The Hearten Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Inspiring and Uplifting Non-Fiction and Memoirs. The Hearten 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 2025 Hearten Non-Fiction Long List to the 2025 Hearten Book Awards SHORT LIST. Entries below are now in competition for 2025 Hearten Semi-Finalists. Finalists will be selected from the Semi-Finalists. All FINALISTS will be recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC26).
The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 28 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 18th, 2026 in beautiful Bellingham, WA sponsored by the 2026Chanticleer Authors Conference.
These titles are in the running for the SEMI-FINALISTS of the 2025 Hearten Book Awards novel competition for Uplifting and Inspiring Non-Fiction!
Join us in celebrating the Short List authors and their works in the 2025 CIBAs.
Alia Luria – Geri O Shimasu: Adventures of a Baka Gaijin
Andy Becker – Grandy Let’s Play: Reflections on the Joy Blessings and Wonder of Grandparenting
Barb Drummond – I Finally Have the Smoking Hot Body I Have Always Wanted Having Been Cremated
Brent Larsen – You Make My Heart Giggle Dad-isms the Wisdom and Wit of Dad
Candace Macphie – Finding Color
Cerridwen Fallingstar – Rocket in My Pocket: Defying Gravity with Levity, From the Frontiers of Space… To the Frontiers of Consciousness
Charlene Pell – In This Altered Body: A Survivor’s Story of Resilience and Love
Christine Amoroso – Bare Naked in Public: A Memoir
Cynthia Waine Brandt – Song of the Cardinal: A True Story of Miracles and Magic After Heartbreaking Loss
Doug Cameron – My Tarzan Tree and Other Farm Boy Memories
Dr. Deb Miller – Forget the Fairy Tale and Find Your Happiness
Jeff Richards – Nothing Left To Lose: Or How Not To Start a Commune
Jennifer Celeste Briggs – Watching Sarah Rise: a Journey of Thriving with Autism
Julie Ryan Mcgue – Twice the Family: a Memoir of Love Loss and Sisterhood
Kate Grant – No Woman Left Behind: a Journey of Hope To Heal Every Woman Injured in Childbirth
Kathy Sechrist – Sara’s Redemption: a Journey of Courage Resilience and Hope
Kay Brooks – Behind the White Beard Dale Ballew’s Story
Kee Kee Buckley – Seeking Shama: Me, My Dog, and the Road To Inner Peace
Maggie Enriquez – The Rebirth of a Phoenix
Margie Crowe Wildblood – Because He Loved Me
Marti Tote – Up Grief Creek Without a Paddle
Patricia Eagle – Dog Love Stories the Canines Who Changed Me
Rabei A. Wazzeh – The Masterpiece of Nature
Rhona Morrison – From Crime Scenes to Cruise Ships: Navigating life’s troubled waters with resilience and hope
Ricardo Jose Gonzalez-Rothi – The Mango Chronicle
Robert Macauley – Because I Knew You: How Some Remarkable Sick Kids Healed a Doctor’s Soul
Stacey Hettes – Dispatches From the Couch
Sue Vana – Shaken by God’s Love From Fear To Favor in Grief’s Upside-Down World
Tammy Dietz – Falling From Disgrace
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.
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.
Only 5 days left to submit your books to these prestigious CIBA Divisions and embark on an extraordinary journey to success.
The Chanticleer International Book Awards provide ongoing recognition that amplifies authors’ digital footprints through high-traffic website features, social media promotion, newsletter spotlights, and long-tail marketing that continues promoting winners throughout the year and beyond!
SEA Shorts now covers Short Stories, Essays and Novellas together, and Collections and Anthologies is for exactly that, Multi-Story Collections and Multi-Author Anthologies!
Roderick S. Haynes – Unauthorized Disclosures a Navy Memoir of the 1980s
David Huntley – The B-17 Tomahawk Warrior: a WWII Final Honor
Patrick Hogan – Coincidence, You Say?
Shari Biery – It’s Your Turn How To Rediscover Yourself Prioritize Your Well-Being Thrive with Purpose
Max Lauker & Antonio Garcia – Number 788: My Experiences in Swedish Special Operations – Preparing for NATO and the War on Terror
Bibi LeBlanc – Wings of Freedom – The Story of the Berlin Airlift | Flugel der Freiheit – Die Geschichte der Berliner Luftbrucke
And a huge round of applause to our 2024 Military and Front Line Grand Prize Winner:
Memoirs From The Front Lines
Four States, Two Years, One Pandemic
By Kim Sloan
The CIBAs 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 17-19, 2025) where Winners from all 28 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.
The Hearten Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Inspiring and Uplifting Non-Fiction and Memoirs. The Hearten 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 2025 Hearten Non-Fiction entries to the 2025 Hearten Book Awards LONG LIST. Entries below are now in competition for 2025 Hearten 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 (CAC26).
The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 28 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 18th, 2026 in beautiful Bellingham, WA sponsored by the 2026Chanticleer Authors Conference.
These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2025 Hearten Book Awards novel competition for Uplifting and Inspiring Non-Fiction!
Join us in celebrating the Long List authors and their works in the 2025 CIBAs.
