Change and Continuity at Christy Awards

by Jana Riess, Religion BookLine -- Publishers Weekly, 7/12/2006

On Saturday night at ICRS, a couple of surprise winners were the talk of the Christy Awards, the highest honor given in Christian fiction. Paraclete Press, a small, ecumenical religion publisher based on Cape Cod, took the award for first novel with Nicole Mazzarella’s This Heavy Silence, a dark story of redemption for an Ohio woman farmer. The win was not surprising based on merit—Mazzarella’s book recently won the top fiction award from Christianity Today, and was listed among the best of 2005 by Library Journal—but because of its honest depiction of the character’s life and some themes and language not usually associated with Christian fiction. “I wrote the book for a very general readership, so the fact that it has been honored by the Christys is encouraging,” said Mazzarella. “I think the reason it is so shocking to me is that the protagonist doubts God more than she believes in him.”

Another surprise of the night was the winner in the contemporary category for sequels, series, and novellas—Vanessa Del Fabbro’s The Road to Home from Steeple Hill, the inspirational division of Harlequin. Steeple Hill also won an award in 2004, but it has never triumphed in a category other than romance, so the win was particularly sweet for editor Joan Marlow Golan, who said she loved the story of racial reconciliation in South Africa from the moment it came in.

Still, the night belonged once again to Bethany House, which took home four of the seven awards. Dale Cramer’s Levi’s Will prevailed in the contemporary stand-alone category; Athol Dickson’s River Rising won in mystery and suspense; Karen Hancock won the visionary category for the fourth straight year with the fantasy novel Shadow Over Kiriath; and Deeanne Gist took romance with A Bride Most Begrudging. The other Christy went to Liz Curtis Higgs of WaterBrook for the historical novel Whence Came A Prince. Totally shut out this year were former winners WestBow, Multnomah, Tyndale, Zondervan and Broadman & Holman.

Between the awards that went to two non-CBA publishers, the selection of ABA novelist Bret Lott as keynote speaker, and the possibility that Borders will do a national promotion of the Christys this fall, what was once a small niche recognition is rapidly becoming an important fiction award.