A Night with PenCraft Awardees!

The annual PenCraft Book Awards recognize outstanding author achievements in over two-dozen genres. An awards event is held at different locations each year to celebrate the literary excellence of the previous years' winning authors. The 2022 PenCraft Book Award ceremony was held on April 3, 2023, at the Golden Nugget Resort and Casino in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

All works were judged on content, general excellence in writing, and originality. Justifiable Deceit, the first novel in the Tierra Campos Series was honored as the best novel in the Fiction-Thriller-General genre. Additionally, The Black Swan Event was runner up in the Fiction-Thriller-Terrorist category

Submitted works were judged by a panel of authors, librarians, and other literature lovers. The criteria for the 2022 competition was:

Literary/Artistic Merit (40%): The quality of writing receives primary consideration in the PenCraft Book Award judging. The book's editing, illustrations, and attention to detail involved in its creation is an important element in the selection process.

Originality (30%): Originality in concept and execution is another primary consideration in selecting winning titles. The book should demonstrate innovative literary qualities, which in many cases will be specific to their genre or category.

Audience Appeal (30%): A PenCraft Book Award-winning entry should have a strong appeal to its target audience. The book will be judged on its effectiveness in engaging that particular readership. The author or publisher should have their book listed on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, Goodreads, and other popular sites introducing books to the public.

I have never been to Lake Charles, so it gave my wife and I a chance to get out of the Northeast for some warm Louisiana temperatures. After enjoying a relaxing weekend, we dressed up for the ceremony.

I love meeting my fellow authors. There was a lot of creativity packed into one room. As we each got the opportunity to say a few words, not only about our books but our journeys as writers, you learn that people lead some very interesting lives.

And that's what made the night extraordinary. It was nice to revel in an accomplishment, but it was better sharing the moment with other writers who work on their craft as hard as I do. There were authors there celebrating a win with their first novel, and others who were accepting an award for their fourteenth. Congratulations to all my fellow winners.

Learn more about the PenCraft Awards!

If you want to see the list of the 2022 honorees, it can be found on the Pencraft Awards website.