Alia Luria – Geri O Shimasu: Adventures of a Baka Gaijin
Andy Becker – Grandy Let’s Play: Reflections on the Joy Blessings and Wonder of Grandparenting
Barb Drummond – I Finally Have the Smoking Hot Body I Have Always Wanted Having Been Cremated
Brent Larsen – You Make My Heart Giggle Dad-isms the Wisdom and Wit of Dad
Candace Macphie – Finding Color
Cerridwen Fallingstar – Rocket in My Pocket: Defying Gravity with Levity, From the Frontiers of Space… To the Frontiers of Consciousness
Charlene Pell – In This Altered Body: A Survivor’s Story of Resilience and Love
Cheryl Lynn – Washing the Inside of the Cup: My Journey of Walking in the Spirit
Christine Amoroso – Bare Naked in Public: A Memoir
Cynthia Waine Brandt – Song of the Cardinal: A True Story of Miracles and Magic After Heartbreaking Loss
Dianne Ebertt Beeaff – Infinite Paradise Witnessing the Wild
Doug Cameron – My Tarzan Tree and Other Farm Boy Memories
Dr. Deb Miller – Forget the Fairy Tale and Find Your Happiness
Dr. Michael James – America’s Nightmare Surviving the Black Holocaust the Message Continues
Jeff Richards – Nothing Left To Lose: Or How Not To Start a Commune
Jennifer Celeste Briggs – Watching Sarah Rise: a Journey of Thriving with Autism
Jerome Puryear – The Art of Thinking Critically with Clarity for Optimal Health
Julie Ryan Mcgue – Twice the Family: a Memoir of Love Loss and Sisterhood
Kate Grant – No Woman Left Behind: a Journey of Hope To Heal Every Woman Injured in Childbirth
Kathy Sechrist – Sara’s Redemption: a Journey of Courage Resilience and Hope
Kay Brooks – Behind the White Beard Dale Ballew’s Story
Kee Kee Buckley – Seeking Shama: Me, My Dog, and the Road To Inner Peace
Laurie Benson – Resilient Activism Igniting Wild Hope in Uncertain Times
Lucie Frost – How the Hell Did I Not Know That: My Midlife Year From Couch To Curiosity
Maggie Enriquez – The Rebirth of a Phoenix
Margie Crowe Wildblood – Because He Loved Me
Marti Tote – Up Grief Creek Without a Paddle
Mary Olson-Menzel – What Lights You Up Illuminate Your Path and Take the Next Big Step in Your Career
Patricia Eagle – Dog Love Stories the Canines Who Changed Me
Rabei A. Wazzeh – The Masterpiece of Nature
Rhona Morrison – From Crime Scenes to Cruise Ships: Navigating life’s troubled waters with resilience and hope
Ricardo Jose Gonzalez-Rothi – The Mango Chronicle
Robert Macauley – Because I Knew You: How Some Remarkable Sick Kids Healed a Doctor’s Soul
Stacey Hettes – Dispatches From the Couch
Sue Vana – Shaken by God’s Love From Fear To Favor in Grief’s Upside-Down World
Tammy Dietz – Falling From Disgrace
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.
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.
Only 10 days left to submit your books to these prestigious CIBA Divisions 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 Journey, Hearten, Military and Front Line and The Nellie Bly Awards are still open!
Congratulations to the 2024 Winners of the Journey Awards for Overcoming Adversity!
Kirsten Throneberry –Guided: Lost Love, Hidden Realms, and the Open Road
Jennifer Gasner –My Unexpected Life: Finding Balance Beyond My Diagnosis
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
Lindsey Henke –When Skies Are Gray
Claudia Marseille –But You Look So Normal: Lost and Found in a Hearing World
And a huge round of applause to our 2024 Journey Grand Prize Winner:
Unfollow Me
By Kathryn Caraway
Congratulations to the 2024 Winners of the Hearten Award for Uplifting Non-Fiction!
Genét Simone –Teaching in the Dark
David Hutton –Drums of a Distant Tribe
Etsuko Diamond Miyagi –Diamond: The Memoir of a Lost Daughter of Japan
Rachael Siddoway and Sonja Wasden –An Impossible Life: A True Story of Hope and Mental Illness
Susan Cole –Holding Fast: A Memoir of Sailing, Love, and Loss
Tony Jeton Selimi –The Unfakeable Code®
And a huge round of applause for our 2024 Hearten Grand Prize Winner:
Elk Love: A Montana Memoir
By Lynne Spriggs O’Connor
Congratulations to the 2024 Winners of the Nellie Bly Award for Long Form Journalism!
Carla Conti – Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir
Kori Reed – Men-in-the-Middle Conversations to Gain Momentum with Gender Equity’s Silent Majority
Bonnie Bley – Stolen Voices: Missing and Murdered in Big Horn County
Sarah Towle – Crossing the Line: Finding America in the Borderlands
And a huge round of applause to our 2024 Nellie Bly Grand Prize Winner:
The Sing Sing Files:
One Journalist, Six Innocent Men, and a Twenty-Year Fight for Justice
By Dan Slepian
Congratulations to our 2024 Winners of the Military and Front Line Award for Service to Others!
Roderick S. Haynes – Unauthorized Disclosures a Navy Memoir of the 1980s
David Huntley – The B-17 Tomahawk Warrior: a WWII Final Honor
Patrick Hogan – Coincidence, You Say?
Shari Biery – It’s Your Turn How To Rediscover Yourself Prioritize Your Well-Being Thrive with Purpose
Max Lauker & Antonio Garcia – Number 788: My Experiences in Swedish Special Operations – Preparing for NATO and the War on Terror
Bibi LeBlanc – Wings of Freedom – The Story of the Berlin Airlift | Flugel der Freiheit – Die Geschichte der Berliner Luftbrucke
And a huge round of applause to the 2024 Military and Front Line Grand Prize Winner!
Memoirs From The Front Lines:
Four states, Two years, One pandemic
By Kim Sloan
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.
The Military and Front Line Awards recognize the extraordinary courage, sacrifice, and dedication of those who serve on the front lines—whether in military combat, medical emergencies, or other critical service roles. These powerful narratives capture the human experience behind the uniform, revealing stories of heroism, resilience, and the profound impact of service on individuals, families, and communities. From military memoirs to frontline healthcare experiences, these works honor those who answer the call to serve others, often at great personal cost.
Truth and authentic experience matter now more than ever. The Military and Front Line Awards seek exceptional non-fiction that illuminates the realities of service, the bonds forged under pressure, and the lasting effects of dedicating one’s life to protecting and serving others.
Let’s celebrate the Grand Prize Winners of the Military and Front Line Awards!
Memoirs From the Frontlines: Four States, Two Years, One Pandemic
By Kim Sloan, RSN and Travel ICU RN
From Amazon:
2020, the year the world shut down. My husband and I had been living our best lives. John had been a nurse since 2001 and I’d also been a nurse since 2008. We’d been traveling the country as Intensive Care Unit (ICU)/Emergency Room (ER) travel Registered Nurses (RNs) since 2017. We arrived in Southern Georgia for our ninth assignment in the fall of 2019. We had no idea what we had signed up for when we accepted this extension for our placement there—that this small town was about to become a major epicenter for COVID—that we would see more death in those few months than in all our prior years of nursing combined. We had no idea that the world was about to completely shut down because of a virus, or that we were about to become front-line heroes!
We also worked in Tennessee, Washington state, and Las Vegas, Nevada during those years, losing patients to the Coronavirus in all three states. COVID never changed no matter what state we were working in.
