The SOMERSET Book Awards recognize emerging talent and outstanding works in the genre of Literary and Contemporary Fiction. The Somerset Book Awards is a genre division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring contemporary stories, literary themes, adventure, magical realism, or women and family themes. These books have advanced to the final judging rounds.
1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners were announced at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony by Donna LeClair on Saturday, April 29th, 2023 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2023 Chanticleer Authors Conference.
This is the OFFICIAL 2022 LIST of the SOMERSET BOOK AWARDS First Place Category Winners and the SOMERSET Grand Prize Winner.
Join us in celebrating the following award-winning authors and their works in the 2022 CIBAs.
Jo Deniau – Stiff Hearts
Datta Groover – The Reluctant Visionary
Conon Parks – Everything That Was
John Hansen – Hired Hands
Linda Moore – Attribution
Morgan Sloan – Scars and Honey
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 SOMERSET Awards is:
Everything That Was
by Conon Parks
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!
Attn CIBA Winners: More goodies and prizes will be coming your way along with promotion in our magazine, website, and advertisements in Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards long-tail marketing strategy. Welcome to the CIBA Hall of Fame for Award Winners!
This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, for Facebook to allow us to tag an author, that author must LIKE our page and Follow Chanticleer Reviews.
Additionally, we also post on Twitter. Chanticleer Facebook and Twitter handle is @ChantiReviews
Or click here to go directly to Chanticleer’s Twitter feed.
A Note to ALL the WINNERS: The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting inJune. We will contact you with an email to verify your mailing address and other items.
To ALL the WINNERS: You will receive an OFFICIAL EMAIL NOTIFICATION with Digital Badges and more information.
Grand Prize Division Winners will receive a customized digital badge. When we receive it from our graphic artist, we will also post here and in the Grand Prize Division Winners Official Posting.
Thank you for participating in the 2022 CIBAs! We are looking forward to reading your future entries.
The Herald Building – First Floor, Downtown Bellingham, Wash.
FREE! Local Authors and Artists Event featuring Gifts for Palentine’s and Valentine’s Day:
Books
Children’s Books
Candles
Soaps
T-shirts
Toys & Games
Prints & Paintings
Cards
Vintage Goods
Bric a Brac
Open to the Public
POP on over to our POP-UP Event on Sat. & Sun. Feb 4th & 5th at the Herald Building, First Floor – Downtown Bellingham!
Featuring the Following Authors:
Susan Conrad, Peggy Sullivan, Gail Noble-Sanderson, Wendy Kendall, Jennifer Mueller, Robert Wright, Rob Slater, Donna LeClair, Strider Klusman, Marian Exall, Christine Smith, Sean Dwyer, MW Soapworks, Neal Cronic – Artist & Kiffer Brown.
POP on Over for this FUN and FREE event! We have a few spots left, if you are interested or in the neighborhood.
We’d love to help create these pop-ups for Chanticleerians all over.
Message or email Kiffer at KBrown@ChantiReviews.com
The Herald Building – First Floor, Downtown Bellingham, Wash.
FREE! Local Authors and Artists Event featuring Gifts for Palentine’s and Valentine’s Day:
Books
Children’s Books
Candles
Soaps
Tee-shirts
Toys & Games
Prints & Paintings
Cards
Vintage Stuff
Bric a Brac
Open to the Public and FREE!
POP on over to our POP-UP Event on Sat. & Sun. Feb 4th & 5th at the Herald Building, First Floor – Downtown Bellingham!
Featuring the Following Folk:
Susan Conrad, Peggy Sullivan, Gail Noble-Sanderson, Wendy Kendall, Jennifer Mueller, Robert Wright, Rob Slater, Donna LeClair, Strider Klusman, Marian Exall, Christine Smith, Sean Dwyer, MW Soapworks, Neil Cronic – Artist & Kiffer Brown.
POP on Over for this FUN and FREE event! We have a few spots left, if you are interested or in the neighborhood.
We’d love to help create these pop-ups for Chanticleerians all over.
Message or email Kiffer at KBrown@ChantiReviews.com
November brings insight, reflection, and contemplation of the state of affairs in which we find ourselves. As the year winds down, so, too, we reflect and ponder what we have done, who we are, and who we would like to be.
It’s a perfect time to curl up with a good novel, you know, the type that grabs you and lives with you long after you put it down.
This is why we celebrate novels that are literary, satirical, and contemporary. This is why we celebrate the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards – Somerset Literary Novels Writing Competitions.
