Chanticleer Book Reviews

Author: andrea-wilson-woods

The 2025 Journey Hall of Fame for Non-Fiction Overcoming Adversity

Recognizing Resiliency

Chanticleer International Book Awards

Journey Book Awards

Narrative Non-Fiction Division for Overcoming Adversities and Challenges

The Journey Awards Closes at the end of June. Enter today!

One of seven of the Non-Fiction Divisions for the Chanticleer International Book Awards (CIBAs) is the Journey Awards. This division deals with some of the most difficult experiences people are challenged with. The Journey Book Awards was the first non-fiction division of the CIBAs. As we received a considerable number of submissions that were uplifting and inspiring as well as those that focused on overcoming adversities, we decided to offer two divisions of narrative non-fiction. To be able to recognize these fully, we split off the more heartwarming works into the Hearten Awards, while continuing to recognize and discover works that give accounts of immense challenges and personal stories of the power resiliency and overcoming adversity (some of which should come with trigger warnings) in the Journey Book Awards.

Chanticleer is looking to discover exceptional Non-Fiction dealing with Overcoming Adversity, Dysfunctional Families, Societal Issues of Race and Class, Personal Journeys, and Experiences relating to PTSD, Drug Addiction, Sexual Abuse, and Childhood Trauma. If you have a Non-Fiction Book with different themes, you can see our full list of Non-Fiction Awards here. Truth matters now, more than ever!

Check out these exceptional reads and experiences from previous Journey Grand Prize Winners

Unfollow Me
By Kathryn Caraway

When you’re a target of stalking, “Each day is a fight to stay alive. Even while sleeping, you must be ready.” So reveals Kathryn Caraway in Unfollow Me, a spine-tingling true crime novel tracing a life shattered by severe stalking.

Although the author uses the pseudonym “Kathryn Caraway” throughout this novel to protect her identity, her harrowing tales of being the target of a stalker and fighting for her rights to freedom and safety are a testament to the real danger she was exposed to. Caraway’s experience creates a compelling story of one woman’s brave quest for justice against her torturer.

Kathryn emotionally, mentally, and physically falls apart at the hands of a violent, ubiquitous presence. Despite the severity of the crimes committed against her, Kathryn’s concerns are routinely dismissed as irrational and hysterical by law enforcement officials, lawyers, and even long-time friends.

Before a malicious intruder targets her, Kathryn is a beloved mother, a wonderful friend, and a confident employee. But after she is introduced to Todd, he begins to slowly strip her life from her control.

Read More Here

To see more from this author, including her upcoming fictional sequel to Unfollow Me, visit her website!

Barbed
By Julie Morrison

Julie Morrison saddles up to take us for a ride through the harsh dry mountains of northern Arizona and beyond in her memoir, Barbed.

Readers visit the ranch where Julie’s parents try to keep the family legacy alive. Julie reveals a cowboy’s world where she meets walls instead of doors but never gives up.

Barbed opens with Morrison living in the rainy Seattle area with her husband. But the lure of a cowboy’s life on the range – working cattle and riding horseback – beckons them both. Julie needs salvation like this for her marriage, now distant and cold.

Continue Reading here.

Visit Julie’s website here to learn more!

A Fraction Stronger
By Mark Berridge

Author and businessman Mark Berridge, through the lived experience of himself and others after traumatic injuries, gained a wide understanding of overcoming disaster, and how to rehabilitate not only one’s body but mind and spirit as well. In sharing his wisdom, A Fraction Stronger is a must-read for anyone facing physical, emotional, or mental barriers.

On March 10, 2019, Berridge, due to embark on a work-related flight from his Australian home to the US later that day, went on a bike ride with some buddies. He lost control of the bike over a piece of slippery road patch work, he wrecked falling into an open culvert, striking his head; conscious, but unable to move his feet and legs. The left side of his helmet was crushed, his spinal cord injured, and numerous bone broke. Hospitals would become his world as he dealt with spinal injuries and the long road to rehabilitation – relearning how to sit, stand, and walk.

He learned more than just how to move again.

Read more here!

Visit Mark’s website to learn more about where he’s speaking here!

Better off Bald
By Andrea Wilson Woods

There exists a bond between sisters, and often that bond becomes a connection so strong that time cannot erase the love and the longing for the other. Andrea Wilson Woods defines such a bond in Better Off Bald: A Life in 147 Days.

Woods details the choreographed life she lives with her sister Adrienne, who has been diagnosed with cancer. Together they begin their dance, pirouetting around IV ports and long lists of medications. Sisters in life, love, and an all-out war against liver cancer.

Woods retells her story with compassion and a rational eye for detail while embracing all the deep emotions that ravage her as she records every one of the 147 days after the initial diagnosis.

Continue Reading here.

You can learn more about Woods’ journey and even hear early parts of the book on her website here.

The Parrot’s Perch — A Memoir of Torture and Corruption in Brazil
By Karen Keilt

Karen Keilt led a life of privilege, a life that most of us only dream of, but she turns the dream upside down in her memoir The Parrot’s Perch: A Memoir of Torture and Corruption in Brazil, where she exposes the seamy underside of that life and the corrupt government under which she lived. Keilt takes us from her childhood filled with the horses she loved, to her marriage to a man she adored, to the fatal incident that destroyed the world she knew.

The memoir moves between New York and Sao Paulo as Keilt sets the stage for an incident that occurs shortly after her marriage. Keilt places no blame, but tells her story with an objective eye, while expressing the confusion she held of her experiences: the kidnapping, torture, rape, and interrogation by the police for “…forty-five days of hell. Three million, eight hundred and eighty-eight seconds.”

Karen Keilt presents a memoir that is tough and unapologetic. She sandwiches her story within an interview at the UN, which is smart because some of the events are so intense and violent, they call for a breathing space where readers can decompress.

Continue Reading here.

Visit Karen Keilt’s website here to learn more!

Thank you for celebrating our Journey Hall of Fame Winners with us!

Remember to add your next reads to your StoryGraph or Goodreads account! Now that you’re set on your next five reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Journey Winners is to submit today!

Those who submit and advance will have the chance to win the Overall Grand Prize of the CIBAs and $1000!

You know you want it…

If you have a great Narrative Non-Fiction Book about Overcoming Adversity, submit it to us before the end of August to enter the 2025 CIBAs!

July 25, 2025
The 2024 Journey Hall of Fame for Overcoming Adversity Non-Fiction
Recognizing Resiliency

Chanticleer International Book Awards

Journey Book Awards

Narrative Non-Fiction Division

for Overcoming Adversities and Challenges

The Journey Awards Closes at the end of June. Enter today!

One of seven of the Non-Fiction Divisions for the Chanticleer International Book Awards (CIBAs) is the Journey Awards. This division deals with some of the most difficult experiences people are challenged with. The Journey Book Awards was the first non-fiction division of the CIBAs. As we received a considerable number of submissions that were uplifting and inspiring as well as those that focused on overcoming adversities, we decided to offer two divisions of narrative non-fiction. To be able to recognize these fully, we split off the more heartwarming works into the Hearten Awards, while continuing to recognize and discover works that give accounts of immense challenges and personal stories of the power resiliency and overcoming adversity (some of which should come with trigger warnings) in the Journey Book Awards.