While writing this memoir has been very therapeutic, my true intentions are to provide a look at my experience so others can begin their own healing process. I also want others to understand by reading this memoir that it’s ok to make mistakes, and it’s ok to apologize for those mistakes. But most of all, even throughout a pandemic and even through a mental breakdown, it’s ok to lose your “voice,” but it’s not ok to give up finding that voice once again. Dark times are ok for a short time; however, to live in the dark is not living. You need to find your light and adjust to the world that surrounds you, COVID and all!
Chasing The Daylight: One Woman’s Journey to Becoming a US Army Intelligence Officer By Joanna Rakowski
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.
Lost in Beirut: A True Story of Love, Loss and War By Ashe and Magdalena Stevens
Seeking to “fill his vessel with the truth,” young Ashe Stevens joins his friends on a thrilling adventure beyond the safety of his comfortable American life to chase stardom in Beirut, Lebanon.
Leaving behind a raucous life of plenty in Hollywood – complete with hot dates, popularity, and financial success – to the unknown of the Middle East teaches Ashe to prioritize his values and beliefs. But nothing could prepare him for what’s coming next.
Journey with Ashe and his friends as they bring the rapper 50 Cent to Beirut, the “Paris of the Middle East.” Along the way, Ashe dates not one, but two drop-dead gorgeous billionaires and falls head over heels for a blonde beauty to whom he promises to devote his life. But just as business is booming and true love reaches the height of bliss, the Israeli military bombs their beautiful city, “weaving a tapestry of death all over the night sky.” The team barely makes it out with their lives in a harrowing escape, leaving their love and livelihoods behind.
Dear Bob: Bob Hope’s Wartime Correspondence with the G.I.s of World War 2 By Martha Bolton with Linda Hope
During World War II, Bob Hope traveled almost ceaselessly to outposts large and small, entertaining US troops – and inspiring them; Martha Bolton brings the extent of this work to light in Dear Bob.
Writer Martha Bolton worked with and for comedian Bob Hope. Now, with Hope’s daughter Linda, she has gathered and organized the letters written to Bob by the soldiers he helped.
Hope, English born, and born to entertain, once said he could not retire and go fishing because “Fish don’t applaud.” Among his sizzling lines – and there are hundreds recorded here – he told one audience that he’d gotten a wonderful welcome when he arrived at their camp: “I received a 10-gun salute… They told me on the operating table.”
His performances could have been forgotten were it not for the letters from soldiers of every stripe, and those soldiers’ families – who did not forget him.
The Military and Front Line Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Narrative Non-Fiction and Memoirs exploring the lives of those who serve their country and others. The Grand Prize Winner, Kim Sloan’s book, Memoirs from the Frontlines: Four States, Two Years, One Pandemic, will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Military and Front line contest page year ’round!
The best part about being a Chanticleer Int’l Book Award Winner is the love and attention you get all year ‘round!
Rod Haynes’s memoir Unauthorized Disclosures: A Navy Memoir of the 1980s portrays military life without filter, transcending glamorous and heroic images to explore the daily struggles, leadership challenges, emotional battles, and personal growth during his decade of military service.
We first meet Rod as a young man trying to navigate a directionless civilian life. The burdens of unemployment, fractured family relationships, and an identity crisis lead him to a chance encounter in Seattle with ‘Space Case’, an eccentric, troubled, yet honest character. The relationship offers a glimpse at rock bottom—which Rod fears most.
Rod decides to join the Navy because he needs employment.
We follow Rod to Officer Candidate School (OCS), a mentally and physically grueling journey toward adapting to a new leadership role. He tells of the essence of leadership taught in the school, which emerges not through the wearing of a uniform, but through sacrifice, battling doubt, and a drive to look out for others. Marching in sleeting rain, performing relentless drills, and encounters with hard-nosed instructors, Rod ultimately survives the intense pressure of military training with the assistance of a fellow Officer Candidate, a prior enlisted sailor willing to show Rod survival techniques in a high stress military training environment.
David Huntley – The B-17 Tomahawk Warrior: A WWII Final Honor
The Tomahawk Warriors, a crew of nine who perished in a 1944 B-17 Flying Fortress crash in England, was a mystery of WWII until explained in this book. It would have lain in partial obscurity if it were not for the author’s initial involuntary involvement. As a child, he witnessed what would become a dogged determination in his lifetime later to tell this story. As the faint light of dawn was breaking the morning of August 12, 1944, a crippled American B-17 bomber flew perilously close over the roof of the author’s house in Southern England. Around 30 seconds later, it crashed and exploded. In 2016, the author, David E. Huntley, after almost a lifetime, came across the story of the crew known as the ‘Tomahawk Warriors’ and recognized it as the accident he had witnessed as a child.
He started his own research and began asking himself many questions about the disaster. How did this plane crash and why, particularly in that location? For what reason was the plane misnamed ‘The Tomahawk Warrior’ through all those years? What strange circumstance led the author to come into possession of the navigator’s diary that no one knew even existed? Why did one airman not take his place on board that day and become a part of the ‘missing airman’ legend?
Despite the coincidence that the plane of the ‘Tomahawk Warriors’ and the plane of Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. crashed on the same day; Huntley revealed a further significant link between them. This incident adds a further little-known aspect about the Kennedy’s in American history.
Based on Declassified Secret Operational Records, analysis of other official and unofficial records, the author’s personal observations on the day of the accident, and his pursuit of other facts, those mysteries became fully resolved. This story provides a distinct understanding of the immense courage those young 20 to 26-year-old American airmen displayed. Mission after mission, they climbed aboard their craft and carried out their respective duties at 28,000 ft in sub-zero temperatures, hoping their electric-heated protective clothing would not short out during the 9 to 10-hour flight. They prayed that flak and enemy fighters would give them that 70 percent chance of getting back home.
The book offers vivid descriptions of those who got shot down, bailed out, and died or got captured to spend the rest of the war as POWs. The narrative places its emphasis on the lives of the heroes who served in WWII and their loved ones who have grown up in their shadows. He obtained a posthumous honor to the deceased crew, as well as a Permanent Commemorative Marker, and brought relief and closure to the descendants’ relatives. This is not a post-mortem of wartime machinery, but a window into the lives of some heroes who sacrificed themselves for a cause, as well as a personal insight into the familial relationships with their loved ones at home.
