:
City Times and Other Poems
Vihang A. Naik
2015 Honorable Mention
80 Pages
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Poetry - General
City Times and Other Poems is a collection of poetry written by Vihang A. Naik. Naik is a poet, professor and translator of poetry. This collection contains six major poem-themes with the exception of his visual, standalone poem, Self Portrait. The poems are free verse in form, with the sections of each chapter or poem-theme merging into and flowing from each other. Naik's style is terse yet rich in expression, form, shape and sound.
Vihang A. Naik's poetry collection, City Times and Other Poems, is stark and evocative. Each poem begs to be read aloud, slowly, to be savored for its mingled sounds, images and meaning. Some of the poems are quite moody and introspective, while others sparkle with intensity. At the Shore and City Times were the poems that resonated most strongly with me. You can hear the surf, see the waves and watch the fleeting images etched in sand in At the Shore. The subtitles of this poem are Distance, Illusion, Desire, Pleasure, Voice, Eyes, concluding in At the Shore, and each presents a different, yet connected aspect of the theme.
City Times is a heady mix of beauty, life and a visual array of the abstract sculptures and buildings that form the skeleton of the city. The section On Visiting Grandfather's house is nostalgic and moody: "Grandfather's father/ was a saint/ now/ a photograph/ lies untouched in an attic." Time seemed to stand still for me as I read Naik's verse. Each word is used with precision; each image is clearly brought forth with remarkable power and efficiency; each mood is brought to life, examined and then transformed into its successor. Reading City Times and Other Poems is a heady and illuminating experience. It's most highly recommended.
Recommend this book:
I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast
Melissa Studdard
2015 Bronze Medal
62 Pages
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Poetry - General
I Ate The Cosmos for Breakfast is a beauty from cover to final page. Melissa Studdard has such a passion for life. She quite literally breathes a world of color into the sometimes drab world of poetry and seems to have such vigor that I would most likely be intimidated should I meet her in person!
Just sit and take a moment to picture what the name suggests. I ate the cosmos. What does that mean? The odd descriptions and zany imagery gave this set of poetry a bit of shine to its rhyme and a bit of sass to its syntax. There are so many questions present in the text and, while the author gives her own answers and her own interpretations, there is also room for the reader to explore and think for themselves to find a meaning in each poem.
What I liked most was that each poem had a very visual quality to it. No description was left out, no tiny detail seemed to have been forgotten. Each poem easily formed a picture with words that stuck with you after you finished reading. I loved the formatting that Melissa Studdard chose for this piece. I get that poetry is supposed to be free form, and in the eye of each beholder...however, that does not allow the freedom to have messy format or odd spacing. Thank you, Melissa, for writing awesome poetry that also looks attractive and well written on the page. That's a hard thing to do, it seems, in the genre.
Recommend this book:
Holes in Space
A Poetry Collection
Andrea Barbosa
2015 Silver Medal
50 Pages
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Poetry - General
Holes in Space by Andrea Barbosa is a soft and colorful flower. The poetry in this book blooms with life and love. The book begins with a shower of emotion. "Poeme" is filled with warm metaphors that entice all of the senses. I found my emotions pouring through me as I read "Devotion." I could feel the heartbeat and the troubling love that has grown in the soul and the devotion that will not be denied. I found the fragile dreams of "Life Dream" to be so true. How years fly by and dreams grow and then vanish. And the one thing that no one can escape ... death. All these things, as humans, we fear. They create and shape our lives. The moments that we can never forget become the moments that live in our hearts and the hearts of those we inspire.
Holes in Space is an incredible poetic work. It is not often that every poem in a collection of work will make you feel such strong emotion. The word choices paint such beautiful pictures. I can feel the love, the pain, and the raw emotion that went into every word. It is even more rare for poetry to create such intoxication of raw emotions. If you love or hurt, you need to experience this book first hand. I was very touched by this work, but my words cannot do justice to the emotion that it brings forth. I highly recommend that you experience this book first hand.
Recommend this book:
The Antigone Poems
Marie Slaight
2015 Gold Medal
92 Pages
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Poetry - General
In Greek mythology, Antigone is the quintessential tortured woman of strength - born of incest, condemned to die for the act of burying her dead brother’s body against the wishes of her uncle King Creon, and doomed to be remembered solely in terms of the curse that defined her life. Marie Slaight’s The Antigone Poems offers a dark, probing examination of the shadows of their namesake’s curse -- shadows which loom over women even today. Images of isolation, helplessness, death, blood, daemons, and a host of other archetypal afflictions pervade this stark, masterful collection. None of the poems bears a title but the lines are as distinct as if each were a fingerprint left in blood at the scene of an unspeakable crime: “We live our lives/the instant between life and death.”
