General

Dancing on Broken Glass	Paige	The 13th Day of Christmas	A Night on Moon Hill	The Rent Collector
Ka Hancock*	Annette Lyon	Jason F. Wright	Tanya Parker Mills	Camron Wright

Historical

Espionage	My Loving Vigil Keeping	Spinster’s Folly	The Five Books of Jesus	Within the Dark Hills
A. L. Sowards*	Carla Kelly	Marsha Ward	James Goldberg*	Sian Ann Bessey

Romance

Lady Outlaw	Of Grace and Chocolate	Smart Move	Twitterpated	Edenbrooke
Stacy Henrie*	Krista Lynne Jensen*	Melanie Jacobson	Melanie Jacobson	Julianne Donaldson*

Mystery/Suspense

Banana Split	Code Word	Deadly Undertakings	Line of Fire	Tres Leches Cupcakes
Josi S. Kilpack	Traci Hunter Abramson	Gregg Luke	Rachel Ann Nunes	Josi S. Kilpack

Speculative

City of the Saints	Flight From Blithmore	Earthbound	The Hollow City	The Penitent
D. J. Butler	Jacob Gowans	Theresa Sneed	Dan Wells	C. David Belt

Young Adult—Speculative

Demons	Destined	Endlessly	Everneath	Feedback
Heather Frost	Aprilynne Pike	Kiersten White	Brodi Ashton*	Robison Wells

Young Adult—General

After Hello	Finding June	The Space Between Us	The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back	V is for Virgin
Lisa Mangum	Shannen Crane Camp	Jessica Martinez	Sariah Wilson	Kelly Oram

Middle Grade

Case File 13: Zombie Kid	Epic Tales of a Misfit Hero	Freakling	Palace of Stone	The False Prince
J. Scott Savage	Matt Peterson*	Lana Krumwiede*	Shannon Hale	Jennifer A. Nielsen

*Of these finalists, the following titles are also eligible for Best Novel by New Author 2012:

Dancing on Broken Glass by Ka Hancock *

The Five Books of Jesus by James Goldberg *

Lady Outlaw by Stacy Henrie *

Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson *

Everneath (Everneath, #1) by Brodi Ashton *

Espionage by A.L. Sowards *

Freakling by Lana Krumwiede *

The Epic Tales of a Misfit Hero by Matt Peterson *

Of Grace and Chocolate by Krista Lynne Jensen*

New this year: All finalists in the Adult categories (Mystery, Historical, General, Romance, Speculative) are eligible for Best Novel of the Year.

New this year: All finalists in the Youth categories (Middle Grade, YA General, YA Speculative) are eligible for Best Novel in Youth Fiction.

Academy Members have until April 29th, 2013, to read the finalists in whatever categories they want to vote in. To vote for Best Novel of the Year you must read all of the adult category finalists. To vote for Best Novel in Youth Fiction, you must read all of the youth category finalists. For information on how to join the Academy, click HERE

I Don’t Want to Kill You

by Dan Wells

Best Novel by a New Author

With a Name Like Love

by Tess Hilmo

Best General Fiction

Before I Say Goodbye

by Rachel Ann Nunes

Best Historical

Letters in the Jade Dragon Box

by Gale Sears

Best Romance

Borrowed Light

by Carla Kelly

Best Mystery/Suspense

Rearview Mirror

by Stephanie Black

Best Youth Fiction – General

With a Name Like Love

by Tess Hilmo

Best Youth Fiction – Speculative

Variant

by Robison Wells

Best Speculative Fiction

The Alloy of Law: A Mistborn Novel

by Brandon Sanderson

Click HERE to download a PDF of the finalists for your personal use or to give to your local library.

Click HERE to purchase tickets to the 2011 Whitney Awards Gala on May 5th at the Provo Marriott.

General

Before I Say Goodbye	Gifted	The Evolution of Thomas Hall	The Walk: Miles To Go	The Wedding Letters
Rachel Ann Nunes	Karey White*	Kieth Merrill	Richard Paul Evans	Jason F. Wright

Historical

Romance

Mystery

Speculative

Youth Fiction—Speculative

Youth Fiction—General

All of the novels listed above are in the running for Best Novel of the Year.

Likewise, any of the above finalists that meet the eligibility requirements for Best Novel by a New Author can be chosen for that award. This year, the eligible books are:

• Daughter of Helaman by Misty Moncur
• Gifted by Karey White
• No Angel by Theresa Sneed
• Shifting by Bethany Wiggins
• The List by Melanie Jacobson
• With a Name Like Love by Tess Hilmo

We will also be asking Academy voters to certify that they have read each of the books in the categories they are voting in. If, for example, a voters wants to vote for Best Romance, then the ballot will contain a check box asking the voter to certify that they’ve read all five novels in that category.

To vote for Best Novel of the Year, you must have read all of the finalists in all categories–all thirty five novels.

The Academy has until April 23rd to read the finalists in whichever categories they plan to vote in. On information on how to join the Academy, click HERE.

