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 the 2024 Journey Non-Fiction SEMI-FINALISTS. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC25).
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 5th, 2025 in beautiful Bellingham, WA at the Four Points by Sheraton sponsored by the 2025Chanticleer Authors Conference.
These titles are in the running for the FIRST PLACE and GRAND PRIZE WINNERS of the 2024 Journey Book Awards novel competition for Overcoming Adversity in Non-Fiction!
Join us in celebrating the Finalist authors and their works in the 2024 CIBAs.
Lynne Spriggs O’Connor – Elk Love: A Montana Memoir
Tamra McAnally Bolton – His 100th Year
Kirsten Throneberry – Guided: Lost Love, Hidden Realms, and the Open Road
Irena Smith – The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays
Jennifer Gasner – My Unexpected Life: Finding Balance Beyond My Diagnosis
Kathryn Caraway – Unfollow Me
Karen Elizabeth Lee – The Village That Betrayed its Children
Anne Gately – Sunburnt – A memoir of sun, surf and skin cancer
Rachael Siddoway and Sonja Wasden – An Impossible Life: A True Story of Hope and Mental Illness
Ernestine Whitman – Countermelodies: A Memoir in Sonata Form
Jacqueline Acho – Cancer Culture: Fixing the Landscape by Infusing Empathy
Ginelle Testa – Make a Home Out of You
E. Adrienne Wilson – I’d Rather Be Dead Than Deaf: A Young Woman’s Journey with Liver Cancer
Lindsey Henke – When Skies Are Gray
Heidi Beierle – Heidi Across America – One Woman’s Journey on a Bicycle through the Heartland
Claudia Marseille – But You Look So Normal: Lost and Found in a Hearing World
Mary Jumbelic, M.D. – Here, Where Death Delights
Tracy Mayo – Childless Mother: A Search for Son and Self
Marsha Jacobson – The Wrong Calamity
David Vass – Liar, Alleged
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!
This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us on Facebook.
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.
At the request of both our Authors and our Readers we have moved the closing date of some of our Awards to November 30, 2024!
If you have an Instructional, Journalistic, Business, Enlightening, or Military and Community Service worker Non-Fiction Work, you still have time to submit!
As we settle into this new schedule, we’re hearing great feedback from authors regarding the best times for them to submit their work. This depends on conferences and workshops (many of which are genre specific) where they can regularly receive feedback and writing retreats that allow them to finish their manuscripts.
Thank you to everyone who reaches out and makes our Awards a success every year!
To celebrate the deadline change, lets take a look at some recently reviewed Non-Fiction Works!
A Path To Excellence By Tony Jeton Selimi Hearten 1st Place Winner
On the belief that life isn’t just the random cards one is dealt, A Path to Excellence by Tony Jeton Selimi offers a blueprint—the octagon of excellence—to succeed personally, professionally, and spiritually.
Transcending the pitfalls and spontaneous stumbling blocks along the path of life can open the door to self-actualization and progression. As someone who experienced bullying, sexual abuse, early disability, and homelessness, Selimi sets on to become a beacon of light to the hopeless and marginalized.
Within each soul lies a bud of genius waiting to blossom. This book focuses on purpose, vision, and persistence to clear the way to that fullest potential. Affirming challenges as immutable truths of life, Selimi employs Buddhist teaching and personal anecdotes to encourage a head-on confrontation with one’s struggles and promotes a feeling of gratitude. As a blend of philosophical wisdom and practical experience, the initial chapters help readers acknowledge their current life situation, perceiving challenges as epochs of potential.
The Doctor’s Voice By Dr. Pietro Emanuele Garbelli Harvey Chute 1st Place Winner
Dr. Pietro Emanuele Garbelli speaks out on serious professional issues faced by modern healthcare workers, in The Doctor’s Voice.
Doctors deal with overwhelming stress, leading to burnout, illness, many of them leaving the profession, and even a higher-than-average rate of suicide. The Covid19 pandemic both heightened and helped illuminate some of the causes of this stress, prompting author Garbelli to write this book as a set of advice for his colleagues and as advocacy for broader changes in hospitals and other healthcare systems.
Garbelli highlights a common disconnect in communication—administrators and higher-ups telling doctors what to do while those doctors don’t have much opportunity to bring up the problems they encounter day-to-day.