Mask-like, immutable illustrations by the late Terrence Tasker (1947 - 1992), to whose memory this collection is dedicated, stare accusingly from random pages, bearing anguished witness to the psychic wounding encompassed by the verses and providing a perfect contrapuntal tension as Slaight’s tragic testimonial unfolds. The overall effect is riveting in the same way that one cannot look away from a car crash - death is omnipresent but the infinite number of possible manifestations defies augury. In the end, we can only watch in abject terror and wait for the toll to reveal itself.
As with all works of tragedy, catharsis is key; we keep reading because we do not want to accept that the situation is hopeless and because the absolute nature of the chaos before us makes our own human condition seem comparatively well-ordered and temporarily manageable. Slaight herself proclaims, in a parting gesture: “I wanted everything. To live all lives, all deaths, encompass all women. To smash every confine.” Antigone would have been proud.
Recommend this book:
Hector and Achilles
Edward Eaton
2014 Finalist
210 Pages
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Poetry - General
Edward Eaton gives readers a new take on an old story in Hector and Achilles, a verse drama of the great battle of heroes in the Trojan war. The dramatic dialogue is written in a series of the standard 5-7-5 haiku, lending power and beauty to the language of the play. Written in two acts and divided by Hector’s death, the play is framed by Hector’s monologues at the beginning and Achilles’s monologues at the end.
As with any rewriting of a classic story, this one reflects the feelings of the writer’s times, and there is a great deal of musing about life, death, the nature of the gods, and the reasons behind war. The Trojans are cast as the good guys, and the Greeks as hairy, war-mongering buffoons, until Achilles’s speech casts even that certainty into doubt. The poetic language emphasizes the pathos of scenes between Hector and his father, wife, and son. The Greek heroes Odysseus and Ajax become the source of comic relief. For those who know the story, there are lines that these characters utter foreshadowing events they know nothing about, but at which the audience can smile and nod knowingly.
Eaton’s Hector and Achilles leaves the reader, and I am sure the theater audience, with much to think about regarding war, grief, and courage. Additionally, the verse style of the dialogue makes the play much more enjoyable to read than the average script. The beauty of the language and the power of the story overcome the lack of visible action, though I suspect a theatrical production of the work would be well worth seeing. I recommend Hector and Achilles. It is a rewarding read.
Recommend this book:
Paper Bones
Sherry Rentschler
2014 Honorable Mention
114 Pages
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Poetry - General
Every once in a while, a book of poetry comes into my possession that forces me to share it with others, whether they consider themselves poetry readers or not. Sherry Rentschler’s book, Paper Bones, is one of these books. As I read her poems, I wanted to share them, if only to hear them said aloud. In her introduction to the collection, Rentschler states, “I don’t know if I will ever call myself a true poet,” but I will do it for her. She is a poet in the truest sense of the word. Someone who sees the world in a new light and shares their insights with the melody of their words.
Her poems have the ability to both enchant and haunt the reader. Rentschler’s poems take on often clichéd poetic topics, such as love, loss, and depression, and explore them in new and profound ways, sharing her perceptions of these experiences with honesty and creativity. For example, in her poem “Love’s Last Stand,” one of my personal favorites in the collection, she equates the act of falling in love with a game of poker, with the love interest playing a gambler who has never been beaten and the potential suitor playing the adversary simply trying to win one hand. Like many of the poems in her collection, this one is clever and whimsical, yet at the same time shines a glaring light upon the serious issues of the topic. In this poem’s case, the games we play in love. Paper Bones is an excellent poetry collection that I will recommend to all the poetry readers in my life. I highly recommend it for both scholars of poetry and those just beginning to explore the art form. I truly hope that this is not the last I will read from this outstanding poet.
Recommend this book:
Ring of Fire
Selected Poems 1972–2008
Alessandra Gelmi
2014 Bronze Medal
108 Pages
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Poetry - General
Alessandra Gelmi’s collection, Ring of Fire: Selected Poems 1972-2008, brings together poetry that touches in one way or another on the topic of suffering. Don’t expect these more than two dozen poems to be anything like any other poems about suffering that you have read. The topics range from the achingly painful, such as lost love to the inability to conceive to orphaned children to the frailty of age, to the breathtakingly shocking, such as torture and child abuse. More than once I had to reread a poem because the revelation at the end wrenched the early lines into a new focus. Gelmi does not write easy poetry, she writes rich poetry.
Alessandra Gelmi has an incredible talent for voice, irony and image. The three residents in “Visiting the Nursing Home” all have distinct voices, as does the speaker in “Deliverance.” Gelmi’s use of irony can be political or personal. In “Casualties,” we see the pain of orphanages, with a last line that punctuates the inhumanity of institutions; in “Television,” the last line makes us want to cry for every abandoned child who dreams of a loving birth mother. It is perhaps Gelmi’s images and the fresh language she uses to describe them that truly make Ring of Fire: Selected Poems 1972-2008 a pleasure to read. In “Over Dinner,” she compares needy women to “these gulls circling above you/ready to swoop down/Cannibals in white brassieres” and describes herself as a baby as looking “like Benito Mussolini/Bald like bomb-razed land.”
