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The Whitney Awards are awards given annually for novels by LDS authors. Established in 2007, they are named after Orson F. Whitney, a prominent early member of the LDS Church. There are several categories for which novels may be nominated. The Whitney Awards are a semi-independent non-profit organization affiliated with the LDStorymakers, a guild for LDS authors. [1]
Due to the limited number of titles released by LDS authors, several of the genre awards have been combined (such as romance and women's fiction). [2]
As of 2014 [update] , there are eight genre categories: [3]
Adult | Youth
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There are also two special awards:
The Whitney Committee states that it is unlikely that other areas of LDS art—such as music, poetry, or non-fiction books—will be added to the categories. [4]
To be eligible, a novel must be written by an LDS author during the award year, and be at least 50,000 words long. Any reader can nominate a book. Once a book has received five or more nominations, it becomes an official nominee. The official nominees are presented to the Whitney Awards Committee which checks for eligibility and acts as a preliminary judging panel, reducing the number of nominees to no more than five per category.
Finally, ballots are sent to the Whitney Awards Academy, an invitation-only group consisting of authors, bookstore owners/managers, distributors, critics, and other industry professionals. By a popular vote, they decide on the winners. [5] The awards are presented at a dinner held at the conclusion of the annual LDStorymakers conference and writing "boot camp." [6]
Until the 2010 awards (presented 2011), books were not allowed to win in more than one category.
The awards are named after Orson F. Whitney, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as a poet and writer. In 1888, Elder Whitney delivered a speech entitled "Home Literature" in which he stated:
We will yet have Miltons and Shakespeares of our own. God's ammunition is not exhausted. His brightest spirits are held in reserve for the latter times. In God's name and by his help we will build up a literature whose top shall touch heaven, though its foundations may now be low in earth. [7]
The phrase "We will yet have Miltons and Shakespeares of our own" has been adopted as the slogan of the Whitney Awards, and is printed on the trophy.
| Best Novel of the Year | Best Y/A Children's |
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| Best Novel by a New Author | Best Speculative |
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| Best Romance/Women's Fiction | Best Historical |
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| Best Mystery/Suspense | Lifetime Achievement |
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| Best Novel of the Year | Best Youth Fiction |
|---|---|
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| Best Novel by a New Author | Best Speculative Fiction |
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| Best Romance | Best Historical |
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| Best Mystery/Suspense | Best General Fiction |
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| Lifetime Achievement Awards | |
| Best Novel of the Year | Best Youth Fiction |
|---|---|
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| Best Novel by a New Author (tie) | Best Speculative Fiction |
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| Best Romance | Best Historical |
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| Best Mystery/Suspense | Best General Fiction |
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| Lifetime Achievement Award | Outstanding Achievement Award |
| Best Novel of the Year (tie) | Best Youth Fiction – General |
|---|---|
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| Best Novel by a New Author | Best Youth Fiction – Speculative |
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| Best Romance | Best Speculative Fiction |
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| Best Mystery/Suspense | Best Historical |
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| Best General Fiction | |
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| Best Novel of the Year | Best Novel by a New Author |
|---|---|
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| Outstanding Achievement Award | Lifetime Achievement Award |
| Best Romance | Best Speculative Fiction |
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| Best Mystery/Suspense | Best Historical |
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| Best Youth Fiction – General | Best General Fiction |
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| Best Youth Fiction – Speculative | |
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| General | Young Adult – Speculative |
|---|---|
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| Historical | Young Adult – General |
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| Romance | Middle Grade |
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| Best Mystery/Suspense | Best Novel by New Author |
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| Speculative | Best Novel of the Year |
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| Best Novel in Youth Fiction | |
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| Outstanding Achievement Award | Lifetime Achievement Award |
| General | Young Adult – General |
|---|---|
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| Historical | Middle Grade |
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| Romance | Best Novel by New Author |
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| Mystery/Suspense | Best Novel of the Year |
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| Speculative | Best Novel in Youth Fiction |
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| Young Adult – Speculative | Outstanding Achievement |
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| Lifetime Achievement | |
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| General | Young Adult – General |
|---|---|
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| Historical | Middle Grade |
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| Romance | Best Novel by New Author |
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| Mystery/Suspense | Best Novel of the Year |
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| Speculative | Best Novel in Youth Fiction |
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| Young Adult – Speculative | Outstanding Achievement |
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| Lifetime Achievement | |
| General | Historical |
|---|---|
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| Mystery/Suspense | Romance |
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| Speculative | Middle Grade |
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| General Young Adult Fiction | Speculative Young Adult Fiction |
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| Best Novel by a New Author | |
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| Outstanding Achievement Award | Lifetime Achievement Award |
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| Novel of the Year (Adult) | Novel of the Year (Youth) |
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| General | Historical |
|---|---|
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| Mystery/Suspense | Contemporary Romance |
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| Historical Romance | Speculative |
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| Middle Grade | General Young Adult Fiction |
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| Speculative Young Adult Fiction | Best Debut Novel |
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| Novel of the Year (Adult) | Novel of the Year (Youth) |
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| Outstanding Achievement Award | |
| General | Historical |
|---|---|
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| Mystery/Suspense | Romance |
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| Historical Romance | Speculative |
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| Middle Grade | General Young Adult Fiction |
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| Speculative Young Adult Fiction | Fantasy Young Adult Fiction |
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| Novel of the Year (Adult) | Novel of the Year (Youth) |
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| Best Debut Novel | |
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| Outstanding Achievement Award | |
| General | Mystery/Suspense |
|---|---|
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| Romance | Historical Romance |
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| Speculative | Middle Grade |
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| General Young Adult Fiction | Fantasy Young Adult Fiction |
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| Speculative Young Adult Fiction | Best Debut Novel |
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| Novel of the Year (Adult) | Novel of the Year (Youth) |
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| Outstanding Achievement Award | |
| General | Mystery/Suspense |
|---|---|
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| Romance | Historical Romance |
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| Speculative | Middle Grade |
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| General Young Adult Fiction | Fantasy Young Adult Fiction |
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| Speculative Young Adult Fiction | Best Debut Novel |
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| Novel of the Year (Adult) | Novel of the Year (Youth) |
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| General | Mystery/Suspense |
|---|---|
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| Romance | Historical Romance |
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| Speculative | Middle Grade |
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| General Young Adult Fiction | Fantasy Young Adult Fiction |
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| Speculative Young Adult Fiction | Best Debut Novel |
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| Novel of the Year (Adult) | Novel of the Year (Youth) |
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The Whitney Awards Committee acts as both the organizers and the preliminary judges of the Whitney Awards. Rules stipulate that the committee be made up of at least four members of LDStorymakers. Their positions are temporary, by invitation of the Whitney Awards Committee president (who is appointed by the LDStorymakers executive committee).
