Georgia Writers Association names 25 Georgia Authors of the Year
Georgia Writers Association awards Terry Kay with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 47th Georgia Author of the Year Awards along with 24 other winners and finalists.

WHITE, GA, June 19, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- "My passion for many,many, many years has been to celebrate the writing done in this state. I have been dismayed that Georgia writers have not had the kind of acknowledgement that our neighboring states give their native writers. This occasion tonight does this - gives recognition to our native writers." Terry Kay addressed those gathered for the 47th Annual Georgia Author of the Year Awards on Saturday, June 11, 2011, where he accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Kay is the author of several popular novels including To Dance with the White Dog which became a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie starring Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn. His novel, The Book of Marie won the Georgia Author of the Year Award in 2008 for Fiction. His latest book, Bogmeadow's Wish, published by Mercer University Press, was released in 2011. Kay, a prolific writer, says he is more concerned with the reader than the writing.

It's not about you - It's about your readers
Kay spoke to a crowd of nearly 200 writers and guests, telling them: "There are times I think the writing is overstated. It is really not about us. It is about the person that reads you more than anything else."

And the winners are . . .
Twenty-four awards were given in 12 genres to Georgia authors who published in 2010. Winners included Philip Lee Williams for his work of poetry, The Flower Seeker, and Joseph A. Skibell, for A Curable Romantic, as best fiction in Georgia. The growing genre of Creative Nonfiction produced winners such as first time writer Craig Rikard for his memoir about his family's struggle with drug addiction in Hidden Epidemic

This year the Georgia Writers Association, presented a finalist in each category with an award in addition to the winner of the genre. The finalist for First Novel was Jeffrey Stepakoff for Fireworks over Toccoa. The Fiction Finalist Award went to Joshilyn Jackson for Backseat Saints. The complete list of winners and finalists can be found on the Georgia Writers Association Web site: www.georgiawriters.org. The official Web site of the Georgia Author of the Year Awards is at www.authoroftheyear.org.

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