Some stories are impossible to look away from, and from its very first sentence, Finding the Light, Navigating Dementia with My Son by Kasey J. Claytor proves itself one of them. “…when my 49-year-old son, Justin, was first diagnosed with a form of early-onset dementia, I was stunned.” Without hesitation, the book draws readers into a saga of family, illness, and resilience.
Although a memoir, Finding the Light is in many ways an instructional text, too. Readers don’t need similar medical situations to draw from Claytor’s lessons of improvement. The conversational, approachable writing style serves this purpose well.
Although it’s in chronological order, this is an unconventional, modern text.
Traditional scene-based paragraphs are offset by poetry, informative sidebars, and even the full text of letters sent throughout Justin’s illness. Claytor deftly shifts between these sections, building a cohesive narrative from which readers can easily learn.
Combat Missions By Burl Harmon Military and Front Line 1st Place Winner
Sometimes, a close and personal story can reveal the true weight of major historical events. Combat Missions, a memoir from WWII veteran Burl D. Harmon, achieves this by detailing how Europe’s vicious aerial battles shape a young boy’s entry to manhood.
On December 7, 1941, Harmon is summoned to his high school’s auditorium to hear President Roosevelt proclaim it as, “a day which will live in infamy…” Soon after, his draft notice arrives. Harmon’s junior college studies and work at the local Rexall drug store are put on hold as he joins the vast flood of young American men and women conscripted into military service. Leaving his small Iowa town and a family mostly sheltered from the grim realities of the outside world, he travels to New York City with people from every imaginable background.
With no prior mechanical experience, he works diligently to become a flight engineer, training to master a lexicon of manual tasks and learn the intricacies of air-to-air combat amidst bombing runs. His training takes him even farther from home, to Detroit, Lorado, Texas, Puerto Rico, and even Cuba.
Chasing The Daylight By Joanna Rakowski Military and Front Line Grand Prize Winner
Chasing The Daylight by Joanna Rakowski is a revealing memoir that captures the rigor, intensity, and ferocity of military training in a salient style.
Ever wondered what it takes to become a soldier in one of the most powerful armies in the world?
Joanna Rakowski was born in Poland and grew up practicing dance from a young age, eventually becoming a professional classical ballet dancer and teacher. Upon her migration to the US in 1995 and the painful fallout with her friend and mentor, Chris, Joanna knew she needed to make a drastic change in her life. Her great awakening came when she decided to transform from a fragile and sensitive ballerina into a steadfast U.S. Army soldier, a goal that many close to her doubted she could accomplish.
With arresting insights, the text builds from Rakowski’s striking introduction as it describes her first day of enlistment, which was filled with uncertainties.
This is the journey from beginning to end for the CIBAs Levels of Achievement is so worthwhile! Every list you make means more promotion for you and your work as each list is posted right here on our website, on our social media, and also out in our newsletter!
Wendela Whitcomb Marsh – Relating While Autistic: Fixed Signals for Neurodivergent Couples
Andy Chaleff – The Connection Playbook: A Practical Guide to Building Deep, Meaningful, Harmonious Relationships
Dr. Kelly Rabenstein – Psychological Secrets for Emotional Success
Jennifer M Sukalo – Claim Your SWAGGER: Stop Surviving and Start Thriving
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2023 I&IAwards is:
Eating Together Being Together:
Recipes, Activities, and Advice from a Chef Dad and Psychologist Mom
by Julian C.E. Clauss-Ehlers and Caroline S. Clauss-Ehlers
These know-how smarty authors will be celebrated in their own posts soon enough! In the meantime, we’re here to cheer on some of our favorite books that have come in for review!
THE DOCTOR’S VOICE
By Dr. Pietro Emanuele Garbelli
Dr. Pietro Emanuele Garbelli speaks out on serious professional issues faced by modern healthcare workers, in The Doctor’s Voice.
Doctors deal with overwhelming stress, leading to burnout, illness, many of them leaving the profession, and even a higher-than-average rate of suicide. The Covid19 pandemic both heightened and helped illuminate some of the causes of this stress, prompting author Garbelli to write this book as a set of advice for his colleagues and as advocacy for broader changes in hospitals and other healthcare systems.
Garbelli highlights a common disconnect in communication—administrators and higher-ups telling doctors what to do while those doctors don’t have much opportunity to bring up the problems they encounter day-to-day.