Coincidence, you say, is a book about the folks we call soldiers and police officers. The people who choose to stand guard over us by day and by night. In good weather and bad. The guardians who stand in the lurch between peace and chaos—good and evil.
It’s a tale of youthful rebellion, love, courage, resilience, and resolve not to give up despite seemingly insurmountable challenges.
The work is much more than an autobiography. It is an exploration of the various conditions the author faced throughout his life. From his earliest childhood memories right up through his retirement years.
When he was eighteen, the Vietnam War was just ramping up, so instead of waiting to be drafted, he decided to join the Army. As providence would have it, he ended up in Vietnam for three years.
After returning from Vietnam in ’69, he started having minor health difficulties, which he shrugged off. Then, in 1975, thanks to a twist of fate that changed New Jersey State law, he was appointed as a police officer for a small municipality. It is this occupational skill set and his investigative and analytical abilities that bring a truly high influence on his books.
As you read through the volumes of information, you will be absolutely stunned at what the US government had willingly dumped on Vietnam and its own troops. You will be amazed at what being a police officer really demands.
Some of the coincidental events he experienced seemed to challenge all human logic and have no rational explanation by our natural laws and standards. However, they did have meaning to him, and they profoundly changed the course of his life more than once.
It was difficult for him to put into words the emotions and energy he sensed firsthand after experiencing many strange life events. For him, they came with a deeper feeling of mysterious actions, along with a feeling of profound wonder and surprise. He couldn’t help but wonder if there was some deeper meaning behind all the twists and unexpected turns of my life.
Are you feeling buried under the demands of supporting your spouse, family, and the chaos of daily life while your own needs fall to the bottom of the list?
As a midlife woman, it’s easy to always put others first, leaving little time or energy for yourself. But now, It’s YOUR Turn to break free from the overwhelm and reclaim your life.
In It’s Your Turn, Shari Biery—a National Board Certified Purpose and Well-Being Coach and former military spouse—shares her personal journey from self-neglect to self-empowerment.
The moment she received the American Flag at her husband’s retirement ceremony marked not just the end of his career but the start of her own new chapter. After years of putting everyone else first, Shari made a powerful shift, and now she’s here to guide you in doing the same.
Through relatable stories and actionable steps, Shari shows how common it is for midlife women, especially those supporting a spouse and family, to feel overwhelmed and disconnected—and how to overcome these challenges.
Max Lauker with Antonio Garcia – Number 788: My Experiences in Swedish Special Operations- Preparing for NATO and the War on Terror
How a reluctant soldier and ranger, excelling in reconnaissance, intelligence, and covert operations, details his journey post-Cold War training to the War on Terror.
I am a soldier and a ranger – a specialist in reconnaissance, intelligence, and covert operations. I never wanted to be a soldier, but I found that I excelled at it. I have fired my weapons in anger, infiltrated terrorist groups, and made and burnt sources. Number 788 is my story.
Being good at doing bad things is not always a blessing. You can’t be the judge, only the executioner. The concept of ‘for the greater good’ always has a flip side. You are moving and living in the shadows. The ones in control grant you the ultimate power of life, but a life lived in the shadows is never your own.
My development was slow and meticulous; it was improvised and innovative. Now, I write about what it was like to be pushed past the brink of what I thought was humanly possible. I aim to share my flawed path, lessons learned, relationships forged, revelations of self and the workings of others, with the very small hope of inspiring a few new generation warriors.
I was trained at a unique time, as I joined the forces after the Cold War but just before the attacks of 9-11. During my formation, the lack of controls and regulation came with tremendous risks but also significant opportunities – I seized them. I am the product of brave officers who took action with great personal risk to save a regiment without permission and by asking for forgiveness later. Officers who believed in the saying, ‘Who Dares Wins’. I share my small place as a silent mediator between the light and shadows in the long and flawed history of Western and Nordic fighters.
The end of the Cold War and subsequent peacekeeping missions caught the Swedish military flatfooted when the War on Terror came around. The need for special operations forces was in high demand, but for the most part, Sweden lacked this niche capability. While still in its conceptual form, the International Ranger Platoon, an elite force that became a Special Purpose Unit within the Ranger Battalion, was used to fill the gap. Newly recruited, I was drawn to the challenge and adventure of it all; I took on the tough selection course – the reward was to be part of something new – the Special Purpose Units.
Explore the epic story of the Berlin Airlift in Wings of Freedom. This vividly illustrated book takes you on a gripping journey through one of history’s most daring operations-a humanitarian and logistical effort that defied all odds. From iconic aircraft to courageous pilots, this book pays tribute to the remarkable people who orchestrated this historic feat.
The story of the city of Berlin, its citizens, and the Western Allies – and the unyielding courage they displayed – resonates through time, illuminating how unity can overcome even the darkest hours of history.
Join us in paying tribute to unwavering heroes who transformed adversity into triumph. Immerse yourself in the spirit of unity and determination that saved Berlin and changed the course of history.
Some people run toward danger when others run away. They stand at the ready when crisis strikes, put others’ needs before their own safety, and carry the weight of protecting communities, nations, and strangers who will never know their names. The Military & Front Line Awards honor these everyday heroes and the authors brave enough to share their stories of service, sacrifice, and the profound impact of answering the call to serve.
Whether it’s military personnel defending freedom on foreign shores, healthcare workers battling a global pandemic, first responders racing toward emergencies, or service organization volunteers working in the world’s most challenging places, these stories matter. They preserve the experiences of those who serve, honor their sacrifices, and help civilians understand the true cost and meaning of service to others.
The Sacred Trust of Service Stories
Sharing stories of military and front-line service requires a special kind of courage, not just the bravery demonstrated in the field, but the vulnerability needed to transform difficult experiences into meaningful narrative. These authors understand that their stories serve a dual purpose: honoring those who served alongside them and helping others understand the realities of service life.
The best military and front-line memoirs preserve the dignity of service while honestly exploring both the pride and the pain that comes with putting others first. They bridge the gap between those who serve and those who benefit from that service, creating understanding, respect, and sometimes healing for all involved.
These stories also serve families and support systems, showing that service extends far beyond the individual, they encompass spouses, children, parents, and communities who support and sacrifice alongside their loved ones in uniform or on the front lines.
Celebrating Our 2024 Grand Prize Winner!
