What Are the Whitneys?

 by Lucinda Whitney


Are you familiar with the  Whitney Awards?


 

No, there is no association (at least, not yet!). It's just a coincidence of name. You may click on the logo, it will take you to their site.

According to their website, "The Whitneys are an awards program for novels written by LDS authors. Elder Orson F. Whitney, an early apostle in the LDS church, prophesied “We will yet have Miltons and Shakespeares of our own.” It is our hope to be a part of that journey toward excellence by honoring the LDS writers also working toward that goal. The Whitney Awards honor novels in the following categories: General Fiction, Romance, Suspense/Mystery, Speculative Fiction, Speculative Young Adult Fiction, General Young Adult Fiction, Middle Grade, Historical, Best Novel of the Year, Best Novel in Youth Fiction, and Best Novel by a New Author. Novels can be nominated by any reader (via this website or by mail), and nominees are voted on by an academy of industry professionals, including authors, publishers, bookstore owners, distributors, critics, and others. The awards were founded in 2007 and operate as an semi-autonomous subsidiary of LDStorymakers."

 I can't remember when I first heard about the Whitney Awards. With a name like that, and with such a cause, this reader was very interested in supporting LDS authors by nominating their titles for a Whitney. If you're not sure whether a title is by an LDS author or not, I recommend you visit the New LDS Fiction Blog

 

 Just look up a title or author name in the search box, and you'll get your answer. The Whitney Awards website is currently accepting nominations for 2014. This means you can nominate any fiction book (that fits the categories) by an LDS author published in 2014, between January 1st and December 31st.

Here is a link to their FAQ page: http://whitneyawards.com/wordpress/faq/
And their rules page: http://whitneyawards.com/wordpress/rules/

There is plenty of time to nominate your favorite books by your favorite LDS authors. You have until the last day of the year, which I think is what I did last year, racing the clock.

Here's the link: http://whitneyawards.com/wordpress/nominate/

So now that you know what the Whitneys are, you have no excuse—go nominate a title!