Stories of Service to Others
The Military and Front Line Awards are here!
***Submissions are Open until the end of October***
You have until October 31st to submit and Enter the 2023 CIBAs!
We have long wanted to hold a Book Award Division for Narrative Non-Fiction that highlights the Service to Others embodied by those in our Military and Front Line Workers. You can enter the 2022 Military and Front Line Book Awards today!
The new Division honors the following Non-Fiction Narratives:
- Military and Armed Forces Service Narratives
- Medical Stories focused on Nurses, Doctors, Health Care Workers, and other Essential Workers
- Stories of Community Service Workers such as Firefighters and Police
- CARE, Peace Corps, Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, and other service organizations
- Work in Agencies that serve their Community and Government
- Families of those who serve in these Community Roles
We’re honored to celebrate these Winners of the Military and Front Line Awards, as well as books that are in the spirit of this incredible genre.
Lost in Beirut
By Ashe and Magdalena Stevens
Seeking to “fill his vessel with the truth,” young Ashe Stevens joins his friends on a thrilling adventure beyond the safety of his comfortable American life to chase stardom in Beirut, Lebanon.
Leaving behind a raucous life of plenty in Hollywood – complete with hot dates, popularity, and financial success – to the unknown of the Middle East teaches Ashe to prioritize his values and beliefs. But nothing could prepare him for what’s coming next.
Journey with Ashe and his friends as they bring the rapper 50 Cent to Beirut, the “Paris of the Middle East.” Along the way, Ashe dates not one, but two drop-dead gorgeous billionaires and falls head over heels for a blonde beauty to whom he promises to devote his life. But just as business is booming and true love reaches the height of bliss, the Israeli military bombs their beautiful city, “weaving a tapestry of death all over the night sky.” The team barely makes it out with their lives in a harrowing escape, leaving their love and livelihoods behind.
Dear Bob: Bob Hope’s Wartime Correspondence with the G.I.s of World War II
By Martha Bolton with Linda Hope
During World War II, Bob Hope traveled almost ceaselessly to outposts large and small, entertaining US troops – and inspiring them; Martha Bolton brings the extent of this work to light in Dear Bob.
Writer Martha Bolton worked with and for comedian Bob Hope. Now, with Hope’s daughter Linda, she has gathered and organized the letters written to Bob by the soldiers he helped.
Hope, English born, and born to entertain, once said he could not retire and go fishing because “Fish don’t applaud.” Among his sizzling lines – and there are hundreds recorded here – he told one audience that he’d gotten a wonderful welcome when he arrived at their camp: “I received a 10-gun salute… They told me on the operating table.”
His performances could have been forgotten were it not for the letters from soldiers of every stripe, and those soldiers’ families – who did not forget him.
The Color of the Elephant
By Christine Herbert
“The toughest job you’ll ever love.” That was the original slogan for the Peace Corps, one that Christine Herbert found to be wholly true, as she shows in The Color of the Elephant, a journal of her time serving in Zambia from 2004 to 2006.
This is a story about the journey rather than the destination. After all, the destination of any posting with the Peace Corps is the place you first came from, hopefully leaving something positive behind, and having changed and been changed by the experience.
For the author, her experience was that of a muzungu, a word synonymous in southern, central, or eastern African countries with foreigners such as Peace Corps volunteers and Doctors without Borders.
General in Command- Hearten 1st Place 2020
By Michael M. Van Ness
Michael M. Van Ness, the grandson of “the general in command,” has created a remarkable biography chronicling the adventures of a farm boy who rose high rank in the US military and served with distinction in two world wars as a combatant, officer, and sage observer.
Born in 1891, John Benjamin Anderson must have had considerable intelligence as well as patriotism and grit, since he was accepted at West Point Military Academy at age 19, an honor conferred on only 130 applicants per year—and finished in the top third of his class. He would soon serve under General Pershing in the Mexican War, giving him the experience of combat and coincidentally, his first ride in an automobile. That deployment earned him inclusion in Pershing’s ranks in World War I. It was then his diaries began, and though he protested humorously that “I hate to write,” these personal recollections give readers an up-close picture of the devastation of warfare.
Fly Safe
By Vicki Cody
Not many people can capture the emotions that coincide with war, but Vicki Cody joins the ranks of those who do in her wartime memoir, Fly Safe: Letters from the Gulf War and Reflections from Back Home.
This powerful memoir shows us the behind-the-scenes lives of the women, children, and families left at home while their soldiers set off for war, bringing us close to their raw vulnerability. Fly Safe fascinates as it informs readers of what one wife experiences as her commander husband leads his battalion to the middle east.
Cody takes us back in time to the early 1990s when the first President Bush called up troops in an operation called “Desert Shield,” which turned into Desert Storm. She captures the events that led up to our first conflict in the middle east, but far from being strictly pedantic and historical, centers on the warmth, love, and fears that most of the wives were experiencing. Her letters from her husband – and her journal entries read like daily affirmations and blend well in telling this story.
Now that you’re set on your next reads, what are you waiting for? The only way to join this amazing list of Military and Front Line 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!
Submit to the CIBAs Today!
Now is your chance to touch the hearts of readers everywhere. Your Story deserves to be discovered, and you can submit to the 2023 Military and Front Line Awards by the end of the month. Don’t miss this chance to give your book the recognition it deserves.
The Military and Front Line Awards is your chance to shine!
And remember! Our 12th Anniversary Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC24) will be April 18-21, 2024, where our 2023 CIBA winners will be announced. Space is limited and seats are already filling up. Sign up and see the latest updates here!
Seeking to “fill his vessel with the truth,” young Ashe Stevens joins his friends on a thrilling adventure beyond the safety of his comfortable American life to chase stardom in Beirut, Lebanon.