The Way of Kings

by Brandon Sanderson

Mr. Monster

by Dan Wells

Best Novel by a New Author

Paranormalcy

by Kiersten White

Best Romance

Cross My Heart

by Julie Wright

Best Mystery/Suspense

Cold As Ice

by Stephanie Black

Best Youth Fiction – General

The Healing Spell

by Kimberley Griffiths Little

Best Youth Fiction – Speculative

Matched

by Ally Condie

Best Speculative Fiction

The Way of Kings

by Brandon Sanderson

Best Historical

Trespass

by Sandra Grey

Best General Fiction

Band of Sisters

by Annette Lyon

Outstanding Achievement Award

Rick Walton

Lifetime Achievement Award

Susan Evans McCloud

2010 Whitney Award Finalists

General

Band of Sisters	Blink of an Eye	The Cross Gardener	Finding Mercie	Lucky Change
Annette Lyon	Gregg Luke	Jason Wright	Blaine Yorgason	Susan Law Corpany

Historical

Alma The Younger	Oh Say Can You See?	The Sheen on the Silk	The Silence of God	Trespass
H.B. Moore	L.C. Lewis	Anne Perry	Gale Sears	Sandra Grey

Romance

Courting Miss Lancaster	Cross My Heart	The Legend of Shannonderry	Luck of the Draw	Meg’s Melody
Sarah M. Eden	Julie Wright	Carol Warburton	Rachael Renee Anderson	Kaylee Baldwin

Mystery

Cold as Ice	Crossfire	Murder by Design	A Time to Die	Wrong Number
Stephanie Black	Traci Hunter Abramson	Betsy Brannon Green	Jeffrey S. Savage	Rachelle J. Christensen

Speculative

Imprints	Mr. Monster	Pathfinder	The Scorch Trials	The Way of Kings
Rachel Ann Nunes	Dan Wells	Orson Scott Card	James Dashner	Brandon Sanderson

Youth Fiction—Speculative

Fablehaven 5	Matched	Paranormalcy	The Forbidden Sea	The Fourth Nephite
Brandon Mull	Ally Condie	Kiersten White	Sheila Nielson	Jeffrey S. Savage

Youth Fiction—General

Glimpse	Missing In Action	My Double Life	The Healing Spell	Wolves, Boys, and Other Things That Might Kill Me
Carol Lynch Williams	Dean Hughes	Janette Rallison	Kimberley Griffiths Little	Kristen Chandler

No finalists are being announced for the two overall awards. Instead, the Whitney Academy can choose from any of the eligible finalists in any genre category. In other words, all of the novels listed above are in the running for Best Novel of the Year.

Likewise, any of the above finalists that meet the eligibility requirements for Best Novel by a New Author can be chosen for that award. This year, the eligible books are:

• Wrong Number, by Rachelle J. Christensen
• The Forbidden Sea, by Sheila Nielson
• Paranormalcy, by Kiersten White
• Wolves, Boys and Other Things That Might Kill Me, by Kristen Chandler
• Meg’s Melody, by Kaylee Baldwin

We will also be asking Academy voters to certify that they have read each of the books in the categories they are voting in. If, for example, a voters wants to vote for Best Romance, then the ballot will contain a checkbox asking the voter to certify that they’ve read all five novels in that category.

To vote for Best Novel of the Year, you must have read all of the finalists in all categories–all thirty five novels.

Young Adult Speculative will require that in addition to having been written for the Young Adult Market, the officially nominated novel also contains some magic, fantasy, science fiction, dystopian or other “speculative” elements.  Young Adult General will be for those officially nominated novels that do not contain any elements of fantasy, magic, science fiction, etc.

It is our hope that splitting the young adult category into two will allow The Whitney Awards to reward even more great writers and provide more fair competition for the books in both Young Adult categories.

The updated nominee list can be seen here.

ORDER NOW

If you can’t make it to the gala, you can still contribute by clicking here:

DONATE NOW

These are NOT category finalists. Five Finalists in each category will be announced February 1.

“*” Indicates first-time authors eligible for the “Best Novel by a New Author” award

General:

Historical:

Romance:

Mystery/Suspense:

Speculative:

Young Adult (GENERAL):

Young Adult (SPECULATIVE):

Books nominated but ineligible:

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15

A major change has come to the Whitney Awards! By unanimous vote, the Whitney Committee has elected to allow nominees to win in any category for which they are nominated. The previous rule, which allowed books to win in only one category, gave the second place finisher in genre categories the top prize if the first place novel won an overall award.

For example, if Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford had the strength to win top honors in multiple categories, such as Best Novel, Best Novel by a New Author, and Best Genre Novel, it would be allowed to take the prize for all three rather than allowing the award in lesser categories go to the second or even third place winner in that category. This new award system provides greater recognition for truly outstanding books that merit such.

