2022 Book Award Finalists

Christine Hassing is a leadership life coach, a published author, a life story writer, and a teacher of arts – the art of how we frame and reframe our life stories and the art of hearing. Within. To each other. Through space virtually when people are not able to be together physically and when a

Meredith Wargo is an award-winning author and advocate for animals. The recipient of four Maxwell Medallions from the Dog Writers of Association of America, she has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Although a native Texan, Meredith currently lives in southern

Jen McGuire is a freelance writer for Romper whose work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Parents, Good Housekeeping, and O magazine. Her memoir Nest has sold thousands of copies since its release in May 2021, and excerpts have been featured in outlets including Elle and Refinery29. She is a

Born in North Norfolk, India grew up along its picturesque coastline before leaving to study Cell Biology at Durham University and embark on a career in Marketing. Expanding from the tiny towns of East Anglia to the hustle and bustle of the big city made her see the world for all its wonders and

After years of often challenging public service work, I found creative writing to be cathartic. And I discovered I love writing fiction—mainly suspense and thriller novels—as much as reading it. I’m a California native, and my story takes place in the scenic central coast where little beach towns

Silver surfer, Christine Ottaway, though older in years, loves to write Middle Grade adventure stories, some of which have Christian themes. She has been an avid reader from an early age and has never lost her love of children’s fiction. Her first job in a public library was an ideal career for a

Susan L. Combs is President of Combs & Company, a full-service insurance brokerage firm based in New York City. Susan started the company at twenty-six years old with a drive to “Do more, better.” This internal mantra has resulted in numerous successes and firsts, like being named the youngest

Keri Bloomfield is a Kiwi mum in Denmark and a witty observer of cultural nuances. Born in Upper Hutt, New Zealand, she now lives in Copenhagen with a Dane, their daughter and far too many bakeries. She enjoys confusing others with New Zealand slang while wrestling with her lifetime commitment to

Katrina-Jane is a down to earth, ‘out of the box’ clairvoyant medium, multiple times award winning author, inspirational speaker, teacher and thought leader - who is dedicated to guiding people on your soul journey. Her specialities include death and dying, clairvoyant readings, support for

Stephanie Hrehirchuk is the author of 30 books across multiple genres, including the multi award-winning memoir An Accidental Awakening: It’s not about yoga; It’s about family, and the Anna series of children’s books. A spinal injury pushed the Canadian mom of two out of her career in personal

J.S Farmer grew up in a small town in Connecticut. She studied criminology and psychology at Central Connecticut State University. After seven years as a police officer, she shifted her career into the private sector, working as a government security analyst for a defense contractor. During that

Sarah Noll Wilson, Inc. is on a mission to help leaders build and rebuild teams. Our goal is to empower leaders to understand and honor the beautiful complexity of the humans they serve. We create a safe, honest environment, preparing people to deal with real-world conflict, have more meaningful

Kevin Pereau is a leading digital health expert and author of "The Digital Health Revolution" and "It Takes a Village". He spent the early part of his career managing strategy and management consulting firms with a specialty focus on technology. His first health technology company was a consumer

JP McLean is a bestselling author of urban fantasy and supernatural thrillers. She is a Global Book Award winner, a CIBA finalist, and has received honours from the Eric Hoffer Book Awards, the Wishing Shelf Book Awards, the NIEA Awards, and the Whistler independent Book Awards. JP is a graduate of

Better known for being an awesome father, devoted husband, impassioned employee, and candidly, being way too impressed with himself; Ron Randall has been in love with words from a very early age. He whiled away entire seasons exploring the worlds of Tolkien, Donaldson, Kurtz, Eddings, Anthony

Ian Conrey is both a teacher and student of history and theology, who actively fights against human trafficking and is working toward an M.A. In his free time, he enjoys reading biographies and ancient mythology, discovering early American folk songs, and exploring the Cohutta Wilderness. He lives

Ragini Elizabeth Michaels Transformation Leadership Coach, Behavioral Change Specialist, Mindfulness/Consciousness Mentor, Author Ragini is the founder of Facticity® Trainings, Inc., a training and consulting company established in 1988 offering certification training in Paradox Management, Neuro

