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Winners

Fiction: Historical
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2020 WINNERS - FICTION: HISTORICAL
Watch the following video to see which of the three finalists below won gold, and which won silver.

2024 WINNERS - FICTION: HISTORICAL

See below for the list of 2024 winners in the FICTION: HISTORICAL category, for books with a copyright date of 2023.

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Blood to Rubies
2024 Gold Winner

Author: Deborah Hufford

Publisher: Koehler Books

ISBN: 9798888240748

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Deborah Hufford's award-winning and bestselling debut novel, BLOOD TO RUBIES, is a scorching saga of injustice, love and redemption in the West, told through a frontier photographer. NYT #1 bestselling author, William Kent Krueger, hails it as: "phenomenal," "utterly riveting," "sensual," and "mark my words, destined to be a classic."

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Hangtown
2024 Silver Winner

Author: Michael Bailey

Publisher: Written Backwards

ISBN: 9798986748887

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Based on a true story, Hangtown is a historical western about the hangings in a placer mining town that once went by that moniker, one of the first established diggings during the chaos of the Gold Rush. Set in 1848 to 1850, the unlawful were punished and hanged swiftly for crimes of theft and violence, haunting forever what is now Placerville, California.

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Of White Ashes: A WWII historical novel inspired by true events
2024 Silver Winner

Authors: Constance Hays Matsumoto and Kent Matsumoto

Publisher: Apprentice House Press

ISBN: 9781627204200

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A historical novel inspired by our family’s story, OF WHITE ASHES is about the remarkable lives of two Japanese Americans who endure seemingly unbearable hardship during WWII. Serious, heartbreaking, heartwarming and compelling reflection, OF WHITE ASHES blends human experiences of the Japanese American incarceration and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

2023 WINNERS - FICTION: HISTORICAL

See below for the list of 2023 winners in the FICTION: HISTORICAL category, for books with a copyright date of 2022.

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The Blue Butterfly: A Novel of Marion Davies
2023 Gold Winner

Author: Leslie Johansen Nack

Publisher: She Writes Press

ISBN: 978-1-64742-347-6

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The true-life story of Marion Davies’ thirty-four-year relationship with William Randolph Hearst including a whirlwind courtship, a movie career spanning two decades and forty-four films, a secret child, and harrowing family excesses, not to mention a secret love affair with Charlie Chaplin.

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Crippled Jack: A Novel
2023 Silver Winner

Author: Boston Teran

Publisher: High-Top Publishing LLC

ISBN: 978-1-56703-101-0

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In a time when bloodthirsty violence ruled the day a boy was bound and gagged and left to die in the desert. He was not yet nine and suffered what they called the palsy. There was a note pinned to his chest - It's up to God now. But the boy did not die. He rises to become a formidable marksman, instrumental in overturning the power of the robber barons of the nation and shaping the modern American labor movement.

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Gone, the Redeemer: A Novel
2023 Silver Winner

Author: Scott Gates

Publisher: Blue Ink Press

ISBN: 978-1-948449-14-4

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Spanish-American War deserter Thomas Sparkman finds himself on an unforeseen journey from the Cuban front to return home to his wife, expecting their first child in California. He crosses paths with rogues, loners, and hired guns—some searching for redemption, some working to stop him dead in his tracks.

2022 WINNERS - FICTION: HISTORICAL

See below for the list of 2022 winners in the FICTION: HISTORICAL category, for books with a copyright date of 2021.

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Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale
2022 Gold Winner

Author: Pamela Hamilton

Publisher: Koehler Books

ISBN: 978-1-64663-272-5

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Hailed by critics as a gripping novel “delicately woven into a masterpiece of fact and fiction,” Lady Be Good is a moving portrait of Dorothy Hale, the legendary 1930s socialite immortalized in one of Frida Kahlo's most celebrated paintings. At the dawn of the Roaring Twenties, two ambitious socialites break from conventions of high society to achieve success on their own terms and find themselves at the center of dangerous political intrigue.

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The Girl in the Triangle
2022 Silver Winner

Author: Joyana Peters

Publisher: Amaryllis Press

ISBN: 978-1-7369373-0-3

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There are 740 Days until the fire that changes history. It's 1909. Seventeen-year-old Ruth survived the Russian Revolution and is reunited with her betrothed in New York. But when an uprising of 20,000 women vows to overturn a greedy factory owner, can Ruth stay away? Who will survive? Will they ever be the same?

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Tears of Honor: A Novel of Japanese American Heroism in World War II
2022 Silver Winner

Author: James A. Ardaiz

Publisher: Pace Press

ISBN: 978-1-61035-900-9

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A sweeping novel of history, war, and courage in the face of injustice, Tears of Honor tells the story of the heroic Japanese American soldiers who fought against Nazi tyranny in Europe, while their families were imprisoned in America.

2021 WINNERS - FICTION: HISTORICAL

See below for the list of 2021 winners in the FICTION: HISTORICAL category, for books with a copyright date of 2020. Click here to watch the Gold and Silver winner speeches.

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Freedom Dues: A Novel
2021 Gold Winner

Author: Indra Zuno

Publisher: Spinning a Yarn Press

ISBN: 981734165210

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In this historical novel set in Colonial America, two indentured servants fall in love. One, an Ulster-Scot youth who sells his freedom to pay for his passage from Ireland to the New World. The other, a London pickpocket girl, sentenced to servitude. Together, they carve out their own destiny.

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Copy Boy: A Novel
2021 Silver Winner

Author: Shelley Blanton-Stroud

Publisher: She Writes Press

ISBN: 978-1-63152-697-8

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It’s 1937. Jane escapes an irrigation ditch crime, landing in Depression-era San Francisco. She cross-dresses to get work at a newspaper. Everything’s looking up, until her father appears on the front page. Jane’s got to find him before he finds her, and before everyone else finds her out.

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It Happened in Silence: A Novel
2021 Silver Winner

Author: Karla M. Jay

Publisher: Book Circle Press

ISBN: 978-0-578-79251-4

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Set in 1921, where women of the KKK betray their neighbors, where horrors of unscrupulous foundling homes come to light, and buried mysteries are not all that hidden. This is a powerful tale of family, a celebration of decency, and the heartbreak of society’s injustices then that rings true today.

2020 WINNERS - FICTION: HISTORICAL

See below for the list of 2020 winners in the FICTION: HISTORICAL category, for books with a copyright date of 2019.

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Moccasin Track
2020 Gold Winner

Author: Reid Lance Rosenthal

Publisher: Rockin' SR Publishing

ISBN: 978-0-9821576-4-0

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Fourth novel of the #1 Bestselling epic saga of men and women of uncommon cultures, differing origins and competing ambitions weaving the diverse tapestry of 1850's America--recipient of 27 National awards. 

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Breaking Point: A Novel of the Battle of Britain
2020 Silver Winner

Author: John Rhodes

Publisher: Suncoast Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-7330792-1-1

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Hitler’s triumphant Third Reich has crushed all Europe—except Britain. Hitler launches a massive aerial assault only the heavily outnumbered Fighter Command and the iron will of Winston Churchill can overcome.

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General Meade: A Novel of the Civil War
2020 Silver Winner

Author: Robert Kofman

Publisher: Lion Valley Publishing LLC

ISBN: 978-1-7329910-0-2

Click to Purchase

 

At Gettysburg, Meade defeats Lee saving the Union. Meade falls victim to a smear campaign but survives to help lead the Union to ultimate victory.

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