Georgia Author of the Year Awards honors local writers

By Collin Kelley

The Georgia Writers Association (GWA) announced the winners of the 2023 Georgia Author of the Year Awards (GAYA) during a virtual ceremony on June 17.

This year’s awards honored authors in 15 categories, ranging from fiction and poetry to memoir/biography and children’s literature, with a record-breaking 148 nominees.

The 59th annual GAYA also awarded its Posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award to Valerie Boyd, biographer of Zora Neale Hurston, who also won for Specialty Book Award as editor of “Bigger Than Bravery: Black Resilience and Reclamation in a Time of Pandemic.”

Of particular note were two selfpublished winners: Monica Lee Weatherly, Professor of English at Georgia State University, for her poetry chapbook It “Felt Mississippi,” and Susan Carlisle for her romance novel “Racing to You.”

“We’re thrilled to bring together such a strong group of established and upcoming Georgia authors in our lineup of winners and finalists,” says Garrard Conley, Executive Director of GWA. “Personally, I’m also very pleased to see two well-deserving self-published authors among the winners. We believe that this important award should be open to any and all Georgia writers who produce great work, regardless of publication status. We can’t wait to see what next year will bring.

2023 Winners & Finalists

Posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award

Valerie Boyd

MEMOIR/BIOGRAPHY

Winner: “Odyssey: Young Charles Darwin, The Beagle, and the Voyage that Changed the World” by Tom Chaffin

Finalist: “Bodies Out of Place: Theorizing Anti-Blackness in U.S. Society” by Barbara Harris Combs

CHILDREN’S BOOK

Winner: “Penny, The Engineering Tail of the Fourth Little Pig,” Kimberly Derting and Shelli R. Johannes, Illustrated by Hannah Marks

Finalist: “Nigel and the Moon” by Antwan Eady, Illustrated by Gracey Zhang

COOKBOOK

Winner: “Eat Plants, B*tch” by Pinky Cole

Finalist: “Our Fermented Lives: A History of How Fermented Foods Have Shaped Cultures & Communities” by Julia Skinner

DETECTIVE/MYSTERY

Winner: “Anywhere You Run: A Novel” by Wanda M. Morris

Finalist: “Such a Pretty Smile: A Novel” by Kristi DeMeester

ESSAY

Winner: “Sifting Artifacts: Essays” by Kathy A. Bradley

Finalist: “A Month of Sundays: The New Mexico Columns” by Harry Musselwhite

FIRST NOVEL

Winner: “The Cicada Tree” by Robert Gwaltney

Finalist: “Mama Tried” by Kathy Des Jardins

HISTORY

Winner: “Against All Odds: A True Story of Ultimate Courage and Survival in World War II” by Alex Kershaw

Finalist: “A Road Running Southward: Following John Muir’s Journey through an Endangered Land” by Dan Chapman

INSPIRATIONAL

Winner: “The Self Delusion: The New Neuroscience of How We Invent—and Reinvent—Our Identities” by Gregory Berns

Finalist: “You’re Only Human: How Your Limits Reflect God’s Design and Why That’s Good News” by Kelly M. Kapic

LITERARY FICTION

Winner: “Sister Mother Warrior” by Vanessa Riley

Finalist: “The Hollow Kind” by Andy Davidson

POETRY CHAPBOOK

Winner: “It Felt Like Mississippi” by Monica Lee Weatherly

Finalist: “Poem at the Edge of the World” by Julia Caroline Knowlton

POETRY FULL-LENGTH BOOK

Winner: “Call it in the Air” by Ed Pavlić

Finalist: “Palabras que respiran / Words that Breathe” by Cecilia Lee

Romance

Winner: “Stealing Ares” by Kim Conrey

Finalist: “Racing to You” by Susan May Carlisle

YOUNG ADULT

Winner: “Does My Body Offend You?” by Mayra Cuevas and Marie Marquardt

Finalist: “Omar Rising” by Aisha Saeed

SHORT STORY COLLECTION

Winner: “Tower: Stories” by Andy Plattner

Finalist: “Haints on Black Mountain: A Haunted Short Story Collection” by Ann Hite

SPECIALTY BOOK

Winner: “Bigger Than Bravery: Black Resilience and Reclamation in a Time of Pandemic” by Valerie Boyd (editor)

Finalist: “Frankie Welch’s Americana: Fashion, Scarves, and Politics” by Ashley Callahan