A guide to achieving financial freedom in retirement, E. Alan Fleischauer’s bestseller Reconfigurement™ reveals a roadmap guided by the Mantra, “Navigate, Customize, and Thrive.”
Advances in medicine, nutrition, and longevity planning now offer unparalleled possibilities to live longer, higher-quality lives. However, looming over this rosy image is a genuine concern: the financial ramifications of a longer retirement term. More alarming is that a sizable portion of the American populace is not harnessing their 401(k) retirement plans.
In light of this scenario, can traditional investment programs with fraying safety nets, such as pensions, remain viable? Reconfigurementcombines the emotional fulfillment of making retirement dreams a reality with practical guidance that rejects the notion of a set retirement age of 65. This work’s personal tales and sound financial guidance entice readers away from the constraints of traditional retirement approaches.
ABOVE THE DIN (Diary of the HepC Wonder Drugs)
By Labar Laskie
Labar Laskie closely explores the experience of chronic HepC in her unique memoir, Above the Din.
These days, Hepatitis C infection is curable with a simple treatment that lasts only a few months. In 1999, when author Labar Laskie receives her diagnosis, she sees no good option. The only possibility for a cure lies in a treatment with dismally low success rates and poses a significant danger. Not wanting to jeopardize her life, Labar embarks on a fifteen-year-long search for an alternative cure, hoping to find a wonder drug. Her waiting ends in 2014 when she begins her three-month-long treatment of two pills daily while keeping a journal of each day’s progress.
She goes through a string of doctors, many urging her to do the toxic treatment.
THE SOUND Of The FUTURE: The Coming Age of Voice Technology
By Tobias Dengel with Karl Weber
The Sound of the Future: The Coming Age of Voice Technology by Tobias Dengel with Karl Weber presents elaborate insight into the evolution of voice technology, showing it to be the next big innovation in the tech world.
Dengel begins by stating that long-distance vocal communication was unattainable for a long time, and now can seamlessly liberate humans from familiar but ‘clumsy’ tools such as keyboards, knobs, pedals, buttons, and levers. It has been well articulated by various news quarters that voice recognition is gaining a reputation and growing usage with the rise of artificial intelligence and intelligent aids, such as Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri. This technology has for the first time allowed consumers to interact with technology simply by conversing with it, facilitating hands-free propositions, reminders, and other simple duties.
This technology is presently in a major shift, as numerous industries worldwide are incorporating it into their daily routines and procedures.
On the belief that life isn’t just the random cards one is dealt, A Path to Excellence by Tony Jeton Selimi offers a blueprint—the octagon of excellence—to succeed personally, professionally, and spiritually.
Transcending the pitfalls and spontaneous stumbling blocks along the path of life can open the door to self-actualization and progression. As someone who experienced bullying, sexual abuse, early disability, and homelessness, Selimi sets on to become a beacon of light to the hopeless and marginalized.
Within each soul lies a bud of genius waiting to blossom. This book focuses on purpose, vision, and persistence to clear the way to that fullest potential. Affirming challenges as immutable truths of life, Selimi employs Buddhist teaching and personal anecdotes to encourage a head-on confrontation with one’s struggles and promotes a feeling of gratitude. As a blend of philosophical wisdom and practical experience, the initial chapters help readers acknowledge their current life situation, perceiving challenges as epochs of potential.
This is the journey from beginning to end for the CIBAs Levels of Achievement is so worthwhile! Every list you make means more promotion for you and your work as each list is posted right here on our website, on our social media, and also out in our newsletter!
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 the 2024 Journey Non-Fiction SHORT LIST. Finalists will be selected from the Semi-Finalists. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC25).
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 5th, 2025 in beautiful Bellingham, WA at the Four Points by Sheraton sponsored by the 2025Chanticleer Authors Conference.
These titles are in the running for the FINALISTS of the 2024 Journey Book Awards novel competition for Overcoming Adversity in Non-Fiction!
Join us in celebrating the Semi-Finalist authors and their works in the 2024 CIBAs.