We chose William Somerset Maugham because we love his work and love what he has to say about it:
“I am a made writer. I do not write as I want to; I write as I can… I have had small power of imagination… no lyrical quality… little gift of metaphor I had an acute power of observation, and it seemed to me that I could see a great many things that other people missed.” W. Somerset Maugham
W. Somerset Maugham was a British author who wrote plays and short stories and novels. He was a dashing and daring man who did not wish to follow the other men in his family to practice law. Imagine, an individual in the Victorian Era… He was born on January 25, 1874, in Paris (at the British Embassy) and died on December 16th, 1965, in Nice, France.
During the First World War, our Somerset proved his valor by serving with the Red Cross in the ambulance corps (remember his earlier medical training) and was recruited by the British Secret Intelligence Service right before the October Revolution in 1917.
Somerset dove into medicine and was fairly good at it until he wrote his first novel,Liza of Lambeth(1897) and all bets were off. The book flew off the shelves and people were reportedly wrestling in the streets for copies to gift their loved ones. (*Creative license at work – however, you don’t know that this did not happen…) He was known to say, “I took to it (writing) as a duck takes to water.”
At the age of sixty-six, he had to flee with only a suitcase from the encroaching Nazis as they advanced across Europe. He escaped to England and then on to South Carolina, in the U.S. where he continued to work on the screenplay for Razor’s Edge. He moved to Hollywood and then eventually back to France.
Did we mention that W. Somerset Maugham was repudiated to be the highest-paid author of the 1930s?
It’s obvious why we chose Somerset to represent our Literary & Contemporary Fiction Awards!
Abbie Rose Stone is a woman determined to follow her newly discovered dream of producing her own craft hard apple cider while navigating the ups and downs of family life with her grown sons and husband.
Abbie Rose knows how to deal with adversity, and dives headfirst into this new chapter of her life with energy and passion. She describes her early adulthood years of infertility struggles and the hardscrabble way she built her young family through invasive medical procedures, a surrogate attempt, and adoption barriers.
The 2019 Somerset Award Grand Prize Winner was:
The Proprietor of Theatre Life by Donna LeClair
Still in progress, we’re excited to review Donna’s book when it comes out!
Gregory Erich Phillips’ A Season in Lights is a well-crafted, engaging exploration of creatives, each following their heart and trying to reach their dream.
Against backdrops of the 1980s AIDS crisis and the more recent COVID-19 pandemic, the story entwines the lives of a 30-something dancer and an older musician as they strive to make their artistic mark in the cultural capital of New York City.
Here in a two-fold unveiling, the story comes to life from the first-person perspective of Cammie, a starry-eyed aspiring dancer from Lancaster, PA, and the third-person reveal of Tom, a more seasoned black pianist. He longs for a classical career but is too often labeled a jazz musician. Cammie first encounters Tom in a studio dance class where he’s taken a job as the musical accompanist. Befriended by the gay dance instructor, Tom heeds the worldly advice offered about surviving in the Big Apple. “All you’ve got to do is convince people that you belong. You’ve got to tell them who you are before they tell you.”
The 2021 Somerset Award Grand Prize Winner was:
Lies in Bone Natalie Symons
A review of Lies in Bone is forthcoming. However, we know you’ll love this intricate story told with beautifully tight control. A mystery lies at the heart of this book that has the feeling of a grown-up To Kill a Mockingbird meets Serial Production’s S-Town Podcast. Highly Recommended.
Will your novel be recognized as the best of the best in the Somerset Awards for 2022? Find out!
The last day to submit your work is November 30, 2022. We invite you to join us, tell us your stories, and find out who will take home the prize at CAC23 on April 29th.
As our deadline draws near, don’t miss this opportunity to earn the distinction your literary novel deserves! Enter today!
The SOMERSET Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards – the CIBAs.
The winners will be announced at the CIBA Awards Ceremony on April 29, 2023, which will take place during the 2023 Chanticleer Authors Conference. All Finalists and First Place category winners will be recognized, the First Place Winners will be whisked up on stage to receive their custom ribbon and wait to see who among them will take home the Grand Prize. It’s an exciting evening of dinner, networking, and celebrations!
First Place Winners and Grand Prize winners will each receive an awards package. Whose works will be chosen?
The excitement builds for the 2022 SOMERSET Book Awards competitions.