Michelle Cook writes thrillers and dystopian fiction. She lives in the UK with her husband, their two young children, and a cat called Lyra Belacqua. Her first joyful steps into creative writing were at the age of ten, when the teacher read out her short story in class. A slapstick tale of two

Dan Pontefract is the founder and CEO of Pontefract Group, a firm that improves the state of leadership and organizational culture. He is the best-selling author of four books: LEAD. CARE. WIN. How to Become a Leader Who Matters, OPEN TO THINK, THE PURPOSE EFFECT and FLAT ARMY. A renowned speaker

Kaitlin B. Curtice is an award-winning author, poet-storyteller, and public speaker. As an enrolled citizen of the Potawatomi nation, she writes on the intersections of spirituality and identity and how that shifts throughout our lives. She also speaks on these topics to diverse audiences who are

Meredith Wargo is an award-winning author and advocate for animals. The recipient of four Maxwell Medallions from the Dog Writers of Association of America, she has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Although a native Texan, Meredith currently lives in southern

Elise has a B.S. in Journalism from the University of Miami, and a Masters of Education from Harvard University. Elise lives in Nashville with her husband, three small humans, and one small dog. She enjoys hot baths, cold margaritas, and good books. The Last Text You Sent is her debut novel.

Susan writes steamy, sexy and fun contemporary romance stories, some suspenseful, some gritty and dark and hopefully always entertaining. She loves going to the theatre, live music concerts (especially if it’s her man crush Adam Lambert ) the divine Cumberbatch, walks in the countryside, a good G

Hi there. I am Whitney Rose. Published author, creative and inspirational writer, and poet. I transmute raw and vulnerable life experiences into written stories that people relate to on a powerful, deep level. Readers that are drown to my writing often receive what they need to hear and learn at the

Following a career in education, I qualified as an aromatherapist at the Tisserand Institute in London in 1999 and later worked there as an anatomy and physiology lecturer. My aromatherapy studies sparked an interest in natural health and since then, I have completed a variety of complementary

Katrina-Jane is a down to earth, ‘out of the box’ clairvoyant medium, multiple times award winning author, inspirational speaker, teacher and thought leader - who is dedicated to guiding people on your soul journey. Her specialities include death and dying, clairvoyant readings, support for

Nikki Auberkett is a cultural anthropologist, developmental editor, and overall passionate storyteller. With nearly 15 years of research and exploration into global folklore and mythology, biblical archaeology, and all things weird and unusual, she weaves her research and social science expertise

E.T. Gunnarsson translates imagination into words for a living. E.T. Gunnarsson's debut book, Forgive Us, received the accolades for Best Sci-Fi Book at the 2021 San Francisco Book Festival and Best Post-Apocalyptic Book at the 2021 Fiction Awards. Born and raised in the Rocky Mountains (9,000 feet

Lorana Hoopes is the USA Today best-selling author of over forty books and counting. She's originally from Texas which shows as most of her books are set in the great state. As the saying goes, "You can take the girl out of Texas, but you can't take Texas out of the girl." Lorana began writing at an

Claire Merchant is an Australian author and storyteller. She is best known for her collection of fantasy, contemporary, and romance novels set in fictional South Coast. In 2019, Claire won ‘Top Female Author’ in the Fantasy and Romance categories as voted by The Authors Show.

Helen Matthews writes page-turning psychological suspense novels and is fascinated by the darker side of human nature and how a life can change in an instant. Her novel The Girl in the Van, published by Darkstroke Books, won the suspense and thriller genre in the 2022 Pageturner Awards. Other novels

Senior Fellow of Social Innovation, Babson College; CEO, The Regenerative Paradigm Institute, Educator and Social Change designer for people in change agents roles, organizational leaders who aspire to making a difference, business and organizational teams pursuing meaningful work and business

Joel Shoemaker has been a librarian for a decade and a magician for three! He lives in central Illinois with his husband and his dog, Maximus. He consumes an inordinate amount of cheese.