Michael Salsbury – Running From Tragedy
Lynne Spriggs O’Connor – Elk Love: A Montana Memoir
Jane Kim Yu – Journey of Awakening and Higher Consciousness
Tamra McAnally Bolton – His 100th Year
Kirsten Throneberry – Guided: Lost Love, Hidden Realms, and the Open Road
Irena Smith – The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays
Jennifer Gasner – My Unexpected Life: Finding Balance Beyond My Diagnosis
Kathryn Caraway – Unfollow Me
Jill Vanneman – The Betterment Campaign
Linda M. Lockwood – Sky Ranch: Reared in the High Country
Etsuko Diamond Miyagi – Diamond – The Memoir of a Lost Daughter of Japan
Karen Elizabeth Lee – The Village That Betrayed its Children
Liz Alterman – Sad Sacked
Anne Gately – Sunburnt – A memoir of sun, surf and skin cancer
Natalie Kohlhaas – Hello Anxiety My Old Friend: Harness Your Invisible Superpower
Rachael Siddoway and Sonja Wasden – An Impossible Life: A True Story of Hope and Mental Illness
Léonie Rosenstiel – Protecting Mama: Surviving the Legal Guardianship Swamp
Ernestine Whitman – Countermelodies: A Memoir in Sonata Form
Jacqueline Acho – Cancer Culture: Fixing the Landscape by Infusing Empathy
Kathi N. Miner – The Committed Professor – My Fall from the Lectern to the Ward
Bridey Thelen-Heidel – Bright Eyes
Ginelle Testa – Make a Home Out of You
E. Adrienne Wilson – I’d Rather Be Dead Than Deaf: A Young Woman’s Journey with Liver Cancer
Lindsey Henke – When Skies Are Gray
Heidi Beierle – Heidi Across America – One Woman’s Journey on a Bicycle through the Heartland
Claudia Marseille – But You Look So Normal: Lost and Found in a Hearing World
Mary Jumbelic, M.D. – Here, Where Death Delights
Lisa Rhyne – Coming Out of the Metaphysical Closet
Tracy Mayo – Childless Mother: A Search for Son and Self
Marsha Jacobson – The Wrong Calamity
David Vass – Liar, Alleged
PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS!
This post has been posted on the Chanticleer Facebook Page. We try to tag all authors listed here in the Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us on Facebook.
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.
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 the 2024 Journey Non-Fiction LONG LIST. Entries below are now in competition for 2024 Journey Semifinals List. Finalists will be selected from the Semi-Finalists. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC25).
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 5th, 2025 in beautiful Bellingham, WA at the Four Points by Sheraton sponsored by the 2025Chanticleer Authors Conference.
These titles are in the running for the SEMIFINALISTS of the 2024 Journey Book Awards novel competition for Overcoming Adversity in Non-Fiction!
Join us in celebrating the Long List authors and their works in the 2024 CIBAs.
Michael Salsbury – Running From Tragedy
Lynne Spriggs O’Connor – Elk Love: A Montana Memoir
Jane Kim Yu – Journey of Awakening and Higher Consciousness
Shannon Bohrer – Judicial Soup
Judie Dziezak – Petals from Mars: A Memoir of Resilience and Triumph over Adversity
M. Lorrie Miller – Invitation to Co-Creation: A Spiritual Path from Child Abuse and Religious Trauma to Love, Healing, and Oneness
Tamra McAnally Bolton – His 100th Year
Kirsten Throneberry – Guided: Lost Love, Hidden Realms, and the Open Road
Irena Smith – The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays
Aja Mia – The Heartbreak of Time Travel
Jennifer Gasner – My Unexpected Life: Finding Balance Beyond My Diagnosis
Kathryn Caraway – Unfollow Me
Jill Vanneman – The Betterment Campaign
C.J. Hudson – Destiny Lives on Fairhaven Street
Linda M. Lockwood – Sky Ranch: Reared in the High Country
Etsuko Diamond Miyagi – Diamond – The Memoir of a Lost Daughter of Japan
Karen Elizabeth Lee – The Village That Betrayed its Children
Liz Alterman – Sad Sacked
Anne Gately – Sunburnt – A memoir of sun, surf and skin cancer
Patrick Hogan – Coincidence, you say?