The SOMERSET Book Awards recognize emerging talent and outstanding works in the genre of Literary and Contemporary Fiction. The Somerset Book Awards is a genre division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring contemporary stories, literary themes, adventure, magical realism, or women and family themes. These books have advanced to the next judging rounds. The best will advance. Which titles will be declared as winners of the prestigious Somerset Book Awards?
These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from the 2020 Somerset Book Awards LONG LIST to the 2020 SHORT LIST and now have progressed to the 2020 SEMI-FINALISTS.
Congratulations to the following titles who have advanced to the 2020 SOMERSET Book Awards SEMI-FINALISTS!
Susan Dobson –Boomerang
Sara Stamey –Pause
R Barber Anderson –Jumeau
Gregory Erich Phillips –A Season in Lights
Candi Sary –Magdalena
Kathleen Reid –Sunrise in Florence
T P Graf –As the Daisies Bloom
Patrick M. Garry –The Donor
Katherine Johnson –Grit & Granite
Jennifer Gold –Keep Me Afloat
Catherine Hamilton –Victoria’s War
Pierce Koslosky Jr. –A Week at Surfside Beach
John Danenbarger –Entanglement: Quantum and Otherwise
Julie Weary –Knowing Marjorie Thane
Dan V. Jackson –Rainbow Bridge
Kathleen M. Rodgers –The Flying Cutterbucks
Abbe Rolnick –Founding Stones
Liana Gardner –Speak No Evil
Susan Wingate –How the Deer Moon Hungers
Lainey Cameron –The Exit Strategy
Barbara Linn Probst –Queen of the Owls
Judy Keeslar Santamaria– Jetty Cat Palace Cafe
Joanne Kukanza Easley –Sweet Jane
NOTE: Some titles have been transferred to the Mark Twain Book Awards for Satire, Allegory, Humor, and Alternative Histories (non-SciFi).
These titles are in the running for the Finalists of the 2020 Somerset Book Awards for Contemporary and Literary Fiction.
The 2020 CIBA FINALISTS will be announced at VCAC 21, April 22 – 24, 2021.
Which of these works will move forward in the judging rounds for the 2020 Somerset Book Awards for Contemporary and Literary Fiction?
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.
The Semi-Finalists’ works will compete for the First Place Winner positions, and then all will be recognized in the evenings at VCAC21 April 22-24th from 6-8 p.m. PST.
The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 23 CIBA divisions Finalists. We will announce the 1st Place Category Winners and Grand Prize Division Winners the CIBAs Ceremonies June 5th, 2021 virtually (Free) and LIVE at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash.
We are now accepting submissions into the 2021 Somerset Awards Book Awards. The deadline for submissions is November 30th, 2021. The winners will be announced in April 2022.
The SOMERSET Book Awards recognize emerging talent and outstanding works in the genre of Literary and Contemporary Fiction. The Somerset Book Awards is a genre division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring contemporary stories, literary themes, adventure, magical realism, or women and family themes. These books have advanced to the next judging rounds. The best will advance. Which titles will be declared as winners of the prestigious Somerset Book Awards? We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremonies April 21-25th, 2021 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. at the 2021 Chanticleer Authors Conference–whether virtual, hybrid, or in-person. Looking for Satire? Keep an eye out for our Mark Twain Long List.
The following literary and contemporary fiction works have advanced from all of the entries to the Long List of the 2020 Somerset Book Awards:
Susan Dobson – Bomerang
Sara Stamey – Pause
R Barber Anderson – Jumeau
Gregory Erich Phillips – A Season in Lights
Candi Sary – Magdalena
Kathleen Reid – Sunrise in Florence
Ivy Cayden – Everything All At Once (Chorduroys and Too Many Boys?)
George M. Taylor – Careful by the Railing
Amy L Cleven – Look Up
Kasie Whitener – After December
T P Graf – As the Daisies Bloom
Patrick M. Garry – The Donor
Katherine Johnson – Grit & Granite
Jennifer Gold – Keep Me Afloat
Catherine Hamilton – Victoria’s War
Jessica O’Dwyer – Mother Mother
Lauren J. Sharkey – Inconvenient Daughter
Pierce Koslosky Jr. – A Week at Surfside Beach
Victor Acquista – Serpent Rising
John Danenbarger – Entanglement: Quantum and Otherwise
Julie Weary – Knowing Marjorie Thane
B. K. Stubblefield – Scars of the Past
Ted Neill – Reaper Moon: Race War in the Post Apocalypse
Dan V. Jackson – Rainbow Bridge
Kathleen M. Rodgers – The Flying Cutterbucks
Abbe Rolnick – Founding Stones
Liana Gardner – Speak No Evil
Susan Wingate – How the Deer Moon Hungers
Lainey Cameron – The Exit Strategy
Barbara Linn Probst – Queen of the Owls
Alice Early – The Moon Always Rising
Judy Keeslar Santamaria – Jetty Cat Palace Cafe
Joanne Kukanza Easley –Sweet Jane
Erik Segall – Not Yet
Steven Mayfield – Treasure of the Blue Whale
Dennis M. Clausen – The Accountant’s Apprentice
Ted Neill – Reaper Moon: Race War in the Post Apocalypse
Charlie Suisman – Arnold Falls
Good Luck to ALL!
