Winning Writers Announces the Winners of the Eighth Annual North Street Book Prize

NORTHAMPTON, Mass., Feb. 15, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Winning Writers is pleased to announce the results from its eighth annual North Street Book Prize. This contest recognizes the best books being self-published today. 1,946 books were received from around the world.

Diane Chiddister of Yellow Springs, Ohio won this year’s Grand Prize across all genres for her literary novel One More Day. This exquisite story delves into the inner lives of four denizens of an old-age home: a playful woman with dementia and a penchant for escape attempts, an anthropologist who must rely on strengths other than his mind as he approaches death, a nurse who’s better at giving than receiving love, and a dedicated administrator whose authority is challenged. Chiddister received $8,000, a marketing analysis and one-hour phone consultation with Carolyn Howard-Johnson, a $300 credit at BookBaby, and 3 free ads in the Winning Writers newsletter (a $525 value).

• Tonia Shimin of Goleta, California won First Prize in Art Book for The Art of Symeon Shimin, a full-color retrospective of her father’s paintings and commercial artwork whose highlights include the mural “Contemporary Justice and the Child” for the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington, DC.
• Kayla Marie Pierre of Brooklyn, New York won First Prize in Children’s Picture Book for Happy Harper: Grandpa Comes Home, an uplifting story about a biracial girl in Brooklyn whose Grandpa is about to move there from Haiti.
• Robert Chazz Chute of London, Ontario won First Prize in Genre Fiction for Endemic, a post-apocalyptic plague novel with a neurodivergent female book editor as an unlikely action hero.
• Alicia Czechowski of Baltimore, Maryland won First Prize in Graphic Novel & Memoir for Paisley Invasion, a quirky coloring book with a wordless narrative about mysterious visitors from space.
• Wendy Sibbison of Greenfield, Massachusetts won First Prize in Mainstream/Literary Fiction for Helen in Trouble, the story of a sheltered high school girl in Virginia in 1963 who discovers her inner resources when she must procure an illegal abortion.
• Lorelei Kay of Hesperia, California won First Prize in Creative Nonfiction & Memoir for From Mormon to Mermaid, an account of her feminist awakening that led her to leave the Mormon Church.
• Gayle Lauradunn of Albuquerque, New Mexico won First Prize in Poetry for All the Wild and Holy, a book-length poem from the perspective of a woman in Deerfield, Massachusetts who was kidnapped in a raid by French-Canadian and Mohawk warriors in 1704 but refused to be ransomed by her Puritan family. She later married into a Mohawk tribe.

The category winners each received $1,000, a marketing analysis and one-hour phone consultation with Carolyn Howard-Johnson, a $300 credit at BookBaby, and one free ad in the Winning Writers newsletter (a $175 value).

Ten Honorable Mentions of $250 each went to L. Sue Baugh, William Guion, Cathy Kreutter, Monica Canlas Tuy & Eric Tuy, Peggy Ann Barnett, E.G. Radcliff, Danny Gorny, Cameron Beach, Lucien Agosta, and Thomas F. Sheehan.

The judges’ remarks and excerpts from the winning entries are published at winningwriters.com. $17,500 was awarded in all, making this one of the world’s most generous contests for self-published books.

The ninth North Street competition opens today with a deadline of June 30, 2023. The grand prize is increasing to $10,000, and the entry fee is now $75 per book. The contest is expanding to include hybrid-published as well as self-published books, and there is a new category for middle grade books. All entrants will receive free gifts from the contest’s co-sponsors—Carolyn Howard-Johnson, BookBaby, Book Award Pro, and Self-Publishing Made Simple.

Founded in 2001, Winning Writers is a partner member of the Alliance of Independent Authors. In addition to the North Street Book Prize, Winning Writers also sponsors the Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest, the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest, and the Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest (no fee). All of these contests are recommended by Reedsy. Winning Writers has also been named one of the “101 Best Websites for Writers” (Writer’s Digest, 2022).

Contact:
Adam Cohen
[email protected] 
413-320-1847

SOURCE Winning Writers