Natalie Kohlhaas – Hello Anxiety My Old Friend: Harness Your Invisible Superpower
Rachael Siddoway and Sonja Wasden – An Impossible Life: A True Story of Hope and Mental Illness
Léonie Rosenstiel – Protecting Mama: Surviving the Legal Guardianship Swamp
Ernestine Whitman – Countermelodies: A Memoir in Sonata Form
Jacqueline Acho – Cancer Culture: Fixing the Landscape by Infusing Empathy
Kathi N. Miner – The Committed Professor – My Fall from the Lectern to the Ward
Jennifer Cramer-Miller – Incurable Optimist: Living with Illness and Chronic Hope
Bridey Thelen-Heidel – Bright Eyes
Ginelle Testa – Make a Home Out of You
Deborah L. Staunton – Untethered
E. Adrienne Wilson – I’d Rather Be Dead Than Deaf: A Young Woman’s Journey with Liver Cancer
Lindsey Henke – When Skies Are Gray
Heidi Beierle – Heidi Across America – One Woman’s Journey on a Bicycle through the Heartland
Claudia Marseille – But You Look So Normal: Lost and Found in a Hearing World
Mary Jumbelic, M.D. – Here, Where Death Delights
Lisa Rhyne – Coming Out of the Metaphysical Closet
Tracy Mayo – Childless Mother: A Search for Son and Self
Marsha Jacobson – The Wrong Calamity
Ana Manwaring – Saints and Skeletons A Memoir
David Vass – Liar, Alleged
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 Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us on Facebook.
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.
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 2024 Journey Non-Fiction entries to the 2024 Journey Book Awards LONG LIST. Entries below are now in competition for 2024 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 (CAC25).
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 5th, 2025 in beautiful Bellingham, WA at the Four Points by Sheraton sponsored by the 2025Chanticleer Authors Conference.
These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2024 Journey Book Awards novel competition for Overcoming Adversity in Non-Fiction!
Join us in celebrating the Long List authors and their works in the 2024 CIBAs.
Michael Salsbury – Running From Tragedy
Lynne Spriggs O’Connor – Elk Love: A Montana Memoir
Jane Kim Yu – Journey of Awakening and Higher Consciousness
Shannon Bohrer – Judicial Soup
Judie Dziezak – Petals from Mars: A Memoir of Resilience and Triumph over Adversity
Carolyn Saletto – One Hazel Green Eye
M. Lorrie Miller – Invitation to Co-Creation: A Spiritual Path from Child Abuse and Religious Trauma to Love, Healing, and Oneness
Tamra McAnally Bolton – His 100th Year
Kirsten Throneberry – Guided: Lost Love, Hidden Realms, and the Open Road
Irena Smith – The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays
Aja Mia – The Heartbreak of Time Travel
Jennifer Gasner – My Unexpected Life: Finding Balance Beyond My Diagnosis
Kathryn Caraway – Unfollow Me
Jill Vanneman – The Betterment Campaign
C.J. Hudson – Destiny Lives on Fairhaven Street
Linda M. Lockwood – Sky Ranch: Reared in the High Country
Etsuko Diamond Miyagi – Diamond – The Memoir of a Lost Daughter of Japan
Karen Elizabeth Lee – The Village That Betrayed its Children
Liz Alterman – Sad Sacked
Anne Gately – Sunburnt – A memoir of sun, surf and skin cancer
Patrick Hogan – Coincidence, you say?
Natalie Kohlhaas – Hello Anxiety My Old Friend: Harness Your Invisible Superpower
Rachael Siddoway and Sonja Wasden – An Impossible Life: A True Story of Hope and Mental Illness
Léonie Rosenstiel – Protecting Mama: Surviving the Legal Guardianship Swamp
Ernestine Whitman – Countermelodies: A Memoir in Sonata Form
Jacqueline Acho – Cancer Culture: Fixing the Landscape by Infusing Empathy
Kathi N. Miner – The Committed Professor – My Fall from the Lectern to the Ward
Jennifer Cramer-Miller – Incurable Optimist: Living with Illness and Chronic Hope
Bridey Thelen-Heidel – Bright Eyes
Ginelle Testa – Make a Home Out of You
Deborah L. Staunton – Untethered
E. Adrienne Wilson – I’d Rather Be Dead Than Deaf: A Young Woman’s Journey with Liver Cancer
Lindsey Henke – When Skies Are Gray
Turtle – Turtle
Heidi Beierle – Heidi Across America – One Woman’s Journey on a Bicycle through the Heartland
Claudia Marseille – But You Look So Normal: Lost and Found in a Hearing World
Mary Jumbelic, M.D. – Here, Where Death Delights
Lisa Rhyne – Coming Out of the Metaphysical Closet
David H. Hutton – Drums of a Distant Tribe
Tracy Mayo – Childless Mother: A Search for Son and Self
Marsha Jacobson – The Wrong Calamity
Anna Casamento Arrigo – Weeds Beneath the Open Meadows
Ana Manwaring – Saints and Skeletons A Memoir
David Vass – Liar, Alleged
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 Facebook post. However, it is easier for us to tag authors when they have Liked and Followed us on Facebook.