Which of these works will move forward in the judging rounds for the 2020 Somerset Book Awards for Literary and Contemporary Fiction?
Congratulations to Donna LeClair whose manuscript The Proprietor of Theatre Lifetook home the Grand Prize for the 2019 Somerset Book Awards.
Donna LeClair for The PROPRIETOR of the THEATRE of LIFE
A MANUSCRIPT
This is no ordinary book and the word “extraordinary” can’t begin to do it justice. It’s a gift for anyone fortunate enough to read it and libraries around the globe should add it to their collections. It should be available to everyone. Emma is a highly sympathetic character, an everywoman, in need of answers. The reader learns as much as she does about individual and universal struggles on earth, the lessons to be gleaned from suffering, and the value of sharing our stories. ~ Carrie M., Chanticleer Editorial Team
The 2019 Somerset First in Category Winners are:
Carl RobertsforThe Trial of ConnorPadget
Judith Kirscht forEnd of the Race
Patrick Finegan forCooperative Lives
Santiago Xaman forAfter Olympus
Claire Fullerton forLittle Tea
Maggie St. Claire forMartha
Jamie Zerndt forJerkwater
R. Barber Anderson forThe Sunken Forest, Where the Forest Came out of the Earth
Here is a listing of the Somerset Book Awards Hall of Fame Grand Prize winners!
Stay at home mom turns entrepreneur, but without her husband’s support, and continunually needing to manage her three adult sons, Abbie Rose Stone’s dream of producing her own craft hard apple cider faces a world of adversity in Barbara A. Stark-Nemon’s Hard Cider.
Babylonian astrology and Jewish mysticism combine with Roman history to create a timeless story of passion and fate in Chuck Gould’s The Rabbi’s Gift. Babylonian astrology and Jewish mysticism combine with Roman history to create a timeless story of passion and fate in Chuck Gould’s The Rabbi’s Gift.
Words thrown as hard as boulders are easy to catch – if you’ve had practice. Just ask our hero, Muzhduk the Ugli the Fourth…In the great tradition of existentialism, Boldizar brings us a book that is hard to classify. It has aspects of the existential with a fair amount of satirical wordplay and a bit of theater of the absurd thrown in.
With a fast-paced storyline and a rich cast of characters, this award-winning winning novel offers a uniquely hilarious, but scary, perspective on the how the businesses of public relations and marketing can take technology to its precipice to take advantage of a media addicted public.
Individually Wrapped tells us the bizarre tale of Sam Gregory’s descent over the condensed course of a couple of days. Set in a 21st-century futuristic city, technology has permeated every aspect of the city dwellers’ lives… Self-delusion is an interesting state of mind because everyone can see it except yourself, as it propels you ever deeper into oblivion, where not even technology can save you.
We would be amiss by not featuring and recognizing Judith Kirscht, our very own Pacific Northwest Somerset inspired author. Judith specializes in family sagas and societal issues.
Judith Kirscht – Somerset Hall of Fame Author
Judith was born and educated in Chicago during the Great Depression and then WWII. She taught school during the upheavals of the Vietnam protests and the Civil Rights movement. Later in life, she found herself in California, divorced and with two daughters. Judith taught creative writing at universities of very different cultures: University of Michigan and U of California, Santa Monica. Her novels continuously are awarded CIBA First Place Category ribbons for the Somerset Book Awards for Literary and Contemporary Fiction.
In a world where too many rocks are thrown at those who represent anything other than the norm in middle-class white America, two friends decide to take matters into their own hands and stand up to the hatred with which they are targeted in order to save their home and ultimately their lives.
Hawkins Lane is excellent and, ultimately, a redemptive story about the heart-wrenching tragedies a family can survive, and about the healing powers of nature and friendship. The characters and the story will linger long after the last page is read and you will be captivated from the first page.