“Originally, we wanted to give as many great LDS authors a chance to win as possible,” said Whitney committee member Crystal Liechty. “But we feel like we’ve had enough exposure at this point so that there’s no need to prevent a book from sweeping every category it’s in if that’s what the voters want.”

The Whitney’s are an awards program for novels by LDS authors. Elder Orson F. Whitney, an early apostle in the LDS church, prophesied “We will yet have Miltons and Shakespeares of our own.” Since we have that as our goal, we feel that we should also honor those authors who excel and continually raise the bar.

“Allowing novels to win multiple categories follows the precedence of other nationally recognized award programs, such as The Academy Awards,” said Josi Kilpack, Whitney Awards President. “We’re excited about this change and the continuing excellence in writing that The Whitney Awards both supports and cultivates.”

The Whitney Awards honor novels in the following categories: General Fiction, Romance, Suspense/Mystery, Speculative Fiction, Youth Fiction, Historical, Best Novel of the Year, and Best Novel by a New Author. Novels can be nominated by any reader (via this website or by mail), and nominees are voted on by an academy of industry professionals, including authors, publishers, bookstore owners, distributors, critics, and others. For more information on the Whitney Awards or to nominate a book, visit www.WhitneyAwards.com.

Sincerely,

Josi S. Kilpack

Whitney Awards President

2011

Outstanding Achievement Award Winner, Jack Weyland

Jack Weyland is the best-selling author of young-adult fiction for the Latter-day Saint market. In fact, the modern genre of Latter-day Saint-themed popular fiction is one he is largely responsible for creating with his overwhelmingly popular novel Charly. His interest in fiction began with a correspondence course in creative writing taken during a summer at BYU where he was doing research work. Since then he has published more than two dozen books, and over fifty of his short stories have been published by the LDS Church magazine The New Era.

Born in Butte, Montana, Jack received a B.S. degree in physics from Montana State University and a Ph.D. in physics from BYU. Currently he teaches physics at BYU-Idaho. He formerly taught physics at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Jack and his wife, Sheryl, are the parents of five children and have four grandchildren. His hobbies include racquetball and singing.

Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, Douglas Thayer

Douglas H. Thayer is considered one of the foremost fiction writers exploring contemporary Mormon life. In 1946, Thayer dropped out of high school to join the army. After his service in the army to Germany, and later a 2-year LDS mission, he obtained an English degree from BYU. He went on to Stanford to work on his doctorate (dropped out), then University of Maryland (dropped out). He finally decided on what he really wanted to do—to get an MFA in creative writing (University of Iowa). Thayer has taught English and creative writing at BYU for 54 years. His specialty in writing is traditional, realistic fiction, earning him the title of the “Mormon Hemingway.” Thayer has published three novels, dozens of short stories, several essays, a memoir, and is the recipient of many literature awards, including numerous DIALOGUE prizes for the short story and essay, the P.A. Christensen award, the Association for Mormon Letters Prize in the Novel, the Karl G. Maeser Creative Arts Award, the Utah Institute of Fine Arts Award in the Short Story, and the 2008 Smith-Pettit Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mormon Letters.

2010

Outstanding Achievement Award Winner, Rick Walton

The author of more than eighty books for children, Rick Walton has worked tirelessly for nearly two decades to make Utah a place where writers are born. As a board member and instructor for numerous writing conferences and workshops, plus his years as faculty at BYU teaching Picture Book Writing, Rick has made it his goal to help anyone he can who is interested in becoming a published author. And he does, mentoring budding authors though the publication process while remaining a cheerleader for us all.  He and his wife, Ann, live in Provo, Utah, and are the parents of five children.

Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, Susan Evans McCloud

McCloud has published more than 45 books. Since the late 1970s she has published nearly one novel annually, many through the publishers Bookcraft or Scribe Publishing. Her novel Black Stars Over Mexico was a best seller in January 1985. Brigham Young: An Inspiring Personal Biography was partly developed as a result of her 30 years as a docent at the Beehive House.

Many of her novels are historical fiction of 19th-century Latter-day Saints in far-flung places, such as England or India. Some reviewers have criticized her novels as being pro-Mormon and repetitious of previous themes.

McCloud’s poetry first appeared in the Ensign magazine in 1972. Two of McCloud’s hymns appear in the LDS Church’s 1985 Hymnbook. One of these, “Lord I Would Follow Thee,” has also been recorded by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and it has even been called “one of the best-loved songs in the LDS Church.”  McCloud wrote her other hymn, “As Zion’s Youth in Latter Days,” with the goal of giving strength to a “vacillating youth.”

McCloud has also written scripts for film and TV productions, including the script for making one of her books into a made for TV movie.

2009

Lifetime Achievement

Gerald Lund

Outstanding Achievement

Dave Wolverton

2008

Lifetime Achievement

Orson Scott Card

Lifetime Achievement

Kerry Blair

2007

Lifetime Achievement

Jennie Hansen

Lifetime Achievement

Anita Stansfield

Lifetime Achievement

Dean Hughes

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