We’re honored to recognize Kim Sloan, whose powerful memoir Memoirs from the Frontlines: Four States, Two Years, One Pandemic claimed the 2024 Military & Front Line Grand Prize with a story that captures the extraordinary service of healthcare workers during humanity’s greatest recent crisis. As traveling ICU/ER nurses, Kim and her husband John found themselves on the COVID front lines across four states, witnessing unprecedented loss while serving as literal lifelines for their communities.
Sloan’s memoir honestly chronicles the journey from their “best life” as traveling nurses to becoming reluctant heroes in a global pandemic. Her story spans Georgia, Tennessee, Washington, and Nevada and shows how “COVID never changed no matter what state we were working in”—while exploring both the professional calling and personal cost of front-line service. Most importantly, her memoir serves others by demonstrating that healing is possible, that it’s okay to struggle, and that finding your voice again after trauma is part of the service journey.
In addition to ongoing promotional features, Memoirs from the Frontlines will be regularly promoted throughout the year and for the next five years in our upcoming Hall of Fame posts. Kim Sloan will also be invited to participate in a Chanticleer 10-Question Interview, and Memoirs from the Frontlines will receive a Chanticleer Editorial Review.
Categories That Honor Every Form of Service
The Military & Front Line Awards recognize the full spectrum of service to others:
Military and Armed Forces Service – Stories from those who serve in uniform, defending freedom and protecting others
Medical Service – Focused on nurses, doctors, healthcare workers, and other essential medical personnel
Community Service Workers and First Responders – Firefighters, police, SWAT teams, and emergency responders who run toward danger
Service Organizations – Stories from CARE, Peace Corps, Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, and similar humanitarian groups
Agency Workers – Those serving in child protection, social services, and other community-support agencies
Families and Support Systems – The stories of those who support front-line workers and military personnel
Service Life – The broader experience of choosing a life dedicated to serving others
Each category represents not just different forms of service, but different perspectives on what it means to put others first.
Other August Non-Fiction Opportunities
The Military & Front Line Awards are part of Chanticleer’s comprehensive celebration of narrative non-fiction, all closing at the end of August:
Journey Awards: Courageous stories of overcoming adversity and transforming trauma into purpose
Hearten Awards: Uplifting non-fiction that inspires hope and positive transformation
Nellie Bly Awards: Investigative journalism and exposé works that uncover important truths
Check out some of these powerful service narratives we’ve celebrated recently!
Unauthorized Disclosures
By Rod Haynes
A Military and Front Line First Place Winner!
Rod Haynes’s memoirUnauthorized Disclosures: A Navy Memoir of the 1980sportrays military life without filter, transcending glamorous and heroic images to explore the daily struggles, leadership challenges, emotional battles, and personal growth during his decade of military service.
We first meet Rod as a young man trying to navigate a directionless civilian life. The burdens of unemployment, fractured family relationships, and an identity crisis lead him to a chance encounter in Seattle with ‘Space Case’, an eccentric, troubled, yet honest character. The relationship offers a glimpse at rock bottom—which Rod fears most.
Rod decides to join the Navy because he needs employment.
We follow Rod to Officer Candidate School (OCS), a mentally and physically grueling journey toward adapting to a new leadership role. He tells of the essence of leadership taught in the school, which emerges not through the wearing of a uniform, but through sacrifice, battling doubt, and a drive to look out for others. Marching in sleeting rain, performing relentless drills, and encounters with hard-nosed instructors, Rod ultimately survives the intense pressure of military training with the assistance of a fellow Officer Candidate, a prior enlisted sailor willing to show Rod survival techniques in a high stress military training environment.
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.
The 2023 Military and Frontline Grand Prize Winner!
Chasing The Daylightby 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.
InChop 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.
He learned life lessons through a series of supervisors (noncommissioned officers for the most part) and fellow soldiers, from whom he discovered what to do and when (and predictably, whatnotto do and when). As Pinion comments, occasionally, one of his supervisors “was tough but fair, and I modeled a lot of my leadership style on what I learned from him.” But occasionally the soldier “rocked the boat and got in trouble.” Despite this, the author tells us, he would “still smile every time” he remembers those events.
The Doctor’s Voice
By Dr. Pietro Emanuele Garbelli
A Harvey Chute First Place Winner!
Dr. Pietro Emanuele Garbelli speaks out on serious professional issues faced by modern healthcare workers, inThe 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.
These works demonstrate how stories of service honor both those who serve and those who support them, creating bridges of understanding and respect.
See the Chanticleer Difference for Yourself!
We’re deeply honored to receive the service stories that authors trust us with each year. The Chanticleer International Book Awards offers an incredible $30,000 in cash, prizes, and promotion across all divisions!
The Military & Front Line Awards provide recognition for stories that might otherwise remain untold—preserving experiences that deserve to be remembered, honored, and understood. Whether you’re sharing your own service journey or honoring the service of others, these awards celebrate the courage required both to serve and to share these vital stories.
Your Service Story Matters
To every veteran, active service member, healthcare worker, first responder, and family member who has lived the reality of service: your story matters. Your experiences deserve to be preserved, your sacrifices deserve recognition, and your perspective can help others understand the true meaning of service to community and country.
Uplifting and heartwarming work is a vanishingly rare thing these days, and we love having an Awards Division that can inspire readers and writers alike. The Hearten Awards seeks true stories about adventures, life events, unique experiences, travel, personal journeys, global enlightenment, and more.
Join us in celebrating the Hall of Fame for Grand Prize Winners of the Hearten Awards!
Elk Love: A Montana Memoir
By Lynne Spriggs O’Connor
Our review for the newest Hearten Grand Prize Winner is still upcoming. In the meantime, here is what some GoodReads readers have to say:
“This is a must-read for everyone who loves nature and farm life. The author adequately describes her feelings, and I felt like I was right there, hearing, seeing, and feeling everything she was talking about. A memoir not to forget.” -Ineke
“If you’re looking for an action-packed thriller, this is not it, but if you seek a slow, mind-soothing antidote to the craziness of the world, try this memoir. It’s simply beautiful in every way, the language, the setting, the message, and yes, the love. The author, then single and in her early forties, comes to Great Falls, Montana to build a museum exhibit. She meets Harrison, a widowed cattle rancher who is often rude and closed off. They slowly bond over a shared love of the land and all the beings that live there. If you have ever marveled at the colors and patterns on the feathers of a wild bird or felt blessed to see a herd of wild elk, this book is for you. If you have no experience with nature, it will reveal a new world, even if you’re reading it on your Kindle in a crowded city coffee shop. Give your brain a spa day and read this book.” -Sue
“OMG! I was so taken with this book that I had trouble putting it down. I didn’t look at it as a memoir, but I love story. The way Lynne describes life in Montana, I felt I was walking beside her. I really hope you keep writing, although it seems life is pretty busy on the ranch. I have never thought much about visiting Montana, but after reading your story, I would love to see it for myself, but only if I could experience the gift through nature and not guided tours. Thank you so much for sharing your fears and joys with me!” -Jeanie
Debut author Nove Meyers breathes life into the big tent of human aspirations and desperations, from his birth into a raucous circus atmosphere to his diligent study for Catholic priesthood.
