ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Georgia Author of the Year Awards honors local writers

By Collin Kelley

The Georgia Writers Association (GWA) announced the winners of the 2023 Georgia Author of the Year Awards (GAYA) during a virtual ceremony on June 17.

This year’s awards honored authors in 15 categories, ranging from fiction and poetry to memoir/biography and children’s literature, with a record-breaking 148 nominees.

The 59th annual GAYA also awarded its Posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award to Valerie Boyd, biographer of Zora Neale Hurston, who also won for Specialty Book Award as editor of “Bigger Than Bravery: Black Resilience and Reclamation in a Time of Pandemic.”

Of particular note were two self-published winners: Monica Lee Weatherly, Professor of English at Georgia State University, for her poetry chapbook It “Felt Mississippi,” and Susan Carlisle for her romance novel “Racing to You.”

“We’re thrilled to bring together such a strong group of established and upcoming Georgia authors in our lineup of winners and finalists,” says Garrard Conley, Executive Director of GWA. “Personally, I’m also very pleased to see two well-deserving self- published authors among the winners. We believe that this important award should be open to any and all Georgia writers who produce great work, regardless of publication status. We can’t wait to see what next year will bring.