Chanticleer is looking to discover exceptional Non-Fiction dealing with Overcoming Adversity, Dysfunctional Families, Societal Issues of Race and Class, Personal Journeys, and Experiences relating to PTSD, Drug Addiction, Sexual Abuse, and Childhood Trauma. If you have a Non-Fiction Book with different themes, you can see our full list of Non-Fiction Awards here. Truth matters now, more than ever!

Check out these exceptional reads and experiences from previous Journey Grand Prize Winners

Barbed
By Julie Morrison

Julie Morrison saddles up to take us for a ride through the harsh dry mountains of northern Arizona and beyond in her memoir, Barbed.

Readers visit the ranch where Julie’s parents try to keep the family legacy alive. Julie reveals a cowboy’s world where she meets walls instead of doors but never gives up.

Barbed opens with Morrison living in the rainy Seattle area with her husband. But the lure of a cowboy’s life on the range – working cattle and riding horseback – beckons them both. Julie needs salvation like this for her marriage, now distant and cold.

Continue Reading here.

Visit Julie’s website here to learn more!

See the full list of 2023 Journey Winners here!

A Fraction Stronger
By Mark Berridge

Author and businessman Mark Berridge, through the lived experience of himself and others after traumatic injuries, gained a wide understanding of overcoming disaster, and how to rehabilitate not only one’s body but mind and spirit as well. In sharing his wisdom, A Fraction Stronger is a must-read for anyone facing physical, emotional, or mental barriers.

On March 10, 2019, Berridge, due to embark on a work-related flight from his Australian home to the US later that day, went on a bike ride with some buddies. He lost control of the bike over a piece of slippery road patch work, he wrecked falling into an open culvert, striking his head; conscious, but unable to move his feet and legs. The left side of his helmet was crushed, his spinal cord injured, and numerous bone broke. Hospitals would become his world as he dealt with spinal injuries and the long road to rehabilitation – relearning how to sit, stand, and walk.

He learned more than just how to move again.

Read more here!

Visit Mark’s website to learn more about where he’s speaking here!

See the full list of 2022 Journey Winners here.

Better off Bald
By Andrea Wilson Woods

There exists a bond between sisters, and often that bond becomes a connection so strong that time cannot erase the love and the longing for the other. Andrea Wilson Woods defines such a bond in Better Off Bald: A Life in 147 Days.

Woods details the choreographed life she lives with her sister Adrienne, who has been diagnosed with cancer. Together they begin their dance, pirouetting around IV ports and long lists of medications. Sisters in life, love, and an all-out war against liver cancer.

Woods retells her story with compassion and a rational eye for detail while embracing all the deep emotions that ravage her as she records every one of the 147 days after the initial diagnosis.

Continue Reading here.

You can learn more about Woods’ journey and even hear early parts of the book on her website here.

See the full list of 2021 Journey Winners here.

The Parrot’s Perch — A Memoir of Torture and Corruption in Brazil
By Karen Keilt

Karen Keilt led a life of privilege, a life that most of us only dream of, but she turns the dream upside down in her memoir The Parrot’s Perch: A Memoir of Torture and Corruption in Brazil, where she exposes the seamy underside of that life and the corrupt government under which she lived. Keilt takes us from her childhood filled with the horses she loved, to her marriage to a man she adored, to the fatal incident that destroyed the world she knew.

The memoir moves between New York and Sao Paulo as Keilt sets the stage for an incident that occurs shortly after her marriage. Keilt places no blame, but tells her story with an objective eye, while expressing the confusion she held of her experiences: the kidnapping, torture, rape, and interrogation by the police for “…forty-five days of hell. Three million, eight hundred and eighty-eight seconds.”

Karen Keilt presents a memoir that is tough and unapologetic. She sandwiches her story within an interview at the UN, which is smart because some of the events are so intense and violent, they call for a breathing space where readers can decompress.

Continue Reading here.

Visit Karen Keilt’s website here to learn more!

See the full list of 2020 Journey Winners here.

Persistence of Light
By John Hoyte

Reading John Hoyte’s memoir, Persistence of Light, is like sitting around a campfire absorbing stories of adventure, loss, and love – and feeling better for it. With journalistic precision, Hoyte shares both the facts and the emotional impact of his fascinating travels, doing so void of self-pity for his suffering and without self-aggrandizement for his vast achievements.

Born in 1932 to medical missionary parents (his father, Stanley, was British; his mother, Grace, American), Hoyte enjoyed a vibrant childhood taking nature walks and playing with his five siblings. A pivotal moment came at 8 years old when his parents were summoned to a missionary hospital, 1300 miles away in Lanchow. Hoyte and his siblings ended up in a Japanese internment camp without either parent.

Despite weeks with little to no food, wearing tattered clothing and walking barefoot (shoes were a commodity), he mustered the energy and the interest to write, sketch and draw – ultimately finding mystery and hope in a world besieged by authoritarian forces. His intense curiosity that percolated as a child, along with his faith in God, leads him on the many adventures he depicts in this thoughtful and exciting memoir.

Continue Reading here.

Visit John Hoyte’s blog here.

See the 2019 First Place Journey Winners here

Thank you for celebrating our Journey Hall of Fame Winners with us!

Remember to add your next reads to your StoryGraph or Goodreads account! Now that you’re set on your next five reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Journey Winners is to submit today!

Those who submit and advance will have the chance to win the Overall Grand Prize of the CIBAs and $1000!

Are you a Chanticleer Author who has some good news to share? Let us know! We’re always looking for a reason to crow about Chanticleerians! Here are some recent achievements from our authors:
Reach out with your news to info@ChantiReviews.com

You know you want it…

If you have a great Narrative Non-Fiction Book about Overcoming Adversity, submit it to us before the end of June to enter the 2024 CIBAs!
June 6, 2024
Spotlight on the June Book Awards! Cygnus, Journey, Dante Rossetti, and Chatelaine!
The Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards Are already receiving record submissions!

Fresh off the Chanticleer Authors Conference, there’s never been a better time to be an author!

Embark on extraordinary adventures and explore thrilling frontiers!

These Sizzling Book Awards are starting summer out right!
Note: We have recently revised our Book Award deadlines according to feedback from both authors and our readers! The hope with the new deadlines is that authors will be able to receive information faster and readers will be more able to read steadily without interruptions are sudden influxes. Thank you for your patience as we adjust to the new schedule.

These are four of our longest running and most competitive Book Award Divisions.
Don’t hesitate to join the authors who have already submitted to the CIBAs!

The tiers of achievement for the CIBAs with $30,000+ awarded annually, as well as expert long tail marketing to maximize your digital footprint

The Chanticleer Int’l Book Award lists provide excitement and energize author reader bases each time one of them are released. From Long List to Overall Grand Prize Winner, there are a myriad of opportunities for debut and experienced authors to promote their work through the CIBAs.

Summer is the perfect season to get ahead of the game and submit, but we should also pause to enjoy some of the excellent work that’s been submitted to Chanticleer.