Running Away from the Circus is a vibrant chronicle that opens with a vignette of his grandmother, clad in sequins and flying on a trapeze. She spun like a top to enthusiastic applause under the circus tent, until the fateful day when she included her young child in the act, dropping her thirty feet to the sawdust-covered floor below. But this did not prevent Nove Meyers from being born and having a story to tell.
The boyhood described was as wild as the circus acts. He was encouraged to smoke cigarettes like his father and watched in astonishment as his mother burned up paper money, possibly to protect his uncle, a counterfeiter. Yet despite his unusual upbringing as one of the family’s third generation of circus owners, Meyers was taken regularly to Catholic church services. There, he discovered God, an entity as mysterious as the traveling circus and carnie crowds he was raised among.
INNER TREK – a reluctant pilgrim to the Himalayas By Mohan Ranga Rao
A disinclined traveler journeys into the heartland of the revered Mount Kalash Parikarma in Tibet. Inner Trek by Mohan Ranga Rao follows a voyage that culminates in self-discovery and spiritual enlightenment.
Mohan Ranga Rao, a retired Indian businessman, finds himself between a rock and a hard place when a ruthless Bangalore mob boss threatens him to sell his land at a throwaway price. The situation escalates when he discovers that his trusted lawyer has joined forces with the enemy. He can only turn to his wife for solace.
With nothing for him to do about his land, Rao vows to trek around Mount Kailash, a holy Tibetan Mountain. This travel memoir traces his and his wife’s journey to the deified Himalayas, the land of Lord Shiva. Rao shares intimate details of his experience, including the spiritual transformation that he went through during his challenging high-altitude trek.
DAWGS: A True Story of Lost Animals and the Kids Who Rescued Them by Diane Trull & Meredith Wargo
We love our dogs. We love our cats. But what do we do when people no longer want them, use them for cruel purposes, or release them into the streets with no thought for what will happen to them? Diane Trull’s memoir with Meredith Wargo, DAWGS, shines a light on these questions.
Trull begins the story as a fourth-grade teacher in Dalhart, Texas. One of her young students asks about an article in a local paper showing photos of adorable dogs at a shelter who were up for adoption, wondering what happened to those who weren’t adopted.
Instead of dodging the question, and with great trepidation, she answered it with the truth: those who weren’t adopted would be put to sleep. Her tiny students were understandably shocked. Then one of them said, “I don’t want any of those dogs to die. Isn’t there something we can do to save them?”
Award-winning author, motivational speaker, and podcast host Judy Gaman befriends a fun-loving and feisty centenarian in her CIBA Grand Prize-winning novel, Love, Life, and Lucille.
The list of titles and accolades Judy Gaman has accrued begin to pale when she encounters Lucille Fleming for the very first time. The whole reason for the meet-up with the centenarian was specifically to get her opinions on “aging gracefully,” the featured topic of a new book Judy planned to write. What was scheduled as an hour-long interview turned into an absolutely delightful, near three-hour visit. Lucille turned the tables and began asking questions about Judy’s life with compelling earnestness—something Judy rarely experienced. She was unprepared yet exhilarated.
Judy couldn’t stop thinking about this “dressed to the nines” woman with an ear-to-ear smile and a sturdy, affectionate hug. Her contact with this larger-than-life woman was so infectious, Judy made up an excuse—so that she could see her again. During that second meeting, the two became fast friends as they set Fridays aside as their day to get together. Before their next planned meeting, Judy learned that Lucille had gone into cardiac arrest. She was dead for three minutes before she came back full of vim and vigor as if nothing had happened. Five months later, Lucille was more than ready for TV interviews. With that, Judy made plans to write a second book about Lucille and their relationship.
The Hearten Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Uplifting and Inspiring Non-Fiction. The Grand Prize Winner, Lynne Spriggs O’Connor’s book, Elk Love will be promoted for years to come in our annual Hall of Fame article, as well as be featured on the Hearten contest page year ’round!
The best part about being a Chanticleer Int’l Book Award Winner is the love and attention you get all year ‘round!
Also the 2024 Chanticleer Cover Design Grand Prize Winner for Non-Fiction!
A young teacher buys a one-way ticket to Shishmaref, Alaska. Within minutes of landing, she finds herself dealing with unexpected, rustic accommodations, and the culture shock of living in a remote Iñuit community. She relies on her courage, resilience, and wit while enduring freezing temperatures, power outages, loneliness, and first-year teacher anxieties and missteps, but eventually realizes that those challenges pale in comparison to the life lessons she learns about the heart of teaching—lessons from her students, their culture, and their community, on the vast, windy landscape at the edge of the Chukchi Sea.
From Chanticleer:
How does place shape who we are—and who we’ll become? In this memoir, Teaching in the Dark, Genét Simone puts that question to the test by recounting her first year as a teacher.
The initial year of teaching is never an easy feat, but for Simone it was especially challenging, and transformative. She spent it with Native students in the remote island village of Shishmaref, on the Arctic edge of Alaska—no small wonder the school year became an unforgettable one.
Today, Simone has decades of teaching experience to draw upon. Yet, in this memoir she rarely employs her present voice to reflect on the past. Instead, the narrator remains in the moment: a young and inexperienced Simone, who only knows that she feels destined to be a teacher. When she signs up for the Shishmaref teaching job, she doesn’t even realize that it’s on an island.
Equipped with snow boots and passion, she arrives on the island only to realize just how unprepared she is.