“The Inheritors” by Judith Kirscht is a novel of one woman grappling to find her cultural and personal identity. Tolerance of others and the need for communication is required from each of us is an overriding theme in this latest work of Kirscht that explores the complexities of human nature and family bonds.
“Home Fires” is an intelligently written, fast-paced family drama that unfolds into a suspenseful page-turner. Although this novel masterfully renders the emotional hardships and tragedies that are sometimes part of dysfunctional relationships, it is not a depressing read.
The last day to submit your work is November 30, 2020. We invite you to join us, to tell us your stories, and to find out who will take home the prize at CAC21 in April.
As our deadline draws near, don’t miss this opportunity to earn the distinction your literary novel deserves! Enter today!
The winners will be announced at the CIBA Awards Ceremony on April 19, 2021, that will take place during the 2021 Chanticleer Authors Conference. All Semi-Finalists and Finalists will be recognized. The first place winners will be recognized and receive their custom ribbon, and then we will see who among them will take home the Grand Prize. It’s an exciting evening of networking and celebration!
CIBA Ribbons!
First Place category winners and Grand Prize winners will each receive an awards package. Whose works will be chosen? The excitement builds for the 2020 SOMERSET Book Awards competitions and now for the Mark Twain Book Awards.
Our Chanticleer Review Writing Contests feature more than $30,000.00 worth of cash and prizes each year!
~$1000 Overall Grand Prize Winner ~$30,000views, prizes, and promotional opportunities awarded to Category Winners
In our last Somerset Hall of Fame, we discussed the origin of the contest’s name, and mentioned the success of William Somerset Maugham’s first book Liza of Lambeth, (published 1897) which propelled him to become one of the highest paid authors of his time, but not without first finding himself struggling with poverty after leaving the medical profession as a fully qualified doctor. Somerset wrote the story while working as a medical student and obstetric clerk in working class London.
W. Somerset Maugham (1897 – age 23 years)
In the publication of this book, Somerset joined an extensivebody of work in line with manyfin de siècle authors such as Wilkie Collins, Richard Marsh, Matthew “Monk” Lewis, Bram Stoker, and Charles Dickens.
In Somerset Maugham’s story, Liza, like many women in novels of this era, has her life dictated by the men who surround her, unable to break free of the desires and expectations that surround her, ultimately leading to her death. This examination of consent and the harmfulness of denying women agency can be seen reflected in the urgency of the suffrage movement, which passed its 100 year anniversary in August 18, 2020.
Women’s Suffragette Movement in the USA – more than 100 years in the making. The 19th Amendment was finally ratified on August 18, 1920 (at the end of WWI – 1914 – 1918)
It bears mentioning that women’s suffrage started out as only being accessible for white women, with Chinese-American women not being able to vote until 1943, native-American women until 1948, Japanese-American women until 1952, and African Americans until 1964—though the 19th Amendment wasn’t even ratified by all states until 1984! To this day, voting and voter suppression remains a contentious issue in the United States.Stories like Somerset’s showed the tension and the injustice taking place at the turn of the century in a way that made it real, accessible, and relevant to the literature published at the time and today.
Wells & Squire marching in 1913 For more information, please click here
Anyone who studies the right of women to vote and writing has to come across Virginia Woolf (born January 25, 1882, London England) with her book A Room of One’s Own. (Published September 1929) In this, she talks about where do we, as authors, have space to write. What do our room’s look like, and is there even a writing room in our house? I always think of Stephen King writing in his laundry room when I first think of trying to find a space to write. Naturally, like voting, this becomes more complicated when you overlay things like ender identity, race, and orientation, causing further variation in the kinds of rooms that are allowed to be called one’s own.
In A Room of One’s Own (1929), Woolf blamed women’s absence from history not on their lack of brains and talent but on their poverty. For her 1931 talk “Professions for Women,” Woolf studied the history of women’s education and employment and argued that unequal opportunities for women negatively affect all of society. Click here to read Britannica’s biography of this extraordinary author.
Virginia Woolf, photographed by Gisele Freund, 1933
In the building of literary fiction, we reflect the world as we see it. Woolf, in her book,follows the fictional Judith Shakespeare, sister of the famous William, and his equal in terms of writing and genius. Like Somerset’s Liza, Judith finds herself beset in a world where her agency is constantly overruled by the masculine presences in her life. In the end, Shakespeare’s sister dies by suicide. In both these narratives, the death of the women provides an implicit critique of the way society tries to control them.
