2011 Christy Awards Held in Atlanta

The 12th annual Christy Awards were held on Monday, July 11, 2011, at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta. Staged during the International Christian Retail Show each year, the Christy Awards recognizes excellence in novels written from a Christian worldview. The award encompasses nine categories and is named in honor of one of the most famous characters in Christian fiction. Catherine Marshall's novel Christy has sold more than 10 million copies and was the basis for the CBS television series of the same name.

This year's awards ceremony was hosted by Liz Curtis Higgs, the award-winning historical novelist who also penned the nonfiction series Bad Girls of the Bible. With her respect for the Christy, love for her fellow writers, and quick wit, there could not have been a better choice to emcee.

The Christy Awards' Executive Director Donna Kehoe presented the attendees with her Year in Review recap before introducing the night's keynote speaker, Randall Wallace.

Wallace is the Academy-Award nominated screenwriter of Braveheart, Pearl Harbor, The Man in the Iron Mask, and We Were Soldiers. Wallace's eighth book, The Touch, is set to be released by Tyndale House Publishers on September 1, but, notably, Wallace ne'er made mention of his own novel. Instead, he regaled the nearly 200 in attendance, and a few hundred more listening via Liveblog, with tales of his studies at Duke University's Divinity School (He didn't believe writing was a profession which would afford him a decent living), his early work in Hollywood (Including the devastating effects of a year-long writers strike on his employment), and the quirks of making an American film on Scottish history using an Irish cast.

The evening capped with the announcement of the 2011 Christy Awards winners. Here is a list of all the nominees with winners listed first.

Contemporary Romance

Sworn to Protect by DiAnn Mills

Blood Ransom by Lisa Harris

Indivisible by Kristin Heitzmann

Contemporary Series

The Reluctant Prophet by Nancy Rue

The Thorn by Beverly Lewis

The Waiting by Suzanne Woods Fisher

Contemporary Standalone

Almost Heaven by Chris Fabry

Lady in Waiting by Susan Meissner

A Season of Miracles by Rusty Whitener

First Novel

Heartless by Anne Elisabeth Stengl

Crossing Oceans by Gina Holmes

A Season of Miracles by Rusty Whitener

Historical

While We're Far Apart by Lynn Austin

Chosen: The Lost Diaries of Queen Esther by Ginger Garrett

For Time & Eternity by Allison Pitman

Historical Romance

The Girl in the Gatehouse by Julie Klassen

She Walks in Beauty by Siri Mitchell

Within My Heart by Tamera Alexander

Suspense

The Bishop by Steven James

The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker

Predator by Terri Blackstock

Visionary

To Darkness Fled by Jill Williamson

Konig's Fire by Marc Schooley

The Last Christian by David Gregory

Young Adult

Motorcycles, Sushi, and One Strange Book by Nancy Rue

The Charlatan's Boy by Jonathan Rogers

The Healer's Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson

This year's Christy Awards saw a notable first. The award has never been won in two different categories for two different books by the same author before this year's double triumph by Nancy Rue in the Contemporary Series category (The Reluctant Prophet) and the Young Adult category (Motorcycles, Sushi, and One Strange Book).