The Christy Award Dinner Gala will celebrate the art of Christian fiction, announce the 2018 winners of The Christy Award, and feature bestselling authors Charles Martin, Francine Rivers, Carla Laureano, and Sarah Arthur. We’ll connect as authors and publishers, in semi-formal attire at the renown Shamblin Theatre, and honor the power of Story, the legacy of Madeleine L’Engle, and the year's best in Christian fiction.
Charles Martin is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of 13 novels. He and his wife, Christy, live in Jacksonville, Florida. Learn more about him at charlesmartinbooks.com. Facebook: Author.Charles.Martin Twitter: @storiedcareer
New York Times bestselling author Francine Rivers continues to win both industry acclaim and reader loyalty around the globe. Her numerous bestsellers include Redeeming Love, A Voice in the Wind, and Bridge to Haven, and her work has been translated into more than thirty different languages. She is a member of Romance Writers of America's coveted Hall of Fame as well as a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW).
Carla Laureano is the RITA® award-winning author of Five Days in Skye and London Tides as well as the Celtic fantasy series The Song of Seare (as C. E. Laureano). A graduate of Pepperdine University, she worked as a sales and marketing executive for nearly a decade before leaving corporate life behind to write fiction full-time. She currently lives in Denver with her husband and two sons.
Sarah Arthur is the author of over twelve books ranging from bestselling devotionals to critical engagement with literature. Her most recent release is A Light So Lovely (Zondervan, August 7, 2018), a spiritual memoir of Madeleine L’Engle. A graduate of Wheaton College and Duke University Divinity School, she's a founding board member of the annual C.S. Lewis Festival and served as writer-in-residence for the Frederick Buechner Writers Workshop at Princeton Theological Seminary. She's also the preliminary fiction judge for the Christianity Today Book Awards, through which she grades on a L’Engle-inspired curve. She can't wait till her two little boys are old enough to be read aloud A Wrinkle in Time.
Cynthia Ruchti tells stories hemmed in Hope through novels, nonfiction, devotionals (25 books to date), and speaking events. She serves the industry as the professional relations liaison for American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), as a faculty member or keynoter for a number of writing conferences each year, and now as a literary agent with Books & Such Literary Management. Cynthia and her grade-school sweetheart husband live in the heart of Wisconsin, where she dives into words, worship, and wonder.
We thank the following companies for their support of the industry and this event:
