Winners of the Christy Awards, "honoring and promoting excellence in Christian fiction," are:
Book of the Year: Long Way Gone by Charles Martin (Thomas Nelson)
Contemporary Romance: Her One and Only by Becky Wade (Bethany House)
First Novel: Stars in the Grass by Ann Marie Stewart (Barbour Publishing)
General Fiction: The Promise of Jesse Woods by Chris Fabry (Tyndale House)
Historical: The Mark of the King by Jocelyn Green (Bethany House)
Historical Romance: (two winners)
A Note Yet Unsung by Tamera Alexander (Bethany House)
The Lady and the Lionheart by Joanne Bischof (Mason Jar Books)
Mystery/Suspense/Thriller: When Death Draws Near by Carrie Stuart Parks (Thomas Nelson)
Short Form: Looking into You by Chris Fabry (Tyndale House)
Visionary: The Long Journey to Jake Palmer by James Rubart (Thomas Nelson)
Young Adult: The Silent Songbird by Melanie Dickerson (Thomas Nelson)
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Winners have been announced for the 2017 Writers' Trust of Canada awards, "presented for individual works and career achievement, and in recognition of accomplishments in the fields of fiction, nonfiction, short fiction, poetry and literature for young readers."
James Maskalyk was awarded the CA$60,000 (about US$47,000) Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction for Life on the Ground Floor: Letters from the Edge of Emergency Medicine; David Chariandy received the CA$50,000 (about US$39,170) Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize for Brother; and Sharon Bala took the CA$10,000 (about US$7,835) Writers' Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize for "Butter Tea at Starbucks."
Four authors received awards for their contributions to Canadian literature through a body of work: Louise Bernice Halfe ($25,000 Latner Writers' Trust Poetry Prize); Diane Schoemperlen ($25,000 Matt Cohen Award: In Celebration of a Writing Life); Billie Livingston ($25,000 Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award); and Ruby Slipperjack ($25,000 Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People).
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Tony Birch has won the 2017 Patrick White Literary Award, honoring an author who has "has made an ongoing contribution to Australian literature, but who may not have received due recognition." Established by Patrick White with the proceeds of his 1973 Nobel Prize for Literature, the award is worth A$20,000 (about US$15,170).
Birch is the first indigenous writer to win the prize, the Sydney Morning Herald wrote, and is the author of four books of short stories, a book of poetry, and two novels, "the first of which, Blood, was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin award, and the second, Ghost River, last year won the Victorian Premier's award for Indigenous writing."
He told the paper, "While novelists writing about climate change and ecological issues is important, I think any writer who is writing about the human condition or connections between people and the value of community is contributing to that as well. I suppose my writing is broadly about class, but more essentially about valuing people who might otherwise be regarded as marginalised."