Tag Archives: first book

Presbyterian Writers Guild honors award-winning authors at online celebration Reply

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By Mike Ferguson, Presbyterian News Service

Read the entire story here.

On August 8, 2022, the Presbyterian Writers Guild celebrated the work of three authors during an awards presentation all too familiar over the past two years: via Zoom, rather than the in-person General Assembly venue that members much prefer.

“We wish we were seeing each other in person in the hallowed halls of the General Assembly,” said PWG president Emily Enders Odom, “where much laughter and a lot of chocolate is shared.”

Guild members and friends were treated to talks by three honorees: Jane Kurtz, winner of the David Steele Distinguished Writer Award for 2020; her sister, Caroline Kurtz, the 2020 Presbyterian Publishing Corporation Best First  Book Award winner for her book A Road Called Down on Both Sides: Growing Up in Ethiopia and America;  and Bill Chadwick, who won the PPC’s Best First Book Award for 2022 for Still Laughing, Still Learning (Still Looking for a Good Title).

Caroline and Jane Kurtz

“It’s such a pleasure to see what words and pictures can do, and such a pleasure to collaborate with so many people,” Jane said.

“I’ve been a Presbyterian all my life. To have been fed and encouraged and challenged and sent by the Presbyterian Church and now recognized and awarded and supported in this work, that means so much to me,” Caroline said. “We have longed to share our lives with people who haven’t had the chance to experience it as we have.”

See Jane Kurtz’s Powerpoint presentation here.

See Caroline Kurtz’s Powerpoint presentation here.

Bill Chadwick, a retired pastor living in Minnetonka, Minnesota, called his book a culmination of years of ministry, including both stories and sermons.

2022 Best First Book winner

“I was hoping to share my great wisdom with a wider audience, have something permanent for my children and maybe grandchildren and be a New York Times best-selling author,” he said with a smile. “I got the second one, anyhow.”

“My dad was a farmer and a wonderful storyteller. I’m proud to follow in his tradition,” Chadwick said. “It’s a wonderful honor and I’m so grateful.”

Kevin Kouba, the music director at Briargate Presbyterian Church in Louisville, provided piano music during the celebration. The Rev. Dr. Bridgett Green, Vice President for Publishing at the PPC, discussed recently published and upcoming titles for both grownups and children.

Yet another highlight was an acapella version of those gathered online singing the PWG hymn, written years ago by legendary Presbyterian journalist Vic Jameson and set to the tune of “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken.”

Presbyterian Writers Guild Hymn

By Vic Jameson

Glorious words we all have written,
members of the Writers Guild;
With our skills we all are smitten
and with virtue we are filled.
We are bound to be immortal;
great renown is our intent.
We will rest in Heaven’s portal
if we just can get in print.

We will be an inspiration,
as we write our lovely words.
Every tribe and every nation
will be glad they’ve read or heard
all our works of smiles and sadness
and the joy we bring to them;
While our hearts are filled with gladness
as the royalties roll in.

We will make the world much brighter
with our poems and with our prose.
And the byline of each writer
will be one creation knows.
We will find that we are listed
in the heavenly Hall of Fame.
And each one will have requested:

Please, God, don’t misspell my name!

Best First Book Award winner chosen Reply

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Bill Chadwick, a retired pastor in Minnetonka, Minnesota, has been chosen winner of the Presbyterian Writers Guild’s 2022 Best First Book Award, co-sponsored by the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Chadwick, a graduate of San Francisco Theological Seminary, won the prestigious award for his memoir, Still Laughing, Still Learning (Still Looking for a Good Title).

Chadwick’s book – a compilation of stories chronicling his career as a Presbyterian minister – “is one of a handful of books I’ve read that is laugh-out-loud funny, said Best-First-Book-Committee chair Jerry Van Marter.

Added committee member Skip Dunford of Elizabethtown, Kentucky: “Bill’s stories capitalize on the ability of stories to help readers experience both the humor and pathos of life. Its appeal lies in the author’s ability to transform short stories into larger life lessons.”

Still Laughing, Still Learning was one of seven books nominated for the biennial award, which includes a $500 cash prize funded by PPC. This year’s contest was open to books written by Presbyterian writers in 2020 or 2021.

Best First Book 2014-2015 announced 1

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By Jerry L. Van Marter

Change of Heart coverChange of Heart: Justice, Mercy and Making Peace with My Sister’s Killer by Jeanne Bishop has been named winner of the Presbyterian Writers Guild’s 2014-2015 Best First Book Award.