Journey Book Awards for Non-Fiction Memoirs that Overcome Adversity

A FRACTION STRONGER: Finding Belief and Possibility in Life’s Impossible Moments
By Mark Berridge

Author and businessman Mark Berridge, through the lived experience of himself and others after traumatic injuries, gained a wide understanding of overcoming disaster, and how to rehabilitate not only one’s body but mind and spirit as well. In sharing his wisdom, A Fraction Stronger is a must-read for anyone facing physical, emotional, or mental barriers.

On March 10, 2019, Berridge, due to embark on a work-related flight from his Australian home to the US later that day, went on a bike ride with some buddies. Following the group around a corner, he fell, striking his head; conscious, but unable to move his feet and legs. Hospitals would become his world as he dealt with spinal injuries and the long road to rehabilitation – relearning how to sit, stand, and walk.

Read more here.

BETTER OFF BALD: A Life in 147 Days
By Andrea Wilson Woods

There exists a bond between sisters, and often that bond becomes a connection so strong that time cannot erase the love and the longing for the other. Andrea Wilson Woods defines such a bond in Better Off Bald: A Life in 147 Days.

Woods details the choreographed life she lives with her sister Adrienne, who has been diagnosed with cancer. Together they begin their dance, pirouetting around IV ports and long lists of medications. Sisters in life, love, and an all-out war against liver cancer.

Read more here.

Cygnus Book Awards for Science Fiction

The LUNA MISSILE CRISIS
By Rhett C. Bruno and Jaime Castle

Authors Rhett C. Bruno and Jaime Castle come together to tell the tale of alien first contact gone awry in their epic science fiction release, The Luna Missile Crisis.

The year is 1961, and cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin is set to become the first man in space. But when Yuri, snug inside the Vostok 1, is launched from the cosmodrome and into the coming night, he’s met with a collision that changes the course of history. The Vostok 1 crashes into an oncoming alien starship. Assuming the collision was actually a missile fired from Russia’s space race opponent, the United States, the soviet nation quickly launches an arsenal of nuclear warheads in response. But those warheads never make it to their target. Instead, they detonate against the hidden starship, sending a wave of nuclear destruction over eastern Europe.

Read more here.

FUTURE’S DARK PAST: Time Forward Trilogy, Book 1
By J.L. Yarrow

A time travel epic, Future’s Dark Past is the creative endeavor of J.L Yarrow, husband and wife duo of John and Leanne Yarrow. The time-hopping action begins in the year 2355, in a world virtually uninhabitable outside a few city pods where food is scarce and violence a certainty.

Caught sneaking into a city pod with nowhere else to go, Kristen Winters agrees to join the Time Forward Project, a group from which no volunteers have ever returned. Kristin’s new superiors send her to fight a deadly battle for the fate of humanity. In 2025, Hunter Coburn becomes an important piece of the puzzle after he gets accidentally connected to Kristen’s time jumps. Initially on opposite sides, they must figure out how to work together as the plan to save the future becomes increasingly unstable.

Read more here.

Dante Rossetti Book Awards for Young Adult Fiction

TARO: The Legendary Boy Hero of Japan
By Blue Spruell & illustrated by Miya Outlaw

Adventure, classic tales, fantasy, and exciting action combine in TARO: Legendary Boy Hero of Japan, a well-poised debut novel by award-winning author Blue Spruell.

In the turbulent final decades of the sixteenth century, feudal Japan reeled in mayhem as the central hereditary dictatorship collapsed, and tyrannical powers fought to control the empire. TARO: The Legendary Boy Hero of Japan is the story of how one man revolutionized a nation by taking its reigns and forging a new destiny through his depths of compassion and determination.

Read more here.

The BEST WEEK THAT NEVER HAPPENED
By Dallas Woodburn

Dallas Woodburn’s debut novel The Best Week that Never Happened is a roller-coaster ride through Hawaii and the mysterious depths of its briny deep, sparkling with unreal magic, a poignant romance, and incessant hope.

Tegan Rossi, a freshly graduated eighteen-year-old, awakens in the secretive hideout she discovered with Kai Kapule as two eight-year-old children on her first trip to Hawaii Island. She needs to make amends with Kai as they had a major squabble over something very important that she now oddly forgets. When Tegan catches up with Kai in Hawaii, she enters her best week yet – the Best Week That Never Happened.

Read more here.

Chatelaine Book Awards for Romance Fiction

OPERATION MOM: My Plan to Get My Mom a Life and a Man
By Reenita Malhotra Hora

Master storyteller Reenita Malhotra Hora’s YA romance Operation Mom: My Plan to Get My Mom a Life and a Man takes us on a charming journey through the life of one teen, Ila Isham.

Hora introduces Ila and her best friend Deepali, two boy-crazy teens on a summer quest. Readers will fall in love with the smart, sassy, angst-filled, rebellious Ila. A typical teenage girl, Ila lives in Mumbai with her mom and Sakkubai, their house manager. Ila’s mother calls her obsessed, but that seems unfair. Is she obsessed just because her every waking minute is spent thinking of Ali Zafar, famous pop icon, singer, and heartthrob? Or is she obsessed with fellow classmate Dev?

Read more here.

The LONG DESERT ROAD
By Alex Sirotkin

Alex Sirotkin’s debut novel, The Long Desert Road, navigates the emotional arcs of life in contrast with the greater expanse of the cosmos. Here a young woman must face her addictions while the people around her try to move beyond her backlash.

We meet Henry Spinoza, a 44-year-old quirky science writer. He ponders his life as half over, looks for the right woman, and wonders if there isn’t more to existence.

Read more here.

Your book deserves to be discovered

First Place and Grand Prize Authors at the Chanticleer Authors Conference

Thank you for celebrating these Chanticleer Grand Prize Winners with us!

Remember, if you have a great book in the following genres, you should submit today!
The world needs good books now more than ever
June 2, 2023
The 2022 JOURNEY CIBAs Finalists for Overcoming Adversity in Narrative Non-Fiction
The Journey Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Overcoming Adversity in Narrative Non-Fiction and Memoir. The Journey Book Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring true stories about adventures, life events, unique experiences, travel, personal journeys, global enlightenment, and more. We will put books about true and inspiring stories to the test and choose the best among them. See our full list of Non-Fiction Divisions here.

These titles have moved forward in the Semi-Finalist Journey Non-Fiction entries to the 2022 Journey Book Awards FINALISTS. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC23). The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 25 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 29th, 2023 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2023 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the First Place and Grand Prize Winners of the 2022 Journey Book Awards novel competition for Overcoming Adversity in Non-Fiction!