If you enjoy rich poetry that takes some time to unpack, I highly recommend Alessandra Gelmi’s collection Ring of Fire: Selected Poems 1972-2008.
Recommend this book:
Dreaming My Animal Selves
Le Songe de mes Ames Animales (Bilingual Collection in French and English)
Helene Cardona
2014 Silver Medal
80 Pages
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Poetry - General
Dreaming My Animal Selves: Le Songe de mes Ames Animales (Bilingual Collection in French and English) by Helene Cardona is a bilingual collection, as the title suggests. Bilingual works always help in widening the reader audience. This collection will appeal not only to French but also to English poetry enthusiasts. The poems take you through a surreal and ethereal world, with emphasis on dreaming and visuals that heighten the surrealist effect of the poems. The poem by Rainer Maria Rilke in the prologue speaks about the influence of Rilke in the poet's style and thinking to a large extent.
Bilingual poems are always challenging because translating and keeping the metaphor of the original intact is not an easy task. The poet has done that here with ease and skill. All the poems express freedom, free thinking, and thoughts that are not chained or bound by any rules and norms. That is exactly how poetry should be written. All the poems are rich in imagery and the visuals are highlighted by the word choices and the author's keen eye for detailing. The poems are dreamy, bordering on surrealism, spirituality, and nice imagery.
All the poems are soul-searching and they enchant you with their mysticism and elegance. The surrealist feel in the poems at times makes them wistful and magical. The cosmic forces of the universe, fantasy, surrealism, dreams, and many other topics are part of the theme in the poems. All the poems are crafted well and each has some interesting concept to share with the reader. I haven't read such a beautiful poetry collection in recent times. They are surreal and ethereal with wonderful imagery.
Recommend this book:
Reflections of Life
Jon M. Nelson
2014 Gold Medal
156 Pages
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Poetry - General
Reflections Of Life by Jon M. Nelson is a collection of poetry which introduces readers to his life as an American soldier. A soldier is more than just a "Military Robot," as some may call them. A soldier has feelings of love, hate, sadness. He endures happiness, faces fears, struggles with obstacles and hardships, all while serving the American people and its government. The author writes about all those feelings and circumstances in 153 pages of pure, raw, honest emotion.
The book contains headings such as: American Pride, Love of a Lifetime, Human Nature, A Darker Side, and God's Beauty. Each of these headings have their own particular theme within. For example, the section American Pride contains poems pertaining to the soldiers' experiences and hardships as they remain committed to the cause and fight to keep America and its people safe and free. Love of a Lifetime is poetry pertaining to the author's wife. The writings within this section are from deep within the heart and soul of the author, describing so much love, passion, devotion, and appreciation to one person. The writings are of a Romeo and Juliet nature. The poetry is simply romantically divine. Human Nature consists of a variety of passionate poems pertaining to perseverance, good change, peace, youthful innocence, strength, hard work, dedication, friendship, morals, values, chance, and giving all for a better tomorrow. A Darker Side consists of the inner struggles a soldier might face such as the nightmare of war, the loss of comrades, isolation from humanity, depression, self doubt and distress. God's Beauty consists of poems pertaining to God. These poems appear to be the author's way to cope with the evil, the hardships, loss, and sorrow by finding God and the love, beauty, purity, and innocence in all he created.
Jon M. Nelson's collection of poetry is a heartfelt, powerfully emotional look into a soldier's mind, soul, thoughts, and life. A reader will gain knowledge, understanding, and respect for the American soldier as they read the author's skillfully and expressively written book.
Recommend this book:
Reel to Real
Carroll Blair
2013 Finalist
124 Pages
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Poetry - General
"Reel to Real" is an excellent collection of contemporary poetry. It highlights the kind of poetry that is the favorite of all poetry publishers. The abstract images leave the reader to interpret every poem his/her own way. The collection is divided into two sections, but the entire book is dedicated to 'Fatemeh'. The author captures the reader's attention with excellent wordplay and some wonderful imagery. Certain poems have deviated from the usual formatting to make them more effective. The different kind of formatting of certain poems has also added to their visual appeal. There are a few very short poems. Though very short, some of them have a philosophical feel to them and all of them are very profound, especially the poem 'The Longest Marriage' where the poet conveys something very philosophical and rational in just three lines. All poems give you a different meaning each time you read them which tells you how skillful and adept the writer is in handling themes. A lighter poem with humor is 'A List of Things to Do When You're Bored'. It shows the poet's lighter side too and how comfortable he is when writing lighter poems.
The poet has also handled minimalism very well. The minimalist poetry in 'The New Age' and 'Nursing a Cold to Its Demise' is also very effective. Many poems are very colorful and they read as if the poet has taken a brush and painted the scene. The impressions and the poet's observations on life and his surroundings form the essence of his poetry.