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.
These are two of the oldest mainstays of the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards, and the quality improves every year!
Only 10 days left to submit your books to the prestigious CIBAs and embark on an extraordinary journey to success. With over $30,000 in prizes awarded annually, now is the time to make your mark!
The CIBAs offer more than just recognition — they provide a ladder to success with a range of achievement tiers and expert long tail marketing strategies. From the highly anticipated Long List to the prestigious Overall Grand Prize Winner, the CIBA lists energize both authors and readers, maximizing your digital footprint and expanding your fan base.
We are always eager to support the Best Books through the CIBAs. Join the ranks of celebrated authors who have already taken this critical step in their publishing.
Your book deserves to be discovered, celebrated, and shared with the world. Don’t miss the chance to showcase your talent and gain valuable exposure at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (April 3-6, 2025) where Winners from all 25 Book Award Divisions will be announced and honored.
In a world hungry for good books, your story deserves to be heard. Submit now and leave a lasting impression.
In 1974, Lori Lee Peters was an impressionable thirteen-year-old growing up in the suburban town of Lodi, California. The wider world—from which her parents sheltered her and her sisters—fascinated Lori. She was curious about everything, informed about little, and dependent on friends to fill gaps with the knowledge she craved.
Religion was a topic rarely discussed in her household. So when friends shared their beliefs about God as fact, Lori thought her days on Earth were numbered. She carried this news with her for decades as a deadly secret she couldn’t share with her family. Little did she know that her father—her hero—had a secret of his own.
From Chanticleer:
God, the Mafia, My Dad, and Me by Lori Lee Peters begins in the voice of a child, compelling not just for its narrative honestly, but for the fact that it might not be reliable. As the book opens, we learn that this narrator firmly believes she will be killed.
Readers can easily see through the childlike hyperbole, but that doesn’t detract from the intrigue. How did a kid come to such an extreme conclusion? Is there any seed of truth to it? These questions will hook readers from the start.
Author Peters set out to write a book about her dad. God, the Mafia, My Dad, and Me tells the true story of her father, and his fascinating work helping the FBI tackle Mafia activity in Lodi, California. Yet in the end, this is a memoir in which the compelling lead character – young Lori – overshadows her father in many ways.
In the spirit of The Glass Castle and The Burning Light of Two Stars, Antonia Deignan delivers what New York Times best-selling author Julie Cantrell calls a “a heart-shattering memoir of painful truth and soulful healing.”
As a child, Antonia perceived her father’s nighttime visits as special acts of love. On some deeper level, though, she knew what was happening wasn’t right. To escape, she began creating imaginary worlds and used dreams to transport her away from her fears. As she got older, Antonia traded those fantasies for dance—but despite her outlets she remained trapped underwater, without a lifeline to make her feel fundamentally safe.
Nanette J. Davis Ph.D. – Raging Currents: Mental Illness and Family
A surprise sink-or-swim lesson at the tender age of nine opens this gripping memoir of love, mental illness, and care giving. A swirling narrative carries readers from pre-WWII Illinois to the infamous Oregon State Mental Hospital of the 80s and forward along a harrowing chasm carved by dysfunctional parents, inhumane social systems, and driven by Dr. Nanette Davis’s powerful love for her mentally-ill sister and son. Raging Currents spans mental health therapies from sedation and isolation, to twelve-step programs, tough love, and modern neuroscience-driven treatments.
From the childhood of a strong-willed, fiercely independent, and curious girl to the roles of supportive sister, wife, and mother, Davis shares her life’s foundation, development, and endless devotion to those she loves. Expertly weaving social norms in compelling prose, Davis offers the wisdom and reflection of age through the clear-eyed recollections of a trained sociologist. Her ever-increasing understanding of compassion is the bedrock of this insightful and vulnerable telling. Raging Currents offers more than an inspiring memoir: it provides practical advice and solace for modern caregivers, friends, family, and people living with mental illness.