Today, that critique and commentary still resonate. In the last ten years we have had the first Black president ever in the United States, and now we are set to inaugurate the first woman vice president who is also the first Black, south Asian, and Caribbean vice president. This doesn’t mean that discrimination and all the problems faced by Somerset’s Liza have vanished from the world, but it does run in cultural tandem with the mood of publishing seen at the end of the 19th century. It is a longstanding tradition that we continue culturally and politically in the stories we tell.
It is with great pride, in the tradition of uplifting and supporting women and the oppressed, that we award Donna LeClair’s manuscript,The Proprietor of the Theatre of Life, The Somerset Book Awards 2019 Grand Prize Award. LeClair is the first author in the Somerset Awards to have a manuscript win the Grand Prize in this highly competitive division. Huge congratulations!
Below is what our editor had to say about The Proprietor of the Theatre of Life by Donna LeClair (manuscript overview)
This is no ordinary book and the word “extraordinary” can’t begin to do it justice. It’s a gift for anyone fortunate enough to read it and libraries around the globe should add it to their collections. It should be available to everyone. Emma is a highly sympathetic character, an everywoman, in need of answers. The reader learns as much as she does about individual and universal struggles on earth, the lessons to be gleaned from suffering, and the value of sharing our stories.
Presenting these lessons in the format of a novel is ingenious; they’ll be accessible to readers who might not have had a clue how to compile, organize, and synthesize so much historical and spiritual scholarship. So many, too many, are suffering from grave, debilitating effects of PTSD; I wish this book could be gifted to them. It is literary balm. – Carrie M. Chanticleer Editorial Team
Journey as Emma does, through multiple eras, continents, and thresholds embracing the authenticity of diverse ethnicities, life conditions, and testimonies. Entrusted intuition guides storylines plaguing the world today. She encounters visionaries of faith who elevate sensibility while gifting their existence to the survival of this illusion that we call home.
Join her on an exploration of the wisdom bestowed by the existence of those who brought humankind closer to understanding one another and the sacredness of our broader story.
Donna LeClair, award-winning author, mother and grandmother, friend to the Dalai Lama, and amazing woman.
We look forward to joining LeClair on her on an exploration of the wisdom bestowed by the existence of those who brought humankind closer to understanding one another and the sacredness of our broader story. This phenomenal story is in the process of seeking representation.
Want more LeClair?
To discover more of Donna LeClair’s award-winning works, please click on the links below that will take you to our reviews:
Immunity,the latest offering by award-winning author Donna LeClair, recounts one woman’s struggles to maintain her sanity during a long nightmarish sojourn among the wealthy and powerful.
LeClair is a prodigious wordsmith who uses the writing craft to good effect. Whether it is a drug-induced temper flare-up, the destruction of a motel room, or a brief erotic interlude, the author weaves a rich tapestry. She has made fiction, it seems, of a painfully recalled set of reminiscences, changing the names to protect the innocent and avoid the wrath of the guilty. She examines the word “immunity” in its many guises: protection from penalty, entitlement of the very wealthy and well-connected, exemption from “an old love,” denial of responsibility, and “declaration protecting honorably truth.”
Very engrossing, well-written, engaging, suspenseful and honest. Waking Reality is recommended reading for anyone looking for an engrossing account of a woman’s courageous story growing up in the 1960s. You will want to see that she emerges through the dark tunnel of abuse.
Through engaging and well-written prose, LeClair relates the 1963 murder trial known as State of Ohio v. Bill Bush, a police sergeant who murdered three members of one family. Bush happened to be her uncle and the family he tore apart, hers. Due to the circumstances of the trial, LeClair and her sisters were in protective custody. Chanticleer Review
Three children, five lives, five stories, five human beings whose lives exploded with a pull of a trigger because of a little black book of secrets, lies, and destructions…
One thing I know for sure, for the safety of your own sanity, you must close the haunting of one chapter before you can open the infinite possibilities of another. –Donna LeClair
Want More Somerset Award Winning Novels?
Congratulations to all our 2019 first place category winners for Somerset. You can see some of the reviews for those books below.