Hello all! I'm Jae, a 30-something writer of Fantasy and Urban Fantasy occupying space somewhere on the East Coast. As a queer woman, I've found myself growing more and more disenchanted and frustrated with the Fantasy genres, so I've set out to change the narrative and write the stories I

All my life I have been in love with stories, and as I grew up, I became a storyteller that now put her words in writing. Although I enjoy many genres, fantasy and sci-fi come easiest to me. Long ago, words came to me in Spanish, and then when I moved farther north in this hemisphere, my characters

Tom Joyce will neither confirm nor deny having any association with persons, living or dead, that have worked for intelligence gathering agencies, in the United States or abroad, in any capacity. He can, however, confirm that he has spent time in Northern Afghanistan and most of the other places

Danielle M. Wong is a bicoastal author with a permanent case of wanderlust. An extended trip abroad inspired her debut novel, Swearing Off Stars. The book was published to critical acclaim, garnering an Independent Press Award, a Benjamin Franklin Award, and an International Book Award. Danielle’s

Laura Davis is the author of seven non-fiction books, including The Courage to Heal, Becoming the Parent You Want to Be and I Thought We'd Never Speak Again. Her groundbreaking books have been translated into 11 languages and sold more than 1.8 million copies. In addition to writing books that

Megan is a long-time resident of queer romance and keeps herself busy reading and writing it. She is often accused of fluff and nonsense. When she’s not involved in writing, she likes to cook, harass her wife and cats, or watch movies. She loves to hear from readers and can be found all over the

Born in England, breaking into serious novel writing wasn’t something I began in earnest until taking early retirement after selling my business. Two decades of writing non-fiction, graphic design, magazine publication and organic skincare manufacturing, finally led me to my dream job. Writing

Jessica lives in a small suburb of Minneapolis with her husband and their four children. In addition to her full-time day job and occasionally moonlighting as a birth doula, she has discovered an interest in writing and hopes to find more time to work on the projects endlessly mulling around in her

Joel B. Randall graduated from Brigham Young University–Idaho in December 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in communication (an emphasis in news/journalism) and an English minor. As a former tutor with his university’s writing center, Joel has a deep appreciation for English grammar and aspires to

I've always loved creative writing and one of my earliest memories is being sent to the headmaster to receive a commendation for a comic book I wrote. For most of my life, I worked in offices writing training and technical manuals. In my spare time, I would be starting (but rarely finishing) science

Jinny Uppal is no stranger to driving contrary and innovative thinking. Uppal’s 20+ years of experience driving transformational growth by challenging existing norms in business is key to her success working with Fortune 500 telecom, ecommerce and retail companies. As a business and tech growth

Junia Wonders is the author of the seasonal bestseller The Roll-Away Pumpkin, which has been translated into six languages. Five of her picture books, namely, The Roll-Away Pumpkin, Zachary and the Great Potato Catastrophe, The Night the Monsters Came, Have You Ever Wondered What You Will Be?, and I

Born in Houston, Texas. Holds a BBA and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin. 1968-1971: Served as an officer in the U.S. Navy, with primary duty locating and tracking Soviet submarines 1973-1986: Bank Marketing Executive. In charge of advertising, marketing research, product development

Junia Wonders is the author of the seasonal bestseller The Roll-Away Pumpkin, which has been translated into six languages. Five of her picture books, namely, The Roll-Away Pumpkin, Zachary and the Great Potato Catastrophe, The Night the Monsters Came, Have You Ever Wondered What You Will Be?, and I

Junia Wonders is the author of the seasonal bestseller The Roll-Away Pumpkin, which has been translated into six languages. Five of her picture books, namely, The Roll-Away Pumpkin, Zachary and the Great Potato Catastrophe, The Night the Monsters Came, Have You Ever Wondered What You Will Be?, and I

Junia Wonders is the author of the seasonal bestseller The Roll-Away Pumpkin, which has been translated into six languages. Five of her picture books, namely, The Roll-Away Pumpkin, Zachary and the Great Potato Catastrophe, The Night the Monsters Came, Have You Ever Wondered What You Will Be?, and I

Throughout his career, Jeff Roth has worked on some of the most complex and challenging policy questions facing cities today. From flood mitigation and emergency management, to fire and life safety, to taxi regulation on the streets of New York, Jeff learned every day, in the arena of city