When Barbara Terao moves into a new home in Washington, two thousand miles from her husband in Illinois, she doesn’t know when—or if—she’ll ever live with him again. Her diagnosis of breast cancer three months later changes both of them in ways they never imagined.
In the ensuing months, Barbara’s husband and adult children show up to help her through a year of difficult treatments and surgery, and Barbara, in her Whidbey Island cottage, learns to listen to her heart and intuition. Nurtured by Douglas fir forests, the Salish Sea, and her community, she changes her life from the inside out. Her journey, she realizes, wasn’t about leaving her husband so much as finding herself. Reconfigured in body, mind, and spirit, Barbara finally has words for what she wants to say—and the strength to be a survivor.
What would you do if you received a message from a stranger telling you that your daughter, who is traveling alone in Turkey, is having some sort of mental health episode?
Dear Psychosis, is a confronting, dramatic and no-holds-barred account of a family’s experience following their daughter’s first-ever psychotic episode in Istanbul, and her later diagnosis of bipolar disorder.
To some, it may be a warning, to others a story of hope. Most of all, it shows how the love and care given by strangers and family alike paved the way for their daughter’s recovery and inspired the family to break the silence around mental illness.
On a blazing summer day in Missouri, 1956, eight-year-old Richard discovers a sparkling rock on the railroad tracks near his home—and is fascinated. In that same year, he makes another unexpected discovery—an aching, forbidden desire to be a girl. A lifetime of secrecy follows until, at the edge of a cliff in remote southern Idaho, he faces a decision—to die as a man or live as a woman.Transformations is more than a memoir of transgenderism. It reflects important crossroads we all encounter in our lives—times of self-doubt and failure, other moments of great success and joy. It is a journey all of us share, one leading to that profound question we, at some point in our lives, must ask ourselves: Who am I?
The Search for the BEST Narrative Non-Fiction books on Overcoming Adversity for 2024!
The 2024 Journey Awards submissions close June 30, 2024
Accepting manuscripts and published work!
Your Journey Deserves to Be Discovered!
The CIBAs Levels of Achievements. Books are promoted each time they advance!
The Journey Categories are:
Overcoming Adversity – Personal Journey
Dysfunctional Family/Siblings
Societal/Class/Race Issues
Personal Journeys/Experiences/PTSD
Drug Addiction
Sexual Abuse
Childhood Trauma
The Journey Awards were the first Non-Fiction Division ever opened by Chanticleer. You can now see the full range of Non-Fiction Divisions here. The sheer quality of the books describing Overcoming Adversity that we received was staggering. These stories demand to be heard, and we, as readers, are better for it.
Join us in exploring these amazing books that are overcoming adversity!
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.
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.
God, the Mafia, My Dad, and Me by Lori Lee Peters begins in the voice of a child, compelling not just for its narrative honestly, but for the fact that it might not be reliable. As the book opens, we learn that this narrator firmly believes she will be killed.
Readers can easily see through the childlike hyperbole, but that doesn’t detract from the intrigue. How did a kid come to such an extreme conclusion? Is there any seed of truth to it? These questions will hook readers from the start.
Author Peters set out to write a book about her dad. God, the Mafia, My Dad, and Me tells the true story of her father, and his fascinating work helping the FBI tackle Mafia activity in Lodi, California. Yet in the end, this is a memoir in which the compelling lead character – young Lori – overshadows her father in many ways.
“It’s my armor,” Kyomi O’Connor realizes, as she sees herself continuing life as normal after her husband dies of cancer.
Grief brings with it many companions: childhood trauma, memories of difficult seasons of life, triumphant moments of growth, epiphanies, healing, love. In A Sky of Infinite Blue, Japanese immigrant Kyomi O’Connor allows grief to open her heart to the lessons of her past.
In particular, she recognizes emotional armor that since childhood, she has built up, torn down, and built up again. Through her relationship with her husband, her devoted Buddhist practice, and her trust in her “Self,” Kyomi makes meaning of her life and redeems her darkest memories. Readers walk through these memories with her as the book shifts between past and present.
In Chop That Sh*t Up: Leadership and Life Lessons Learned While in the Military, Daniel L. Pinion reminisces about his experiences in the US Army, both good and bad, before he retired as a Command Sergeant Major.
Some of the stories and lessons he offers are heartbreaking, some are horrifying, and some are insightful. As it turns out, some are even heartwarming.