Join us in celebrating the Finalist authors and their works in the 2022 CIBAs.
- Sandi Paris – Catching Rain
- Michael Wohl – In Herschel’s Wake
- Ashe and Magdalena Stevens – Lost in Beirut: A True Story of Love, Loss and War
- Norris Comer – Salmon in the Seine: Alaskan Memories of Life, Death, & Everything In-Between
- Laura Whitfield – Untethered: Faith, Failure, and Finding Solid Ground
- Kyomi O’Connor – A Sky of Infinite Blue- A Japanese Immigrant’s Search for Home and Self
- Roselle Madrone – The Open Book: A Family Memoir of Adventure, Trauma, and Resilience
- D. Terrence Foster, MD – The Stress Book: Forty-Plus Ways to Manage Stress & Enjoy Your Life
- Mark Berridge – A Fraction Stronger
- Joseph G. Krygier with Victor Breitburg – A Rage To Live: Surviving The Holocaust So Hitler Would Not Win
- Donna McCart Welser – Rue’s Butterfly
- Simone Yemm – Stalked by Demons, Guarded by Angels: The Girl with the Eating Disorder
- Philip Lister – A Short Good Life: Her Father Tells Liza’s Story of Facing Death
- M. E. Schuman – The Understory: A Female Environmentalist in the Land of the Midnight Sun
- Meredith O’Brien – Opening The Door: My Journey Through Anorexia To Full Recovery
- Susan Frances Morris – The Sensitive One
- Amelia Zachry – Enough – A Memoir of Mistakes, Mania, and Motherhood
- Carolyn DiPasquale – Reckless Grace: A Mother’s Crash Course in Mental Illness
- Mike Coleman – The Way from Me to Us
- Gabriel Bron – The Journey Home: Portraits of Healing
- Catherine Ehrlich – Irma’s Passport: One Woman, Two World Wars, and a Legacy of Courage
- Denise Collins – What Happened to John
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the FB post. However, for FB to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews.

Please click here to visit our page to LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE on Facebook.

Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Twitter’s handle is @ChantiReviews

Or click hereto go directly to Chanticleer’s Twitter feed.

Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2021 JOURNEY Awards is:

Better Off Bald: A Life in 147 Days

Andrea Wilson Woods

The 2022 JOURNEY Book Awards winners will be announced at CAC23 on April 29, 2023. Save the date for CAC23, scheduled April 27-30, 2023, our 10 year Conference Anniversary!

Submissions for the 2023 JOURNEY Book Awards are open until the end of July. Enter here!

Don’t delay! Enter today!

IN-Person – April 27-30, 2023! Register Today!

Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.

Join us for our 11th annual conference and discover why!
February 22, 2023
The 2022 Semi-Finalists JOURNEY Book Awards for Overcoming Adversity in Narrative Non-Fiction
The Journey Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Overcoming Adversity in Narrative Non-Fiction and Memoir. The Journey Book Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring true stories about adventures, life events, unique experiences, travel, personal journeys, global enlightenment, and more. We will put books about true and inspiring stories to the test and choose the best among them. See our full list of Non-Fiction Divisions here.

These titles have moved forward in the Short List Journey Non-Fiction entries to the 2022 Journey Book Awards SEMI-FINALISTS. Entries below are now in competition for 2022 Journey Finalists. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC23).

The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 25 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 29th, 2023 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2023 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the FINALISTS of the 2022 Journey Book Awards novel competition for Overcoming Adversity in Non-Fiction!

Join us in celebrating the Semi-Finalist authors and their works in the 2022 CIBAs.
- Sandi Paris – Catching Rain
- Michael Wohl – In Herschel’s Wake
- Ashe and Magdalena Stevens – Lost in Beirut: A True Story of Love, Loss and War
- Norris Comer – Salmon in the Seine: Alaskan Memories of Life, Death, & Everything In-Between
- Laura Whitfield – Untethered: Faith, Failure, and Finding Solid Ground
- Nicholas Chittick – A PRISONER’S FIGHT: The Pandemic as Seen From Inside the Illinois Department of Corrections
- Linda Murphy Marshall – Ivy Lodge: A Memoir of Translation and Discovery
- Kim Fairley – Swimming for My Life
- Kyomi O’Connor – A Sky of Infinite Blue- A Japanese Immigrant’s Search for Home and Self
- Roselle Madrone, Robin Detmer, & Kris Dutter – The Open Book: A Family Memoir of Adventure, Trauma, and Resilience
- D. Terrence Foster, MD – The Stress Book: Forty-Plus Ways to Manage Stress & Enjoy Your Life
- Mark Berridge – A Fraction Stronger
- Joseph G. Krygier with Victor Breitburg – A Rage To Live: Surviving The Holocaust So Hitler Would Not Win
- Donna McCart Welser – Rue’s Butterfly
- Simone Yemm – Stalked by Demons, Guarded by Angels: The Girl with the Eating Disorder
- Philip Lister – A Short Good Life: Her Father Tells Liza’s Story of Facing Death
- M. E. Schuman – The Understory: A Female Environmentalist in the Land of the Midnight Sun
- Meredith O’Brien – Opening The Door: My Journey Through Anorexia To Full Recovery
- Susan Frances Morris – The Sensitive One
- Amelia Zachry – Enough – A Memoir of Mistakes, Mania, and Motherhood
- Carolyn DiPasquale – Reckless Grace: A Mother’s Crash Course in Mental Illness
- Jackie Carol Haines – Pinball, the Stray I Needed
- Mike Coleman – The Way from Me to Us
- Gabriel Bron – The Journey Home: Portraits of Healing
- Catherine Ehrlich – Irma’s Passport: One Woman, Two World Wars, and a Legacy of Courage
- Denise Collins – What Happened to John
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the FB post. However, for FB to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews.

Please click here to visit our page to LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE on Facebook.

Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Twitter’s handle is @ChantiReviews

Or click hereto go directly to Chanticleer’s Twitter feed.

Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2021 JOURNEY Awards is:

Better Off Bald: A Life in 147 Days

Andrea Wilson Woods

The 2022 JOURNEY Book Awards winners will be announced at CAC23 on April 29, 2023. Save the date for CAC23, scheduled April 27-30, 2023, our 10 year Conference Anniversary!

Submissions for the 2023 JOURNEY Book Awards are open until the end of July. Enter here!

Don’t delay! Enter today!

IN-Person – April 27-30, 2023! Register Today!

Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.

Join us for our 11th annual conference and discover why!
January 24, 2023
The 2022 Short List JOURNEY Book Awards for Overcoming Adversity in Narrative Non-Fiction
The Journey Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Overcoming Adversity in Narrative Non-Fiction and Memoir. The Journey Book Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring true stories about adventures, life events, unique experiences, travel, personal journeys, global enlightenment, and more. We will put books about true and inspiring stories to the test and choose the best among them. See our full list of Non-Fiction Divisions here.

These titles have moved forward in the Long List Journey Non-Fiction entries to the 2022 Journey Book Awards SHORT LIST. Entries below are now in competition for 2022 Journey Semi-Finalists. Finalists will be selected from the Semi-Finalists. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC23).

The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 25 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 29th, 2023 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2023 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SEMI-FINALIST of the 2022 Journey Book Awards novel competition for Overcoming Adversity in Non-Fiction!