This is a true-life story of a crusader for peace amid the backdrop of war and personal loss. You will be captivated as you experience the poetry of life and discover an amazing intervention revealing the Afterlife.
Walk slowly lest you miss your turn in the forest.
DIAMOND: The Memoir of a Lost Daughter of Japan tells the tale of a small girl orphaned in a hostile foreign country, who must live by her wits and courage until fate decides to favor her many years later.
Told in the thrilling voice of an expert storyteller, this memoir reads like page-turner fiction yet is factual down to the letter. It is a compassionate look into human hearts under the worst of conditions, and at what a gentle soul will do to protect the people she loves.
Set in the Philippines near the end of the Second World War, DIAMOND rolls back the curtain on a time and place about which little has been written. It is history. It is drama. It is a story of personal triumph.
From Chanticleer:
In a world ravaged by conflict and loss, Etsuko Diamond Miyagi’s memoir,Diamond: The Memoir of a Lost Daughter of Japanis a shining testament to the beauty of love and the human spirit’s ability to overcome adversity.
Etsuko enjoys a peaceful childhood on the Philippine island of Mindanao, where her father owns an abacá plantation. But they are not safe when guerilla forces destroy her village murdering everyone and leaving her as the sole survivor. This deeply personal narrative of grief chronicles Etsuko’s harrowing journey to find solace and joy after the death of her parents.
At first, passed from house to house, Etsuko is forced to work as a domestic servant until a kind family takes her in. However, her safety and survival is once again in danger when she’s forced to leave her adopted family and take a position at Chief Doming Apostol’s estate in Magpet. It is there Etsuko receives the name ‘Diamond.’
Diamond works for years in the Apostol household where not all is terrible. She forms a loving bond as the caretaker for the youngest of the children. When their father is imprisoned, the household falls apart, but Diamond stays.
An award-winning and best-selling memoir, An Impossible Life, tells the powerful true account of one woman’s descent into depressive and manic episodes and how she found lifesaving therapy and medication to overcome and triumph. When thirty-five-year-old Sonja Wasden is involuntarily admitted to a psychiatric hospital by her husband and father, she is sure it is a mistake. Wife of a CEO, mother of three, and living in a beautiful suburb, Sonja’s life appears ideal. How did she get here?
In this gripping and breathtaking narrative that makes the reader feel as though they are listening in on a private conversation, Sonja reveals her delusions and battles with mental illness, motherhood, and marriage. When all hope seems lost, this true story of perseverance is inspiring and unforgettable.
An Impossible Life is a lighthouse of hope for those facing an all-consuming mental illness, either for themselves or for someone they love.
HOLDING FAST: A Memoir of Sailing, Love, and Loss is the story of leaving everything behind to follow her husband’s lifelong dream of sailing away. Many people dream of escaping reality but few actually go.
Blond, blue-eyed, irreverent John bursts into Susan’s life in her twenties with a dream of sailing off. Susan dreams of settling down and doesn’t want to go. A three-year voyage with their young daughter profoundly changes their lives. A gripping adventure story and an inspirational memoir of finding our power in the unlikeliest of places.
The Unfakeable Code(R) Take Back Control, Lead Authentically and Live Freely on Your Terms.
Meticulously researched and written by Tony Jeton Selimi, The Unfakeable Code(R) explores the fierce scientific, psychological, leadership and business impact of wearing ‘masks’, feeling stuck, powerless, out of control, and being a people pleaser, disengaged and unproductive at home and work – a growing problem in a fast-paced world full of expectations, information overload, fake news and uncertainty, which will leave behind a cosmic trail of mental health issues, acute social confusion and a significant rise in unemployment.
Empowering readers to redefine themselves and overcome the adversity, anxiety and stagnancy likely blighting their lives, Selimi truly breaks new ground in a volume that gives you the clarity, the hope, and the code to own your power and continue to evolve into the authentic, unfakeable leader you were born to be. The Unfakeable Code(R) offers a fresh and robust five-step methodology for business, personal or professional transformation. It assists in upgrading your psychology and harmonising body-mind-heart intelligence so it can deal with any form of anxiety, conflict, and stress.
Throughout the book, Tony J. Selimi shares inspiring actual client stories who have used the five principles to successfully liberate themselves from the emotional baggage and distress by fully completing the five-step method. It’s also been a hit among critics, too, with one recently writing, “The worldview developed here transcends science, dogma, and belief, giving readers a new code to reconnect with their true, authentic individual and the Divine within that knows how to take back control, lead authentically and live freely on your terms.” Foreword written by Dr John Demartini, a World Renown Human Behavioural Specialist.
In a world that often feels overwhelming, there’s profound power in stories that remind us of human goodness, resilience, and the possibility of transformation. The Hearten Awards—a wonderful offshoot of our Journey Awards—celebrate the uplifting and inspiring non-fiction narratives that restore faith, spark hope, and illuminate the bright threads woven through even the most challenging experiences.
While our Journey Awards honor the courage to transform pain into purpose, the Hearten Awards recognize stories that already shine with light—memoirs of healing, guides to personal growth, family chronicles that celebrate love, and adventures that remind us why life is worth living fully. These are the books that leave readers feeling more hopeful about the world and their place in it.
The Healing Power of Hopeful Stories
Inspirational non-fiction serves a vital role in our literary landscape, offering readers not just entertainment but genuine nourishment for the spirit. These stories matter because they show us what’s possible when we choose hope over despair, connection over isolation, and growth over stagnation.
Whether it’s a memoir of someone finding love later in life, a humorous look at family dynamics that celebrates rather than criticizes, or practical wisdom delivered with warmth and encouragement, Hearten Award submissions share a common thread: they make the world feel a little brighter. In times when positive news feels rare, these stories become beacons of possibility.
The best uplifting non-fiction doesn’t ignore life’s challenges—it shows how those challenges can become catalysts for joy, connection, and personal transformation. These authors understand that hope is not naive optimism, but rather the hard-won wisdom that comes from choosing to see possibility even in difficult circumstances.
Celebrating Our 2024 Grand Prize Winner!
We’re delighted to honor Lynne Spriggs O’Connor, whose beautiful memoir Elk Love: A Montana Memoir claimed the 2024 Hearten Grand Prize with a story that perfectly embodies the transformative power of following your heart toward healing. At forty-two, Lynne left her East Coast life behind to pursue her dream of deeper connection with nature in Montana’s Big Sky Country, finding unexpected love with Harrison, a rancher thirteen years her senior.