The author explains his origins: a quiet and uneventful childhood that did not give him much idea of what he should do with his life. Some counseling and a few incidents led Pinion, after high school, to the National Guard and eventually the US Army, where he found his life’s calling.
To many, atrocities such as mass shootings and violent counter-protests seem to appear out of thin air, undertaken by independent actors. But Rita Katz, in her groundbreaking exploration of internet-age terrorism Saints and Soldiers, reveals a sinister ecosystem of violence multiplying worldwide, visible yet largely ignored.
Katz– executive director of the counterterrorist organization SITE Intelligence Group– uses a strategic blend of primary media sources, personal narrative, and research analysis to unearth the haunting truths of internet-age terrorism. Although SITE once focused mainly on monitoring the actions of Islamist terrorist groups, Katz describes how it began applying the same tracking methods to white supremacists and neo-Nazis over a decade ago. As Katz writes, “the internet is more than just an asset for today’s new breed of terrorists. It is a necessity.”
Throughout Saints and Soldiers, Katz uses her decades of intensive experience to describe how a new generation of internet-born white supremacist movements followed the same trajectory as ISIS. She exposes the network of threads that link white supremacist violence such as the Christchurch massacre of 2019 to their origins on messaging platforms such as 8chan, Discord, Stormfront, and Telegram. Indoctrinating vulnerable minds with extremist neo-Nazi ideology, these violent groups use a “screw your optics” mantra that celebrates gruesome violence and the “saints ” and “martyrs” that drive their hateful cause.
Thank you for joining us for this spotlight on the Journey Awards and a fraction of the incredible Non-Fiction that comes through our door!
We’re still feeling the joy and warmth from the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference! See what authors are saying about it!
Congratulations on a very informative conference and festive awards ceremony! The care and effort Team Chanticleer puts into the event was obvious.
I am honored that The Hanford Plaintiffs received a First Place prize in the Nellie Bly category. Nellie Bly was an amazing and accomplished woman.
It’s wonderful to be part of the Chanticleer “family”!- an honor!
— Trisha Pritikin
I had such an amazing time over the weekend!! From the wonderful hotel, classes/workshops, events, authors, 100-year-old war veteran, bagpipe author, and lucky enough to win another award.
Thank you all so much!! What a kickass group of wonderful individuals. Beyond grateful!!!
— Lori Lee Peters
A thousand and one thanks for putting on a great author’s conference! I learned a lot – some things that I was doing well (which is always nice to know) and new things I need to get to work on. And I made some great new friends, including you. It was well worth the time and expense.
— Dave Lager
While not a Journey Winner, there was no way these Blue Ribbon Winners were going to pass on a photo with 100-year-old veteran Burl Harmon.
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. See our full list of Non-Fiction Divisions here.
1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners were announced at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony by Mark Berridge on Saturday, April 20th, 2024 at the Four Points by Sheraton in beautiful Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2024 Chanticleer Authors Conference.
This is the OFFICIAL 2023 LIST of the JOURNEY BOOK AWARDS First Place Category Winners and the JOURNEY Grand Prize Winner.
Join us in celebrating the following award-winning authors and their works in the 2023 CIBAs.
Lori Lee Peters – God, the Mafia, My Dad and Me
Antonia Deignan – Underwater Daughter: A Memoir of Survival and Healing
Nanette J. Davis Ph.D. – Raging Currents: Mental Illness and Family
Barbara Wolf Terao – Reconfigured: A Memoir
Sarah Martin – Dear Psychosis,
Julie Morrison – Barbed: A Memoir
Erika Shepard – Trans-Formations: From Field Boots to Sensible Heels
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2023 JOURNEY Awards is:
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!
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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. You will receive an OFFICIAL EMAIL NOTIFICATION with Digital Badges and more information.
NOTE: We will post at least two 2023 CIBA Divisions’ OFFICIAL Winners per business day starting April 24, 2024. We do a final sweep and reconciliation prior to making the Official CIBA Posts for the 2023 First Place and Grand Prize Winners. We thank you in advance for your patience and understanding. There are many moving parts involved with the Chanticleer International Book Awards Program.
Thank you for participating in the 2023 CIBAs! We are looking forward to reading your future entries.
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).
To celebrate the deadline change, lets take a look at some recently reviewed Non-Fiction Works!
A Path To Excellence
