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 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!
BARBED
By Julie Morrison
Grand Prize Winner for Journey Awards
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.
A FRACTION STRONGER
By Mark Berridge
2022 Grand Prize Winner for Journey Awards
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.
He learned more than just how to move again.
GOD, The MAFIA, MY DAD, and ME: A True Story of Secrets and Survival
By Lori Lee Peters
Grand Prize Winner for Collections in the Shorts Awards
First Place Winner for Journey Awards
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.
A SKY Of INFINITE BLUE: A Japanese Immigrant’s Search for Home and Self
By Kyomi O’Connor
Grand Prize Winner for Mind & Spirit Awards
“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.
CHOP THAT SH*T UP!: Leadership and Life Lessons Learned While in the Military
By CSM Daniel L. Pinion
First Place Winner for Military & Front Line
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.
SAINTS And SOLDIERS: Inside Internet-Age Terrorism, From Syria to the Capitol Siege
By Rita Katz
Grand Prize Winner for Nellie Bly
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
Got a Winner?
The Journey Awards are open until June 30, 2024!
Truth matters more than ever
The Hearten Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Uplifting & Inspiring Non-Fiction and Memoir. The Hearten Book Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs).