Join us in celebrating the ShortList authors and their works in the 2022 CIBAs.
- Ian Gregory – On Insanity
- Sandi Paris – Catching Rain
- Michael Wohl – In Herschel’s Wake
- Ashe and Magdalena Stevens – Lost in Beirut: A True Story of Love, Loss and War
- Norris Comer – Salmon in the Seine: Alaskan Memories of Life, Death, & Everything In-Between
- Laura Whitfield – Untethered: Faith, Failure, and Finding Solid Ground
- Nicholas Chittick – A PRISONER’S FIGHT: The Pandemic as Seen From Inside the Illinois Department of Corrections
- Linda Murphy Marshall – Ivy Lodge: A Memoir of Translation and Discovery
- Kim Fairley – Swimming for My Life
- Kyomi O’Connor – A Sky of Infinite Blue- A Japanese Immigrant’s Search for Home and Self
- Roselle Madrone, Robin Detmer, & Kris Dutter – The Open Book: A Family Memoir of Adventure, Trauma, and Resilience
- D. Terrence Foster, MD – The Stress Book: Forty-Plus Ways to Manage Stress & Enjoy Your Life
- Mark Berridge – A Fraction Stronger
- Joseph G. Krygier with Victor Breitburg – A Rage To Live: Surviving The Holocaust So Hitler Would Not Win
- Katherine Caire – Accidental Sisters
- Donna McCart Welser – Rue’s Butterfly
- Lyn Barrett – Crazy: Reclaiming Life from the Shadow of Traumatic Memory
- Simone Yemm – Stalked by Demons, Guarded by Angels: The Girl with the Eating Disorder
- Philip Lister – A Short Good Life: Her Father Tells Liza’s Story of Facing Death
- M. E. Schuman – The Understory: A Female Environmentalist in the Land of the Midnight Sun
- Meredith O’Brien – Opening The Door: My Journey Through Anorexia To Full Recovery
- Susan Frances Morris – The Sensitive One
- Stuart Nagero – Truth is Indestructible
- Amelia Zachry – Enough – A Memoir of Mistakes, Mania, and Motherhood
- Carolyn DiPasquale – Reckless Grace: A Mother’s Crash Course in Mental Illness
- Jackie Carol Haines – Pinball, the Stray I Needed
- Benjamin Plumb – The Satisfied Introvert: A Memoir About Finding Safety in an Extroverted World
- Mike Coleman – The Way from Me to Us
- Gabriel Bron – The Journey Home: Portraits of Healing
- Catherine Ehrlich – Irma’s Passport: One Woman, Two World Wars, and a Legacy of Courage
- Melissa Harris – One Pound, Twelve Ounces
- Denise Collins – What Happened to John
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the FB post. However, for FB to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews.

Please click here to visit our page to LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE on Facebook.

Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Twitter’s handle is @ChantiReviews

Or click here to go directly to Chanticleer’s Twitter feed.

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2021 JOURNEY Awards is:

Better Off Bald: A Life in 147 Days

Andrea Wilson Woods

The 2022 JOURNEY Book Awards winners will be announced at CAC23 on April 29, 2023. Save the date for CAC23, scheduled April 27-30, 2023, our 10 year Conference Anniversary!

Submissions for the 2023 JOURNEY Book Awards are open until the end of July. Enter here!

Don’t delay! Enter today!

IN-Person – April 27-30, 2023! Register Today!

Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.

Join us for our 11th annual conference and discover why!
January 10, 2023
The 2022 Long List JOURNEY Book Awards for Overcoming Adversity in Narrative Non-Fiction
The Journey Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Overcoming Adversity in Narrative Non-Fiction and Memoir. The Journey Book Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring true stories about adventures, life events, unique experiences, travel, personal journeys, global enlightenment, and more. We will put books about true and inspiring stories to the test and choose the best among them. See our full list of Non-Fiction Divisions here.

These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from all 2022 Journey Non-Fiction entries to the 2022 Journey Book Awards LONG LIST. Entries below are now in competition for 2022 Journey Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalist positions. Finalists will be selected from the Semi-Finalists. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC23).

The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 25 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 29th, 2023 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2023 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2022 Journey Book Awards novel competition for Overcoming Adversity in Non-Fiction!

Join us in celebrating the Long List authors and their works in the 2022 CIBAs.
- Ian Gregory – On Insanity
- Sandi Paris – Catching Rain
- Michael Wohl – In Herschel’s Wake
- Ashe and Magdalena Stevens – Lost in Beirut: A True Story of Love, Loss and War
- Norris Comer – Salmon in the Seine: Alaskan Memories of Life, Death, & Everything In-Between
- Laura Whitfield – Untethered: Faith, Failure, and Finding Solid Ground
- Nicholas Chittick – A PRISONER’S FIGHT: The Pandemic as Seen From Inside the Illinois Department of Corrections
- Linda Murphy Marshall – Ivy Lodge: A Memoir of Translation and Discovery
- C.J. Hudson – Destiny Lives on Fairhaven Street
- Kim Fairley – Swimming for My Life
- Kyomi O’Connor – A Sky of Infinite Blue- A Japanese Immigrant’s Search for Home and Self
- Carter Obasohan – Notes From Out West
- Roselle Madrone, Robin Detmer, & Kris Dutter – The Open Book: A Family Memoir of Adventure, Trauma, and Resilience
- D. Terrence Foster, MD – The Stress Book: Forty-Plus Ways to Manage Stress & Enjoy Your Life
- Mark Berridge – A Fraction Stronger
- Joseph G. Krygier with Victor Breitburg – A Rage To Live: Surviving The Holocaust So Hitler Would Not Win
- Katherine Caire – Accidental Sisters
- Donna McCart Welser – Rue’s Butterfly
- Lyn Barrett – Crazy: Reclaiming Life from the Shadow of Traumatic Memory
- Simone Yemm – Stalked by Demons, Guarded by Angels: The Girl with the Eating Disorder
- Philip Lister – A Short Good Life: Her Father Tells Liza’s Story of Facing Death
- Tina Scott – The Forbidden Fruit: A True Story of Sex, Drugs, and the Afterlife
- M. E. Schuman – The Understory: A Female Environmentalist in the Land of the Midnight Sun
- Meredith O’Brien – Opening The Door: My Journey Through Anorexia To Full Recovery
- Susan Frances Morris – The Sensitive One
- Stuart Nagero – Truth is Indestructible
- Amelia Zachry – Enough – A Memoir of Mistakes, Mania, and Motherhood
- Carolyn DiPasquale – Reckless Grace: A Mother’s Crash Course in Mental Illness
- Jackie Carol Haines – Pinball, the Stray I Needed
- Benjamin Plumb – The Satisfied Introvert: A Memoir About Finding Safety in an Extroverted World
- Mike Coleman – The Way from Me to Us
- Linda Kolsky – Heavenly Hindsights: How One Mother Found Meaning in her Life After the Death of Her Child
- Gabriel Bron – The Journey Home: Portraits of Healing
- Catherine Ehrlich – Irma’s Passport: One Woman, Two World Wars, and a Legacy of Courage
- Melissa Harris – One Pound, Twelve Ounces
- Denise Collins – What Happened to John
- Lynette Ingram – Flares from a Fallout Shelter
- Linda Lee Henderson – Wake Up Mom!
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!

This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the FB post. However, for FB to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews.

Please click here to visit our page to LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE on Facebook.

Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Twitter’s handle is @ChantiReviews

Or click here to go directly to Chanticleer’s Twitter feed.

Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2021 JOURNEY Awards is:

Better Off Bald: A Life in 147 Days

Andrea Wilson Woods

The 2022 JOURNEY Book Awards winners will be announced at CAC23 on April 29, 2023. Save the date for CAC23, scheduled April 27-30, 2023, our 10 year Conference Anniversary!

Submissions for the 2023 JOURNEY Book Awards are open until the end of July. Enter here!

Don’t delay! Enter today!

IN-Person – April 27-30, 2023! Register Today!

Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.