The award–with a $500 cash prize funded by the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation–is given at each General Assembly to the best first book by a Presbyterian writer during the previous two years. Bishop will receive her award at the Writers Guild’s General Assembly Luncheon June 23 in Portland, Oregon.

Bishop’s story begins on the night before Palm Sunday in 1990 when, after returning home from dinner with family, her sister, Nancy, and husband, Richard, and their unborn child were all brutally murdered by an intruder. The book then takes the reader through a gut-wrenching but ultimately heart-warming journey as Jeanne Bishop’s life is transformed from revenge seeking to restorative justice.

The Best First Book Award judges noted: “Many of us see a violent news story and if it doesn¹t impact us personally, we move on, not considering the long-term impact that violence has on the community and the family. The author is honest about the awful actions of the man who murdered her family members, her own struggles, and the ways in which her faith pushed her beyond the usual platitudes and commitments into advocating for a new way to see and seek justice, personally as well as legally. Transformation is hard, and this story disturbs and challenges every reader’s belief systems and commitments as a Christian.”

Bishop, who still lives in Winnetka, Illinois, in suburban Chicago, where her sister and family were murdered, is a member of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago.

year without a purchaseThe Writers Guild’s Best First Book Award committee also awarded an Honorable Mention to Scott Dannemiller, a former PC(USA) missionary in Guatemala who now lives with his family in Franklin, Tennessee, for his first book, The Year Without a Purchase: One Family’s Quest to Stop Shopping and Start Connecting.

 While acknowledging that money is important, Dannemiller writes that “preoccupation with money is a symptom of something larger lurking just beneath the surface.” Through often hilarious anecdotes, he chronicles his family’s exploration of what’s wrong with a life overly influenced by consumerism.

One judge noted: “This book is fun, funny, and faithful–sharing both the moral quandaries of consumerism in the U.S. and practical stumbling blocks for those of us seeking to live differently. I found myself laughing at the stories, finding great meaning in the insightful observations made by the author’s children, and thinking of ways I could get out of the frantic cycle of buying stuff.”

 

 

Here’s what your DUES can do Reply

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By Bill Lancaster

Small amounts add up to a lot for your Presbyterian Writers Guild. Your $25 annual dues payments make it possible for the Guild to carry on all its work.

With the help of your dues, the Guild publishes The Writer (this electronic newsletter), supports a website, offers a biennial General Assembly Luncheon, sponsors webinars, and gives prestigious awards. Two of these awards, the David W. Steele Distinguished Writer Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award, are funded by dues. The PPC First Book Award is now funded by the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation.

The General Assembly Luncheon brings many members together, gives us an opportunity to draw others into the fold, and provides a setting for hearing world-class writers speak about their work.

The webinars bring experts in electronic publishing, marketing, and writing to your computer to assist you in your writing endeavors. These can be life-changing events in our fast-changing publishing world.

The Distinguished Writer Award allows us to recognize outstanding authors such as Eugene Peterson in 2009-2010, John Buchanan in 2011-2012, and Kathleen Bostrom in 2013-2014. This award carries a monetary grant of $1,000, plus travel and expenses to General Assembly.

The Lifetime Achievement Award allows us to honor singular writers who have shown greatness over a lifetime of work.

The PPC First Book Award allows us to lift up emerging authors and showcase their first book.

The Writer supplies guidance for effective writing and gives members a place to share news about their latest publications and accomplishments.

Through your $25 annual dues, you belong to this group of distinguished Presbyterian writers, receive support for the art and craft of writing, and CONTRIBUTE to the awards the Guild is able to give.

Your dues allow the Guild to support writers as they seek to express beauty, truth, and faith through writing.

You will receive an email soon with a way to pay your 2015 dues electronically through PayPal.

If you prefer to pay by check, please send $25, payable to the Presbyterian Writers Guild, to Emily Enders Odom, Vice President, 308 N. Chapman St., Greensboro, NC 27403. And while you are at it, share with other members news of your writing by including a note with your check, and do send us any new email or other address changes.

Thank you for your continuing support of the Guild!

Bill Lancaster is treasurer of the Presbyterian Writers Guild.

