Dr. Christopher Blake, president of Middle Georgia State University and author of two books that explore aspects of World War I history, is among the Georgia Writers Association’s nominees for Author of the Year.
He is nominated in the history category of the 2022 Georgia Author of the Year honors, which have been awarded since 1964. For the past nearly 30 years, the Georgia Writers Association has been responsible for nominating authors and choosing the award winners in various categories.
Blake, originally from Wimbledon, England, has a personal interest in World War I history and has written two books on the subject, both published by Mercer University Press. His Georgia Author of the Year nomination in the history category follows the publication of the second book, Reckless Misfortune: The Century We Inherited from the First World War.
“I am deeply honored and humbled to be considered by the Georgia Writers Association for one of its awards, even more so when I see so many respected authors on the list of 2022 nominees,” Blake said. “My new book was a passion project for me and it’s extremely gratifying to get this kind of response. I am grateful to Mercer University Press for publishing it.”
Commercially published authors from the state are eligible for nomination as Georgia Author of the Year in various categories. Besides history, categories include biography, children, cookbooks, detective/mystery, essay, first novel, inspirational, literary fiction, memoir, poetry, and more.
Past winners of Georgia Author of the Year awards include Malcolm Tariq for his poetry collection Heed the Hollow (2019); Ruby Lal, for her biography Empress (2018); Nic Stone for her novels Dear Justyce (2020) and Jackpot (2019); Natasha Trethewey for her memoir Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir (2020); Judith Ortiz Cofer, for her essay collection Woman in Front of the Sun (2000); Kaitlin B. Curtice for her inspirational book Native: Identity Belonging, and Rediscovering God (2020); and John Lewis for his graphic memoir March: Book Three (2016). Sharan Strange, poet, won a lifetime achievement award from the organization in 2018.
The 2022 Georgia Authors of the Year in the various categories will be announced in June. See the full list of nominees in all categories at https://www.authoroftheyear.org/.
Sources include https://www.georgiawriters.org/.