Join us for our 11th annual conference and discover why!
December 6, 2022
Navigating Narrative Non-Fiction | November Deadlines for the CIBAs
Demystify Your Non-Fiction with Chanticleer

In Fiction, genre boundaries can sometimes seem so clear, scifi has aliens and mysteries have a murder, but how do we organize Non-Fiction?

Chanticleer offers a wide variety of Non-Fiction Book Awards, and here we’ll focus on the Narrative Non-Fiction Divisions.

These Divisions are:
The Original*

The Journey Awards came first. These awards shine bright as the lodestar of quality for the others. As more Non-Fiction submissions came in, the number of Non-Fiction Divisions expanded to fill the need. Right now, the Journey Awards focuses primarily on stories Overcoming Adversity. Often tear-jerkers, these stories highlight the resiliency of being human.

The 2021 Grand Prize Winner for the Journey Awards was Better off Bald by Andrea Wilson Woods.

There exists a bond between sisters, and often that bond becomes a connection so strong that time cannot erase the love and the longing for the other. Andrea Wilson Woods defines such a bond in Better Off Bald: A Life in 147 Days.

Woods details the choreographed life she lives with her sister Adrienne, who has been diagnosed with cancer. Together they begin their dance, pirouetting around IV ports and long lists of medications. Sisters in life, love, and an all-out war against liver cancer.

Woods retells her story with compassion and a rational eye for detail while embracing all the deep emotions that ravage her as she records every one of the 147 days after the initial diagnosis.
Their confusion about how this could have happened and their hope that they can beat this “thing” growing inside Adrienne are present on each page. Woods makes note of the doctors by name, the nurses by nicknames, and the hospital visits by hours spent waiting, waiting, waiting for help to come and rescue them from the nightmare that cancer has made of their lives.

Read more here.

*Note: The Journey Awards deadline has already passed, but the 2023 Journey Awards are open now!

Putting in the Research

Following the Journey Awards, it became clear we needed Awards focused on Journalism and Reporting. Enter the Nellie Bly Awards, named for reporter Nellie Bly whose journey around the Earth inspired the story Around the World in 80 Days. These books can back up all their facts with hard dates and maybe even an appendix at the end. They tell the stories that call out for their place in history.

The 2021 Grand Prize Winner for the Nellie Bly Awards was America’s Forgotten Suffragists: Virginia and Francis Minor by Nicole Evelina.

After being forgotten for nearly 130 years, the “Mother of Suffrage in Missouri” and her husband are finally taking their rightful place in history.

St. Louisans Virginia and Francis Minor forever changed the direction of women’s rights by taking the issue to the Supreme Court for the first and only time in 1875, a feat never eclipsed even by their better-known peers Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Yet despite a myriad of accomplishments and gaining notoriety in their own time, the Minors’ names have largely faded from memory. In 1867, Virginia founded the nation’s first organization solely dedicated to women’s suffrage—two years before Anthony formed the National Woman’s Suffrage Association (NWSA). Virginia and Francis were also the brains behind the groundbreaking idea that women were given the right to vote under the Fourteenth Amendment, a philosophy the NWSA adopted for nearly a decade.

Read more here.

Opening up Personal Narratives

As the Journey Awards began filling up, it became difficult to recognize both the uplifting and inspirational work as well as the work that looked at the darker side of what people overcome in their life. To try and highlight this warmer tone of writing, the Hearten Awards were introduced, so this “chicken soup for the soul” style of book could be brought to the forefront.

The 2021 Grand Prize Winner for the Hearten Awards was DAWGS: A True Story of Lost Animals and the Kids Who Rescued Them by Diane Trull & Meredith Wargo

We can all make a difference. Elementary-school teacher Diane Trull’s life-defining moment happened when her fourth-grade reading class saw a photo of a cardboard box overflowing with homeless puppies. Trull was no stranger to rescuing abandoned animals. She and her husband, Mark, had made it their mission to find permanent homes for stray dogs and cats. Now her young students were determined to save these lost pups and others like them. And in that moment, the Dalhart Animal Wellness Group and Sanctuary-known as DAWGS-was born. How Trull and her fourth graders started their own animal shelter is a story of dedication, commitment, and perseverance. In this eye-opening, deeply personal book, Trull describes the challenges they faced, from rescuing and caring for the animals to teaching children about compassion and responsibility, to facing local interests opposed to having a shelter in their town. She shares inspiring stories about animals and animal lovers of all ages in this moving story of hope and compassion. DAWGS is a testament to how love and a strong measure of determination can offer second chances-one animal, one child, and one day at a time.

Read more here!

The Newest Division from Chanticleer

The Military and Front Line Awards are close to our heart at Chanticleer. We’ve often wanted enough submissions for this to be its own Division as we all have family who has served in the military. However, we wanted these Awards to represent all walks of life that provide Service to Others like firefighters, teachers, medical workers, and the family of those who work to make our world a better place.

The 2021 Grand Prize Winner for the Military and Front Line Awards was Dear Bob by Martha Bolton with Linda Hope

For five decades, comedian, actor, singer, dancer, and entertainer Bob Hope (1903-2003) traveled the world performing before American and Allied troops and putting on morale-boosting USO shows. Dear Bob . . . : Bob Hope’s Wartime Correspondence with the G.I.s of World War II tells the story of Hope’s remarkable service to the fighting men and women of World War II, collecting personal letters, postcards, packages, and more sent back and forth among Hope and the troops and their loved ones back home.

Soldiers, nurses, wives, and parents shared their innermost thoughts, swapped jokes, and commiserated with the “G.I.s’ best friend” about war, sacrifice, lonely days, and worrisome, silent nights. The Entertainer of the Century performed for millions of soldiers in person, in films, and over the radio. He visited them in the hospitals and became not just a pal but their link to home. This unforgettable collection of letters and images, many of which remained in Hope’s personal files throughout his life and now reside at the Library of Congress, capture a personal side of both writer and recipient in a very special and often-emotional way. This volume heralds the voices of those servicemen and women whom Hope entertained and who, it is clear, delighted and inspired him.

Read more here.

A huge thank you to these incredible authors.

Keep Writing. Truth matters now more than ever.

Have an excellent Non-Fiction Narrative that deserves recognition? Submit now to our Non-Fiction Book Awards by the end of November!*

Note: The Journey Awards Deadline has already passed

Your book could be next!

Looking to up your game? Check out the traditional publishing tool that indie authors can use to propel their writing careers to new levels.
November 17, 2022
BETTER OFF BALD: A Life in 147 Days by Andrea Wilson Woods – Living with Cancer, Family Memoirs, Sisterhood

There exists a bond between sisters, and often that bond becomes a connection so strong that time cannot erase the love and the longing for the other. Andrea Wilson Woods defines such a bond in Better Off Bald: A Life in 147 Days.

Woods details the choreographed life she lives with her sister Adrienne, who has been diagnosed with cancer. Together they begin their dance, pirouetting around IV ports and long lists of medications. Sisters in life, love, and an all-out war against liver cancer.

Woods retells her story with compassion and a rational eye for detail while embracing all the deep emotions that ravage her as she records every one of the 147 days after the initial diagnosis.

