In September, the American Christian Fiction Writers announced the winners of The Carol Awards and The Genesis Contest. Author and Carol Award nominee Kathi Macias reports.
Some 700 authors, editors, agents and other industry professionals gathered this past September in St. Louis for the 10th annual conference of the American Christian Fiction Writers. The three-day event culminated in the Carol Awards, created to recognize the best Christian fiction published by traditional publishing houses every year.
Author Cara Putman won the award when it was still known as “Book of the Year.” She remembers the event as being “like a kiss from Heaven, letting me know I was on the right track.”
“One factor that sets ACFW’s Carol Awards apart from other honors is the sheer volume of entries,” says Cynthia Ruchti, ACFW Professional Relations Liaison. “Authors and publishers are eager to have their novels considered in this arena where readers, editors, agents, librarians and retailers evaluate a book’s impact on the human heart in addition to its appeal to the mind and its entertainment value. Christian fiction has continued to grow in breadth, depth and reach. The variety of categories and the strength of the entries for the Carol Awards underscore that reality.”
ACFW Conference Director Robin Miller agrees. “Celebrating the best of the best in Christian fiction, the ACFW Carol Awards honor the excellent titles published in a wide variety of genres every year.”
ACFW Carol Award Coordinator Mindy Obenhaus is excited that the number of entries continues to grow each year. “Entries for the 2011 contest were up nearly 20 percent over last year. This year, we increased the number of judges for each entry from three to five, adding booksellers and librarians to our ranks.”
From 2002 to 2009, the ACFW honored authors with their esteemed Book of the Year Award. In 2010, the prestigious award was renamed after longtime Bethany House Publishers editor Carol Johnson, who helped pioneer modern Christian fiction.
“We editors are a rather retiring bunch, and I’ve loved my behind-the-scenes role,” Carol says, “discovering new fiction voices and working with them to develop characters and plot from idea to finished book. I was more than a tad uncomfortable with the idea of the award—but glad for the heightened awareness of Christian fiction and the power of story.”
Hundreds of attendees at the 2010 banquet witnessed the presentation of the first round of Carol Awards, during which Carol Johnson herself was honored with ACFW’s first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award.
Carol grew up in a missionary family in the jungles of Borneo, where books such as Pilgrim’s Progress were treasured friends. After high school, she came to Minnesota to attend Bethany College of Missions, which included a small publishing endeavor on campus. Carol was assigned to the printing division, typesetting at a Linotype machine and where she did her first editorial work. After graduation and marriage to Gary, who was directing the publishing house, Carol took up the editorial reins, including a commitment to finding novelists interweaving their stories with a Christian worldview. Carol’s acquisition of novelist Janette Oke for Bethany House Publishers in 1978 was an important step in establishing Christian fiction as one of the most successful genres in the CBA industry.
Carol was also instrumental in founding the Christy Awards for Excellence in Christian Fiction, as well as the Christian Fiction Task Force, a group of publishers banded together to promote Christian fiction in CBA stores. She now partners with her husband to consult with publishers, authors and editors as J&J Literary Advisors.
“I am honored and humbled by the ACFW fiction award having been named after me—honored because of the recognition from this important organization of Christian writers, and humbled because there are many other names that could be included with mine. I’m deeply grateful.”
A kiss from Heaven, indeed.