Novel set during Civil War wins First Book Award Reply

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Presbyterian Writers Guild selects Robert John Andrews for prize

By Jerry L. Van Marter

ImageThe Presbyterian Writers Guild has selected Robert John Andrews, a pastor in Danville, Pennsylvania, to receive this year’s Presbyterian Publishing Corporation (PPC) First Book Award for his novel set during the Civil War, Nathaniel’s Call. The award honors the best first book by a Presbyterian author published during the calendar years of 2012–2013.

Andrews’ book, self-published in 2012, was selected from among 17 entries in a variety of genres to receive the biennial award. The PPC First Book Award winner is recognized at the Presbyterian Writers Guild’s General Assembly luncheon, which this year will be Thursday, June 19, in Detroit.

Announcing the award, Jane Hines of Nashville, retired director of communications for the Synod of Living Waters and chair of the PPC First Book Award Committee, said, “Several genres are represented in the 17 books we received (teen science fiction, memoirs, poetry, young adult fiction, novels, journals, dissertation re-writes). We were just looking for the best writing in any category and found it in Nathaniel’s Call.”

Andrews’ novel is told from the point of view of a Presbyterian chaplain and a physician attached to a Pennsylvania regiment during the Civil War. “From the first page to the last page,” Hines said, “we were captivated by the vivid descriptions, the characterizations, the historical research, the love stories, the flow of words.

“As a Nashville-based committee comprised of Southerners,” Hines added, “we don’t think it will be a best-seller in Vicksburg and Richmond, but we see Nathaniel’s Call as a splendid example of the art of writing.”

Andrews has been the pastor of Grove Presbyterian Church in Danville since 1989. He has theology degrees from Princeton and Pittsburgh Theological Seminaries and was ordained in 1978. He and his wife, Elaine, have three children. He has been moderator of Northumberland Presbytery and writes a weekly column for the Danville News.

Other notable entries in the Presbyterian Writers Guild’s PPC First Book Award competition:

  • Second place: Tuesday’s Muse, a book of poetry illustrated with black-and-white photographs, written by J. Todd Jenkins, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Fayetteville, Tennessee, self-published in 2013.
  • Third place (tie): Something Greater: Culture, Family and Community as Living Story, by Jeanne Choy Tate, published by Pickwick Publications in 2013; and Chasing the Divine in the Holy Land, by Ruth Everhart, published by Wm. B. Eerdmans in 2012.
  • Fourth place (tie): Take My Hand, a Theological Memoir, by Andrew Taylor-Troutman, published by Resource Publications in 2012; and Learning from My Father, by David Lawther Johnson, published by Wm.B. Eerdmans in 2012.
  • Honorable mention: Matthew A. Rich for A Week from Next Tuesday, published in 2013 by Wipf and Stock; Neal D. Presa for Here I Am, Lord, Send Me: Ritual and Narrative for a Theology of Presbyterial Ordination in the Reformed Tradition,published in 2012 by Wipf and Stock; and MaryAnn McKibben Dana for Sabbath in the Suburbs, published in 2012 by Chalice Press.

All those who entered the First Book Award competition will be given a chance to stand and be recognized at the Presbyterian Writers Guild luncheon at General Assembly. Those who entered, and especially those who placed in the competition, are encouraged to bring a copy of their book to the luncheon.

Presbyterian Writers Guild seeks best new author Reply

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Award goes to best first book by a Presbyterian writer

by Jerry L. Van Marter

The Presbyterian Writers Guild (PWG) is seeking entries for its biennial First Book Award. The award, previously known as the Jim Angell Award, has been presented since 1996 to the Presbyterian author of the best first book published during the previous calendar year.

Nominations are being accepted now for the best first book by a Presbyterian author published during the calendar years of 2012-2013. Books may be of any type — fiction, non-fiction, theological, how-to, photos with commentary, poetry, etc.

The award was established by the Guild and the estate of the late James W. Angell, a prolific and respected Presbyterian writer, as a means to recognize and encourage new writers. It is now sponsored by the Guild and the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation.

Entries may be submitted by the authors or by others on their behalf. Three copies of the book and a brief statement attesting to the author’s current active membership in a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregation or presbytery should be sent to the First Book Award Committee, c/o Jane Hines, P.O. Box 50832, Nashville, TN, 37205.

Deadline for submissions is April 1, 2014.

The book needs to be the author’s first book, and has to have a publication date in 2012 or 2013. Include an e-mail address if the sender wishes to be notified that the books were received. The three copies of the book cannot be returned.

Questions about the award or entry process may be directed to Guild President John Underwood or Jane Hines.

Previous Angell Award winners are listed on this website.