Their confusion about how this could have happened and their hope that they can beat this “thing” growing inside Adrienne are present on each page. Woods makes note of the doctors by name, the nurses by nicknames, and the hospital visits by hours spent waiting, waiting, waiting for help to come and rescue them from the nightmare that cancer has made of their lives.

Adrienne, during this nightmare, remains her fifteen-year-old self, a bright, cheerful, optimistic imp who has brought so much joy to Andrea’s life. Adrienne’s love of music and the artists who create it becomes the beacon for her as her body begins a transformation caused by her cancer and the effect of the drugs used to fight it.

Woods is not only Adrienne’s sister but also her legal guardian, since approximately the age of eight. So, as well as the bond of sisterhood, they have the bond of parent and child. They have relied solely on one another for years, and the love they have for one another grows stronger and brighter. As an educator, Andrea’s love for her sister drives her to research to find a cure.

Andrea quits her job to care for Adrienne.

Her partner John and her biological father help her financially and emotionally. She struggles to remain positive and supportive of this beautiful child being ravaged by an enemy she cannot look in the eye.

Meanwhile, Adrienne salvages her teenage self by hanging out with her boyfriend and other friends when she can.

She goes to the movies with John, the only father she’s ever known, and meets Jay Leno and her musician hero Dave Navarro twice. Woods captures the essence of Adrienne’s youthful exuberance as they all learn to cope with the diagnosis and the grueling treatments that take Adrienne’s hair and strength.

Through this journey, hope reigns supreme, and to the last page, there is a winning spirit that will not be denied. The sisters cling to hope and each other in this candid tale. She gives us glimpses of their lives with their mother and the hardships they overcame for Andrea to gain custody of Adrienne. We see glimpses of the mischievous Adrienne, who doesn’t want to brush her teeth and is the honor student Adrienne who wants to get good grades and go to college.

Woods brings captions and paragraphs from Adrienne’s journal and emails to head each chapter and lead us through the days from 1 to 147. The love she had for her sister shines on every page, and as we root for Adrienne and hold out hope. Andrea navigates us through the labyrinth of the medical profession, becoming well versed in treatments and experimental drugs.

Andrea Wilson Woods’ Better Off Bald: A Life in 147 Days reflects a time of crushing grief and determination.

She grieves, yes, but she carries on the work of finding a cure for her sister’s cancer. She has devoted her life to making Adrienne’s experience matter, and we learn how much love can drive one to be a positive force. Better off Bald is a must-read for people of all walks of life because each of us is touched by cancer through our family, friends, or our own experiences. Woods’ experiences show us that “winning,” even though it may not be what we think it should be, can be a blessing and a comfort.

Better Off Bald by Andrea Wilson Woods won Grand Prize in the 2021 CIBA Journey Awards for Overcoming Adversity Non-Fiction.

August 24, 2022
Part Three of Three Official Postings of the 2021 Chanticleer International Book Awards (#CIBAs) Overall Grand Prize and Division Grand Prize and First Place Category Winners
We are deeply honored and excited to continue to announce the 2021 Winners of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs) with our third and final of three official postings.

CIBA Grand Prize Ribbons!

The winners were recognized at the CIBA ceremonies held on June 25th, 2022 in-person and by ZOOM webinars at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether, Bellingham, Wash.

The CIBA announcements were made LIVE with Chanticleerians participating and interacting from around the globe and North America.

Raising our glasses to cheer the CIBA Winners!

We want to thank all of the CIBA judges who read each and every entry and then comment, rate, and rank within each of the 25 CIBA Divisions. Without your labors of love for books, the Chanticleer International Book Awards would not exist. THANK YOU!

We want to thank all of the authors and publishers who participated in the 2021 Chanticleer International Book Awards (the CIBAs). Each year, we find the quality of the entries and the competitiveness of the division competitions increasing exponentially. We added a new level to the judging rounds in 2019—the premier Level of FINALIST per each CIBA Division. The CIBA judges wanted to add the Finalist Level of Achievement as a way to recognize and validate the entries that had outstanding merit but were not selected for the very few First Place Award positions within each genre division.

This post will recognize the First Place and Grand Prize Winners for the

Seven Non-Fiction Divisions:

Journey, Hearten, Harvey Chute, Mind and Spirit, I & I, Military & Frontline and Nellie Bly

along with the FIRST Winners for the

Short Story, and Book Series Awards,

and concluding with the

OVERALL 2021 GRAND PRIZE WINNER

for the 2021 Chanticleer International Book Awards

For the Cygnus, Ozma, Paranormal, Global Thrillers, M&M, Clue, Little Peeps, Gertrude Warner, and Dante Rossetti Book Awards, please click here for Part 1.

For the Laramie, Chaucer, Goethe, Hemingway, Chatelaine, Mark Twain, and Somerset Awards, click here for Part 2.

The JOURNEY Book Awards for

Narrative Non-Fiction, Memoirs, and Biographies

Grand Prize Winner is

BETTER OFF BALD: A Life in 147 Days

The Journey First Place Category Winners are:
- Rosie McMahan – Fortunate Daughter: A Memoir of Reconciliation
- Rosemary Keevil – The Art of Losing It: A Memoir of Grief and Addiction
- Heather Haldeman – Kids and Cocktails Don’t Mix: A Memoir
- Kathleen Lockyer – The Broken Wing Dance — Love, loss, trauma and how nature led me back to my wild self
- C.L. Olsen – The Home for Friendless Children
The INSTRUCTION and INSIGHT Book Awards

for How-To Guides, Travel Guides, Cook Books, Self-Help, and Enlightenment

Grand Prize Winner is

THE BLACK FOSTER YOUTH HANDBOOK by Angela Quijada-Banks

The I & I First Place Category Winners are:
- Wendela Whitcomb Marsh – Recognizing Autism in Women and Girls
- Geraldine Clouston and Susan Weintrob – indieBRAG Eat, Read & Dream Cookbook
- Jim & Jessica Braz – Baby Out of Wedlock
- Phoebe Walker – Freedom Found – Productive and Joyful Living In Spite of Chronic Pain
- M. J. Simms-Maddox, Ph.D. – A Handbook for Emerging and Seasoned Authors
Congratulations to the Inaugural

AWARD WINNERS for the

Military and Front Line Book Awards

of the CIBAs

The MILITARY & FRONT LINE Book Awards

for Service to Others Non-Fiction

Grand Prize Winner is

DEAR BOB: Bob Hope’s Wartime Correspondance with the G.I.s of World War II by Martha Bolten with Linda Hope