…Rarely does a book about the law take you this close into the mindset of an attorney. Carney isn’t a criminal attorney but his ability to think “legal” demonstrates how a well-trained mind can work even in a foreign territory like criminal law. His familiarity becomes our familiarity. This is not a blockbuster case; no mob bosses will fall; no bombastic courtroom duels await. What is showcased here, however, is good lawyering, legal competence, and a writer’s commitment to sharing his love of the law with his readers. – Chanticleer Reviews
How well do people really know their neighbors? More importantly, or perhaps more sinisterly, how well do those neighbors know each other – and each other’s secrets?…this character-driven story is most definitely a work of exquisite literary fiction that uses the exploration of its characters to drive the narrative.
…Finegan does an excellent job of drawing us inside these seemingly tiny lives, and the deeper we go, the more significant these lives seem, and the greater the impact they have on each other as well as those who have been drawn into their well-written and extremely sticky web. – Chanticleer Reviews
Fantastic magic realism, uncaged and wild, and brilliant in every way! Highly recommended.
In this groundbreaking novel, what is real – and what isn’t – is always the heart of the matter. There are elements of reality in the fantastical, and there are elements of magic realism in the rather ordinary. After Olympus is a novel about characters who don’t just think outside the box; they are outside the box.
Intrigued? You should be. We don’t see novels like this every day, but this one will find its way into the hands of the most discerning readers. – Chanticleer Reviews
A captivating tale of Industrial Greed and Forest Conservation set against a thrilling backdrop of primeval forest, violence, and sex, international intrigue where one misstep may very well cost you your life.
With these award-winning titles, you will understand why the Somerset Book Awards is one of the most competitive divisions in the Chanticleer International Book Awards.
Look for the Chanticleer Reviews of these 2019 Somerset Book Awards Blue Ribbon Winners.
Judith Kirscht forEnd of the Race
Claire Fullerton forLittle Tea
Maggie St. Claire forMartha
Jamie Zerndt forJerkwater
But Wait! Where’s Satire?
Introducing the Mark Twain Book Awards for Satirical and Allegorical Fiction, a new (2020) fiction division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
As a well-known humorist, Mark Twain employed satire to gently rib his audience and point out inconsistencies in the world as it appeared then, such as when Huck wonders why he would go to Hell for helping his friend Jim escape slavery.
Due to the huge popularity of the Somerset Awards, we’ve had to break Satirical and Allegorical fiction off into a separate division that titled The Mark Twain Book Awards.Keep an eye out on our website for our upcoming spotlight on this new Awards category and why we chose Twain!
Also, click on the Mark Twain Book Awards for classic works in Satire and Allegorical Fiction.
The last day to submit your work is November 30, 2018. We invite you to join us, to tell us your stories, and to find out who will take home the prize at CAC21 in April.
As our deadline draws near, don’t miss this opportunity to earn the distinction your literary novel deserves! Enter today!
The winners will be announced at the CIBA Awards Ceremony on April 19, 2021, that will take place during the 2021 Chanticleer Authors Conference. All Semi-Finalists and Finalists will be recognized. The first place winners will be recognized and receive their custom ribbon, and then we will see who among them will take home the Grand Prize. It’s an exciting evening of networking and celebration!
CIBA Ribbons!
First Place category winners and Grand Prize winners will each receive an awards package. Whose works will be chosen? The excitement builds for the 2020 SOMERSET Book Awards competitions and now for the Mark Twain Book Awards.
Our Chanticleer Review Writing Contests feature more than $30,000.00 worth of cash and prizes each year!
~$1000 Overall Grand Prize Winner ~$30,000views, prizes, and promotional opportunities awarded to Category Winners
We are deeply honored and excited to announce the 2019 Winners of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs). Part Three of Three – 2019 CIBA Winner Announcements
CIBA Grand Prize Ribbons! You know that you want one!
The winners were recognized at the Virtual Chanticleer Authors Conference and Awards Ceremonies that were held on during VCAC September 8 – 13, 2020 by ZOOM webinars based at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether, Bellingham, Wash.
We want to thank each and everyone of the CIBA judges who read each and every entry and then comment, rate, and rank within each of the 17 CIBA Divisions. Without your passion and labor of love for books, the Chanticleer International Book Awards would not exist and we could not fulfill our mandate: Discovering Today’s Best Books!
THANK YOU JUDGES!
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.
We are honored to present the
2019 Chanticleer International Book Awards
Grand Prize Winners
The 2019 CIBA Winners!
