The Indiana Authors Awards contest has announced winners in nine categories for 2024. The high-profile competition selects works by writers with deep Indiana connections whose work published in the last two years.
The winners spun a diverse set of stories in categories that include fiction, genre, middle grade, drama and young adult. One title contends with society's penchant for remembering serial killers more than victims, another with overcoming painful childhood memories and yet another with a young artist who fights decisions that will adversely affect her neighborhood.
Indiana Humanities runs the competition every other year with support from Glick Philanthropies. Those who win are invited to participate in a statewide speaker program and meet readers, teachers and students. Each winner receives $5,000, a hand-crafted award and the chance to donate $500 to an Indiana library of their choice.
Here are the winners:
'The Rabbit Hutch'
By Tess Gunty, born and raised in South Bend. Lives in Brooklyn, New York
Category: Fiction
Blandine Watkins is struggling against people, places and structures in fictional Vacca Vale, Indiana, a post-industrial town where the exit of a once-thriving automobile industry has left other problems.
More Hoosier reading material: Here's the shortlist for the 2024 Indiana Authors Awards
'To Sleep in the Horse’s Belly: My Greek Poets and the Aegean Inside Me'
By George Kalamaras, an Indiana University graduate who lives in Fort Wayne
Category: Poetry
The lives of Kalamaras' favorite Greek poets and artists are at the center of this book full of imagery, which includes poetry he started 40 years ago.
'Vanished Indianapolis'
By Edward Fujawa, Indianapolis
Category: Nonfiction
The book tells stories of historic landscapes and buildings that have been destroyed or repurposed.
'Hell If We Don’t Change Our Ways'
By Brittany Means, raised near Martinsville, graduated from Ball State University and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Category: Debut
Means confronts brutal childhood memories in this coming-of-age memoir that shows her strength and self-preservation.
'Don’t Forget the Girl'
By Rebecca McKanna, who attended a master's program at Purdue University and teaches at the University of Indianapolis
Category: Genre
Twelve years after college freshman Abby Hartmann disappears, the serial killer suspected of her murder awaits execution. As a well-known podcast prepares to highlight the killer, Hartmann's friends reunite to make sure people know her story, too.
'Here We Come!'
By Janna Matthies, who was born in Anderson and lives in Indianapolis
Category: Children’s
A boy and his bear venture out into the evening and create a musical parade in a rhyming story designed to be read out loud.
'Unfadeable'
By Maurice Broaddus, Indianapolis
Category: Middle Grade
A young graffiti artist who wants to live on her own tries to hide from social services but finds she must risk her privacy to unite her community and fight against the powers-that-be who want to defund her neighborhood.
'The Minus-One Club'
By Kekla Magoon, who grew up in Fort Wayne and lives in Montpelier, Vermont
Category: Young Adult
After Kermit Sanders' sister dies, the 15-year-old struggles with grief until he receives an invitation to join other students who have lost someone close to them.
'Predictor'
By Jennifer Blackmer, who's lived in several places around Indiana and teaches in Muncie
Category: Drama
The play is based on the true story of Margaret Crane who invented the first home pregnancy test in 1967.
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Contact IndyStar reporter Domenica Bongiovanni at 317-444-7339 or d.bongiovanni@indystar.com. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter: @domenicareports.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: These new books just won the 2024 Indiana Authors Awards
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