The Military & Front Line First Place Category Winners are:
- Vicki Cody – Fly Safe: Letters from the Gulf War and Reflections From Back Home
- Grover Nicodemus Street RN, Sandra de Abreu Guidry-Street MD, & Ja-ne de Abreu – Chasing the Surge: Life as a Travel Nurse in a Global Pandemic
- Margaret Thomson – The World Looks Different Now
- Burl Harmon – Combat Missions
- George Farag – Unbecoming My Father’s Son: A Memoir
The NELLIE BLY Book Awards

for Investigative and Long Form Journalism Non-Fiction

Grand Prize Winner is

AMERICA’S FORGOTTEN SUFFRAGISTS: Virginia and Francis Minor
by Nicole Evelina

The Nellie Bly First Place Category Winners are:
- Dori Jones Yang – When the Red Gates Opened
- Dr. Kate Dolan – Beating Drug Addiction in Tehran: a Women’s Clinic
- Abe Streep – Brothers on Three: A True Story of Family, Resistance, and Hope on a Reservation in Montana
- Janice S. Ellis, Ph.D. – Advancing the Good Society: Real Advocacy Journalism in Action
The HARVEY CHUTE Book Awards

for Business & Enterprise Non-Fiction

Grand Prize Winner is

BEYOND BALANCING THE BOOKS by George Marino

The Harvey Chute First Place Category Winners are:
- Stan Bernard, MD, MBA – Brands Don’t Win: How Transcenders Change Games
- Thomas Wideman – Welfare Cheese to Fine Caviar: How to Achieve Your Dreams Despite Your Upbringing
- Kate Dixon – Pay Up! Unlocking Insider Secrets of Salary Negotiation
- Cash Nickerson – Negotiating As a Martial Art
The MIND & SPIRIT Book Awards

for Spirituality and Enlightenment Non-Fiction

Grand Prize Winner is

ENLIGHTEN UP! by Beth Gibbs

The Mind and Spirit First Place Category Winners are:
- Mike Lutz – Jesus Speaking
- Reagan J. Pasternak – Griffin’s Heart: Mourning Your Pet With No Apologies
- Tammy Green – Living Without Skin: Everything I Never Knew About Fierce Vulnerability
- Starr Regan DiCiurcio – Divine Sparks: Interfaith Wisdom for a Postmodern World
The HEARTEN Book Awards

for Uplifting and Inspiring Non-Fiction

Grand Prize Winner is

DAWGS: A True Story of Lost Animals and the Kids Who Rescued Them
By Diane Trull and Meredith Wargo

The Hearten First Place Category Winners are:
- Fred Guttenberg – Find the Helpers
- Linda Morrow – Heart of This Family – Lessons in Down Syndrome and Love
- Lisa Dailey – Square Up: 50,000 miles in search of a way home
- Labar Laskie – Above the Din: Diary of the HepC Wonder Drugs
- Meg Nocero – Butterfly Awakens: A Memoir of Transformation Through Grief
The SHORT STORY Book Awards

for the CIBA Short Story Collections

Grand Prize Winner is

NEW YORK: Give Me Your Best or Your Worst by Elizabeth Crowens

The Shorts First Place Category Winners are:
- Leah Angstman – Shoot the Horses First
- Susannah Dawn – I’m Not What I Used To Be, Yet I Am Who I’ve Always Been – Excerpts From My Journey
- Domenick Venezia – The Edwerd Chronicles
- Frances Howard-Snyder – Through a Glass Darkly
- Helena P. Schrader – Grounded Eagles
The SHORT STORY Book Awards

for Short Stories, Novelettes, and Novellas

Grand Prize Winner is

HOMEGOING by Toni Ann Johnson

The Shorts First Place Category Winners are:
- Gina Detwiler – Before: Jared’s Story
- M. K. Wiseman – Sherlock Holmes & the Ripper of Whitechapel
- Elizabeth Wolf – The Royal Foetus: A very short novel based on the very short life of King Louis XVII
- Lindy Miller – Sleigh Bells on Bread Loaf Mountain
- Vicky Oliver – A Valentine to my Mothers and Other Dubious Role Models
- Kourtney Spadoni – In The Underwood
The BOOK SERIES Book Awards

for Fiction Series

Grand Prize Winner is

THE GUINEVERE’S TALE TRILOGY by Nicole Evelina

Daughter of Destiny, Camelot’s Queen, and Mistress of Legend

The Series First Place Category Winners are:

Ozma Book Awards for Series – Fantasy Fiction
- M. K. Wiseman – The Bookminder series
Dante Rossetti Book Awards for Series – Young Adult
- Pamela Beason – Run for Your Life
Chatelaine Book Awards for Series – Romantic Fiction
- Janet K. Shawgo – Look For Me Series
CLUE Book Awards for Series – Thriller/Suspense
- Kaylin McFarren – Threads
Mystery & Mayhem Book Awards for Series – Mysteries / Cozy and Not-so-Cozy
- Amy S. Peele – A Transplant Medical Murder Mystery series
Laramie Book Awards for Series – Americana / Western Fiction
- E. Alan Fleischauer – JT Thomas’s Series – Western series
CONGRATULATIONS to ALL!

And NOW for the

2021 CHANTICLEER INT’L BOOK AWARDS

BEST BOOK

and

OVERALL GRAND PRIZE WINNER

THE DEVIL PULLS THE STRINGS

by J.W. Zarek

J.W. Zarek will also be awarded $1,000 USD in recognition of her 2021 BEST BOOK of the YEAR – Chanticleer International Book Awards – Sponsored by Chanticleer Reviews & Media.

A Chanticleer Review of The Devil Pulls the Strings will be featured in the in the Chanticleer Reviews OnWord Magazine (print and epub) along with other promotional and marketing opportunities along with an interview with the author, J.W. Zarek.

Thank you J.W. Zarek for participating in the 2021 Chanticleer International Book Awards. We look forward to receiving future work in our CIBAs.

CONGRATULATIONS J.W. Zarek!

Six Grand Prize Winners with J.W. Zarek, the 2021 Overall Grand Prize Winner!

From all of us at Chanticleer International Book Awards and Chanticleer Reviews.

Looking for your Division? Check out our previous posts:

For the Cygnus, Ozma, Paranormal, Global Thrillers, M&M, Clue, Little Peeps, Gertrude Warner, and Dante Rossetti Book Awards, please click here for Part 1.

For the Laramie, Chaucer, Goethe, Hemingway, Chatelaine, Mark Twain, and Somerset Awards, click here for Part 2.

THANK YOU to VCAC21 SPONSORS and FRIENDS

And to FRIENDS of CHANTICLEER REVIEWS:

Cathy Ace, J.D. Barker, Robert Dugoni, Chris Humphreys, Bradley Metrock, Jessica Morrell, Scott Steindorff, and Paul Hanson of Village Books

We will post more photographs and information. Do check back and subscribe to the Chanticleer Reviews e-news letter.

We have exciting news for the Chanticleer Community on the horizon so do stay tuned!

You know you want a coveted Chanticleer Reviews Blue Ribbon!

Submit your works (manuscripts or novels published after or on January 1, 2019, are accepted) to the prestigious Chanticleer International Book Awards today! Entries are being accepted into the 2022 CIBAs in all 18 fiction divisions and seven non-fiction divisions.

Be sure to register early for the 11th Chanticleer Authors Conference that will start on April 23rd, 2023 with the 2022 CIBA banquet and ceremony scheduled to take place on Saturday, April 25th, 2023 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash.

Be well. Stay Healthy. Take Care!

An email will go out to all 2021 CIBA award winners prior to October 30, 2022, with instructions, links, and more information about the awards packages. We appreciate your patience. As stated many times before “One does not need to be present at the CIBA ceremony and banquet to win. But it sure is a lot more fun!”

As always, please contact us at Chanticleer@ChantiReviews.com with any questions, concerns, or suggestions!

We need good books, now more than ever!

The Chanticleer Reviews Team
July 13, 2022