The CHATELAINE Book Awards for
Romantic Fiction and Women’s Fiction
Grand Prize Winner is
The SKEPTICAL PHYSCICK
by Gail Avery Halverson
T.K. Conklin – Threads of Passion
Jule Selbo – Find Me in Florence
Michelle Cox – A Veil Removed
Heather Novak – Headlights, Dipsticks, & My Ex’s Brother
James Conroyd Martin will also be awarded $1,000 USD in recognition of his 2019 BEST BOOK of the YEAR – Chanticleer International Book Awards – Sponsored by Chanticleer Reviews & Media.
A Chanticleer Review of Fortune’s Child will be featured in the in the SPRING 2021 quarterly edition of the Chanticleer Reviews Magazine (print and epub) along with other promotional and marketing opportunities.
Thank you James Conroyd Martin for participating in the 2019 Chanticleer International Book Awards. We look forward to receiving the sequel to Fortune’s Child in the 2021 Chaucer Book Awards, a division of the CIBAs.
We look forward to toasting James in person at our next gathering–hopefully in 2021. We are so happy that he joined us virtually for the CIBA announcements at VCAC20.
CONGRATULATIONS JAMES CONROYD MARTIN!
From all of us at Chanticleer International Book Awards and Chanticleer Reviews.
Be sure to register early for the 2021 Chanticleer Authors Conference that will start on April 16th, 2021 with the 2020 CIBA banquet and ceremony scheduled to take place on Saturday, April 17th, 2021 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. If we cannot move forward with CAC21 due to the coronavirus, we will host another LIVE and HYBRID Chanticleer Authors Conference and 2020 Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards ceremony.
Pivot and Oscillate are the Words for Today’s Challenging Times.
An email will go out to all 2019 CIBA award winners prior to October 30, 2020, 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!” –even if it is virtual!
As always, please contact us at Chanticleer@ChantiReviews.com with any questions, concerns, or suggestions!
Congratulations to the First Place Category Winners and the Grand Prize Winner of the Somerset Book Awards for Contemporary and Literary Novels, a division of the 2019 CIBAs.
The CIBAs Search for the Best in the Somerset Book Awards!
Chanticleer Book Reviews is celebrating the best books featuring contemporary stories, literary themes, adventure, satire, humor, magic realism, or women and family themes. We love them all.
The 2019 Somerset Book Awards First Place Category Winners and the Somerset Grand Prize Winner were announced at the Virtual Chanticleer Authors Conference that was broadcast via ZOOM webinar the week of September 8-13, 2020 from the Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Washington.
Michelle Rene, author of Hour Glass, Previous Laramie Grand Prize Winner and Overall Best Book Award Winner in 2017 announced the 2019 Somerset Book Award Winners.
This is the OFFICIAL 2019 LIST of the Somerset Book Awards First Place Category Winners and the Somerset Grand Prize Winner.
Congratulations to All!
Donna LeClair – The Proprietor of the Theatre of Life
Carl Roberts – The Trial of Connor Padget
Judith Kirscht – End of the Race
Patrick Finegan – Cooperative Lives
Santiago Xaman – After Olympus
Claire Fullerton – Little Tea
Maggie St. Claire – Martha
Jamie Zerndt – Jerkwater
R. Barber Anderson – The Sunken Forest, Where the Forest Came out of the Earth
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Beth Burgmeyer – The Broken Road, ms
Bob Holt – Firebird, ms
The Somerset Book Awards
2019 Grand Prize Winner is a manuscript: The Proprietor of Theatre Life by Donna LeClair
The Somerset Grand Prize for the 2019 Award Winner.
This is the original badge for the 2018 Somerset Grand Prize Winner – Hard Ciderby Barbara A. Stark-Nemon.
How to Enter the Somerset Book Awards?
We are accepting submissions into the2020 Somerset Book Awardsuntil November 30, 2020. All submissions into this category after November 30, 2020, will automatically be entered into the 2021 Somerset Book Awards
The 2020 Somerset Book Awards winners will be announced at CAC 21 on April 17, 2021.
A Note to ALL the WINNERS: The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting in October. We will contact you with an email to verify your mailing address and other items. We thank you for your patience and understanding.
If you have any questions, please email info@ChantiReviews.com == we will try our best to reply in 3 or 4 business days.
The SOMERSET Book Awards recognize emerging talent and outstanding works in the genre of Literary and Contemporary Fiction. The Somerset Book Awards is a genre division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
We are now accepting submissions into the 2021 Somerset Awards Book Awards. The deadline for submissions is November 30th, 2021. The winners will be announced in April 2022.
The Rabbi’s Gift
The Ugly
The Alexandrite
The Manipulator
The Camera’s Eye by 