Elk Love chronicles how loneliness can give way to wonder when we’re brave enough to listen—to nature, to others, and to our own hearts. With her dog Willow as companion, Lynne discovers “a wild language that moves beyond words” in the seasonal rhythms of ranch life. In addition to ongoing promotional features, Elk Love will be regularly promoted throughout the year and for the next five years in our upcoming Hall of Fame posts. Lynne Spriggs O’Connor will also be invited to participate in a Chanticleer 10-Question Interview, and Elk Love will receive a coveted Chanticleer Editorial Review.
Categories That Celebrate Every Path to Inspiration
The Hearten Awards welcome uplifting stories across a diverse range of approaches and themes:
Humorous – Stories that find joy and laughter in life’s absurdities, proving that humor can be profoundly healing
Motivational – Narratives that inspire readers to pursue their dreams, overcome obstacles, and believe in their potential
Advice/Inspiration – Wisdom-filled works that offer practical guidance delivered with warmth and encouragement
Family and Chosen Family – Celebrations of the relationships that sustain us, whether biological or built through choice and love
Self-Discovery/Coming-of-Age – Journeys of personal growth that inspire readers to embrace their own transformation
Each category represents a different pathway to inspiration, united by the belief that our stories have the power to encourage, heal, and uplift others.
Other August Non-Fiction Opportunities
The Hearten Awards are part of Chanticleer’s comprehensive celebration of narrative non-fiction, all closing at the end of August:
Journey Awards – Courageous stories of overcoming adversity and transforming trauma into purpose
Nellie Bly Awards – Investigative journalism and exposé works that uncover important truths
Check out some of these uplifting works we’ve celebrated recently that showcase the power of hopeful storytelling!
A Path to Excellence
By Tony Jeton Selimi
A Hearten First Place Winner!
On the belief that life isn’t just the random cards one is dealt,A Path to Excellenceby 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.
Debut author Nove Meyers breathes life into the big tent of human aspirations and desperations, from his birth into a raucous circus atmosphere to his diligent study for Catholic priesthood.
Running Away from the Circus is avibrant chronicle that opens with a vignette of his grandmother, clad in sequins and flying on a trapeze. She spun like a top to enthusiastic applause under the circus tent, until the fateful day when she included her young child in the act, dropping her thirty feet to the sawdust-covered floor below. But this did not prevent Nove Meyers from being born and having a story to tell.
The boyhood described was as wild as the circus acts. He was encouraged to smoke cigarettes like his father and watched in astonishment as his mother burned up paper money, possibly to protect his uncle, a counterfeiter. Yet despite his unusual upbringing as one of the family’s third generation of circus owners, Meyers was taken regularly to Catholic church services. There, he discovered God, an entity as mysterious as the traveling circus and carnie crowds he was raised among.
Cheryl Landes’sThe Best I Can Do: A True Story of Navigating the Complexities of Mental Illness and Homelessness, follows the devastation of a happy marriage as mental illness slowly takes over the mind of her husband. Landes must then make the journey back to peace.
Cheryl and her husband, Tom, had known each other since their college days. A classic love story, Landes does a beautiful job with the set up, and then delivers the tragedy of Tom’s spiral into paranoia as their plans for the future begin to fall apart.
The Best I Can Dotells the story of what happens when Tom insists someone is trailing him, believing a car passes by his and Cheryl’s home every day even though no one else sees it. He claims someone installed listening devices in their house and refuses to speak unless his white-noise devices are on. As his paranoia increases he locks the refrigerator with a chain and a padlock to protect himself from the certainty someone—perhaps Cheryl—wants to poison him.
A Hearten First Place Winner and Cover Design Grand Prize Winner!
How does place shape who we are—and who we’ll become? In this memoir,Teaching in the Dark, Genét Simone puts that question to the test by recounting her first year as a teacher.
The initial year of teaching is never an easy feat, but for Simone it was especially challenging, and transformative. She spent it with Native students in the remote island village of Shishmaref, on the Arctic edge of Alaska—no small wonder the school year became an unforgettable one.
Today, Simone has decades of teaching experience to draw upon. Yet, in this memoir she rarely employs her present voice to reflect on the past. Instead, the narrator remains in the moment: a young and inexperienced Simone, who only knows that she feels destined to be a teacher. When she signs up for the Shishmaref teaching job, she doesn’t even realize that it’s on an island.
Equipped with snow boots and passion, she arrives on the island only to realize just how unprepared she is.
Theresa Mathews’ memoir,Fishing with Hyenas, is filled with adventure, love, and the spirit of an explorer, all on the high seas. In the audio version, the author herself tells this gripping story of love and death, grief and recovery.
Mathews begins the book in a place most difficult for her. She takes us through her emotional devastation at the news of her husband’s death. We see all the stages of her grief from the initial call: denial, disbelief, bargaining, and finally acceptance. Readers will be hooked in the first chapter.
She then deftly fills in the gaps with the backstory of how she met her husband Bart, their first date, their decision to commit to one another,and her first time she went for a ride on his Harley. These are often hilarious recaps of her anger and frustration, and her examination of what this relationship with a man who loved the sea would mean for her city-girl life.
Mathews alternates between the present and past with perfect pacing, giving readers a balance between the immersion in and relief from the intense emotion of her husband’s unexpected death.
These stories demonstrate how the best inspirational non-fiction creates genuine connection between author and reader, offering both comfort and motivation for life’s journey.
See the Chanticleer Difference for Yourself!
We’re honored to receive the hopeful stories that authors trust us with each year. The Chanticleer International Book Awards offers an incredible $30,000 in cash, prizes, and promotion across all divisions!
The Hearten Awards provide recognition for the often-undervalued but deeply important work of creating hope through storytelling. Whether you’re sharing your own journey of transformation, offering wisdom gained through experience, or simply celebrating the beauty you’ve found in life, these awards honor the courage it takes to choose optimism and share light with the world.
Your Story of Hope Matters
In a time when the world needs more hope, your uplifting story could be exactly what someone needs to hear. Whether it’s a memoir of healing, a humorous look at family life, or practical wisdom delivered with warmth, your positive narrative has the power to encourage, inspire, and heal.
The Hearten Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Inspiring and Uplifting Non-Fiction and Memoirs. The Hearten Book Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs).
