Four authors with Indiana ties have been honored as recipients of the 2016 Eugene & Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Award, a program of The Indianapolis Public Library Foundation that celebrates those whose works have influenced the literary landscape of Indiana and the nation.
During the Oct. 29 Awards Dinner at Central Library, Bloomington, Indiana native Karen Joy Fowler was recognized as this year’s National Author Winner. Fowler is the author of six novels and three short story collections. Her novel, The Jane Austen Book Club, was a 13-week New York Times bestseller which was made into a major motion picture. Her most recent novel, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, won the PEN/Faulkner Award as well as the California Book Award for Fiction in 2013. Fowler currently lives in Santa Cruz, California.
The 2016 Regional Author Winner is Philip Gulley, a Quaker pastor and writer from Danville, Indiana whose many characters and recollections are taken from his Indiana boyhood. Gulley has published 20 books, including the bestselling Porch Talk series of inspirational and humorous essays, as well as the acclaimed Harmony series chronicling life in the eccentric Quaker community of Harmony, Indiana.
Chosen from a pool of three finalists, this year’s Emerging Author Winner is Greencastle, Indiana author Sarah Gerkensmeyer, whose short story collection What You Are Now Enjoying was selected as winner of the Autumn House Press Fiction Prize and the Late Night Library’s Debut-litzer prize.
The first-ever Genre Excellence Author Winner is children’s picture book author April Pulley Sayre, a South Carolina native who now lives in South Bend, Indiana. Sayre is an award-winning author and photo illustrator best known for her lyrical, read-aloud science books for children that have been recognized as ALA Notable books.
In addition to a cash prize, each winner will designate a library to receive a grant from the Library Foundation. Since the Award’s inception in 2009, winning authors have designated $67,500 in library grants.
For more information, visit indianaauthorsaward.org.