The 2009 committee included: [1]
The 2011 committee included:
The 2015 committee were:
The 2017 committee:
Although Kerry Blair had been a member of the Whitney Awards Committee for two years, the other members of the committee "went behind her back" to name her the winner of a Lifetime Achievement Award for 2008. [13]
One Mormon literature critic initially raised concerns with the heavy involvement of authors published by Covenant Communications in the awards process. [28] However, when the finalists for 2007 were announced, this same commenter noted both that there was a wide spectrum of publishers represented, and that "Covenant publishes the lion's share of Mormon market fiction." [9] This same critic later described the awards as "at best a reductive form of validation and criticism. Although let's be honest: The Whitneys have way more credibility than the Grammys." [29]
After the 2011 nominations, criticism of the nomination process was common, though appreciation of the Whitney Awards themselves was also common. [30] [31] [32] [33]
I feel deeply the honor of being given an award named for Orson F. Whitney ... I have long and proudly borne Elder Whitney's first name; now you have given me an award that bears his last name, too.
Mormon fiction is generally fiction by or about members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who are also referred to as Latter-day Saints or Mormons. Its history is commonly divided into four sections as first organized by Eugene England: foundations, home literature, the "lost" generation, and faithful realism. During the first fifty years of the church's existence, 1830–1880, fiction was not popular, though Parley P. Pratt wrote a fictional Dialogue between Joseph Smith and the Devil. With the emergence of the novel and short stories as popular reading material, Orson F. Whitney called on fellow members to write inspirational stories. During this "home literature" movement, church-published magazines published many didactic stories and Nephi Anderson wrote the novel Added Upon. The generation of writers after the home literature movement produced fiction that was recognized nationally but was seen as rebelling against home literature's outward moralization. Vardis Fisher's Children of God and Maurine Whipple's The Giant Joshua were prominent novels from this time period. In the 1970s and 1980s, authors started writing realistic fiction as faithful members of the LDS Church. Acclaimed examples include Levi S. Peterson's The Backslider and Linda Sillitoe's Sideways to the Sun. Home literature experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 1980s and 1990s when church-owned Deseret Book started to publish more fiction, including Gerald Lund's historical fiction series The Work and the Glory and Jack Weyland's novels.
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Orson Scott Card is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is the only person to have won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for his novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986). A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card coproduced, was released in 2013. Card also wrote the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series The Tales of Alvin Maker (1987–2003).
The Orson Scott Card bibliography contains a list of works published by Orson Scott Card.
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Carla Sue Kelly is an American writer in the Regency romance genre. She is the author of over forty books and short stories. Her books are what romance readers call "keepers," i.e. books they keep in their private collections, and accordingly they can be hard to find. Renowned for what she calls "dukeless" regencies, her stories often revolve around ordinary people solving their own problems. While many Regency romances feature soldiers returned from the Napoleonic Wars, several of Kelly's books include soldiers and sailors actively involved in the Peninsular campaign and in the naval blockade that prevented France from invading England, bringing this war to life in an unforgettable way. However, her regencies only reflect a part of her writing interests. She also has a strong interest in the American West, which is reflected in her earliest published works and in her non-fiction. Since 2011, Kelly, who has a Mormon background, has written five historical romance novels that focus on the lives of young Mormon women: Borrowed Light, Enduring Light, My Loving Vigil Keeping, Safe Passage, and One Step Enough.
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The AML Awards are given annually by the Association for Mormon Letters (AML) to the best work "by, for, and about Mormons." They are juried awards, chosen by a panel of judges. Citations for many of the awards can be found on the AML website.
Jeffrey Scott Savage is an American author of fantasy, horror, mystery, and suspense. As of 2020, he has published 19 novels, including the FarWorld fantasy series, the Case File 13 series, the Mysteries of Cove series, and the Shandra Covington series, as well as several stand-alone titles. Savage was born and raised in northern California and studied computer science at Sierra College and West Valley College in California and Utah Valley University in Utah. He worked in the software industry before deciding to write full-time. He writes middle grade and young adult fiction under the pen name J. Scott Savage and works intended for adult readers as Jeffrey S. Savage. He won the 2013 Whitney Award for Best Speculative Novel for Dark Memories.
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