Regional and Emerging Authors join nationally acclaimed author James Alexander Thom in receiving Indiana Authors Award

INDIANAPOLIS — Three authors with ties to Indiana have been awarded the inaugural Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Award at a gala awards dinner on September 26 at the Central Library in downtown Indianapolis. Indiana native James Alexander Thom was presented the national award while Susan Neville received the Regional Author award and Christine Montross received the Emerging Author award.

Nominations were submitted from across the state in early spring. Any published writer who was born in Indiana or has lived in Indiana for at least five years was eligible. A seven-member, statewide Award Panel selected the winners and finalists in three categories from the pool of publicly nominated authors:

• National Author - $10,000 prize: a writer with Indiana ties, but whose work is known and read throughout the country. National authors were evaluated on their entire body of work.
Winner: James Alexander Thom; Finalists: Margaret McMullan and Scott Russell Sanders
• Regional Author - $7,500 prize: A writer who is well-known and respected throughout the state of Indiana. Regional authors were evaluated on their entire body of work.
Winner: Susan Neville; Finalists: Jared Carter and James H. Madison
• Emerging Author - $5,000 prize: A writer with only one published book. Emerging authors were evaluated on their single published work.
Winner: Christine Montross; Finalists: Kathleen Hughes and Greg Schwipps

In addition to these prizes, each winning author’s hometown Indiana public library will receive a grant for $2,500 to support library programs and services. This new award recognizes the contributions of Indiana authors to the literary landscape in Indiana and across the nation. The Eugene & Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Award is presented by the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library Foundation and funded by the generosity of The Glick Fund, a fund of Central Indiana Community Foundation.

“This was a rare and heart-lifting pleasure,” said James Alexander Thom. “What a great night to share the stage with Ms. Neville and Ms. Montross whose works will be so acknowledged in the years to come.”

“I am very honored to be named along with Jared Carter and James Madison, writers I so admire, in the regional category,” said Susan Neville. “In my teaching and reading life, I am grateful for writers who have dedicated their talent to a particular place and recorded what might have gone unrecorded or unseen or once seen and then forgotten.”

Christine Montross added, “It is an extraordinary honor to be named the winner of the Emerging Author Category of the Indiana Authors Award. I am so grateful to Eugene and Marilyn Glick for establishing this generous award, which will both recognize existing Hoosier writers and encourage future literary talent in the state. It is a great and humbling pleasure to be recognized for doing a job one loves to do; and it is particularly meaningful to me to have been singled out from such an accomplished group of contestants.”

Be sure to check back here at www.indianaauthorsaward.org in January of 2010 for information about nominating an author for the 2010 Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Award.