ECPA RELEASES THE CHRISTIAN BOOK AWARD® FINALISTS FOR 2015
Winners announced May 5 with launch of #ReadGoodBooks industry campaign

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

PHOENIX, Ariz., March 19, 2015 —The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) released today the 37 finalists for the 2015 Christian Book Award® program, honoring Christian publishing’s best book and Bible releases of the year.  The top five titles in Fiction, Non-Fiction, Children, Inspiration, and Bibles – with ties in both Bible Reference and New Author – make up the stellar finalist pool deemed as the “best Christian books of the year.”

A winner in each category and the Christian Book of the Year™ will be announced on May 5 among industry leadership at the ECPA Awards Banquet held in conjunction with the ECPA Leadership Summit in Nashville. The announcements will coincide with the launch of the industry’s #ReadGoodBooks that feed your soul social media campaign – wherein that evening, a mass-tweet announcing the winners will hit Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr accounts through a Thunderclap campaign.  

Anyone with a Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr account who believes in the power of good Christian content is invited to join the campaign at http://thndr.it/1GTxJyI.

Through a quick sign-up, participants would allow Thunderclap to send only the one tweet at that one time, announcing the winners to their followers – resulting in a huge blitz of awareness.  The tweet will refer to #ReadGoodBooks – a hashtag that will be used in promoting Christian Book Award® winners and finalists, and extending to all award-winning and bestselling content produced by the ECPA industry.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2015 CHRISTIAN BOOK AWARD® NOMINEES:

Non-Fiction

• A Loving Life: In a World of Broken Relationships, Paul E. Miller | Crossway, 9781433537325 

• Autopsy of a Deceased Church: 12 Ways to Keep Yours Alive, Thom S. Rainer | B&H Publishing Group, 9781433683923

• The Measure of Success: Uncovering Biblical Perspective on Women, Work and the Home, Carolyn McCulley 
  with Nora Shank | B&H Publishing Group, 9781433679926

• Mission Drift: The Unspoken Crisis Facing Leaders, Charities, and Churches, Peter Greer and Chris Horst, 
  with Anna Haggard | Bethany House/ Baker Publishing Group, 9780764211010

• Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity, Nabeel Qureshi | Zondervan, 9780310515029

 Fiction

• The Advocate, Randy Singer | Tyndale House Publishers, 9781414391304

• The Auschwitz Escape, Joel C. Rosenberg | Tyndale House Publishers, 9781414336244

• The Legend of Sheba: Rise of a Queen, Tosca Lee | Howard Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 9781451684049

• The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn: A Novel, Lori Benton | WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group, 9780307731494

• The Sentinels of Andersonville, Tracy Groot | Tyndale House Publishers, 9781414359489

Inspiration 

• The Daniel Plan: 40 Days to a Healthier Life, Rick Warren, Daniel Amen and Mark Hyman | Zondervan, 9780310344292

• The Hardest Peace: Expecting Grace in the Midst of Life’s Hard, Kara Tippetts | David C Cook, 9780781412155 

• I Like Giving: The Transforming Power of a Generous Life, Brad Formsma | WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group, 9781601425751

• Stand Strong: You Can Overcome Bullying, Nick Vujicic | WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group, 9780307730930

• The Wonder of His Name, Nancy Leigh DeMoss | Moody Publishers, 9780802412577

Bibles

• Every Man’s Bible NIV, Stephen Arterburn & Dean Merrill, General Editors | Tyndale House Publishers, 9781414381053

• NIV First-Century Study Bible, with notes by Kent Dobson | Zondervan, 9780310938903

• Life Application Study Bible HCSB | Tyndale House Publishers, 9781414381206

• NKJV Study Bible, Full Color Edition | Thomas Nelson Publishers, 9780529114389

• The Study Bible for Women HCSB, Dorothy Kelley Patterson, Rhonda Harrington Kelley, Holman Bible Staff, Editors 
  B&H Publishing Group, 9781586400989 

Bible Reference 

• 1,2 and 3 John: Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, Karen H. Jobes | Zondervan, 9780310244165

• For the Glory of God: Recovering a Biblical Theology of Worship, Daniel I. Block | Baker Academic/ Baker Publishing Group, 9780801026980

• Galatians (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament), Douglas J. Moo | Baker Academic/ Baker Publishing Group, 9780801027543

• Mark: Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, Mark L. Strauss | Zondervan, 9780310243588

• Lutheran Bible Companion Set, Edward A. Engelbrecht | Concordia Publishing House, 9780758647856

• Revelation (Teach the Text Commentary Series), J. Scott Duvall | Baker Books/ Baker Publishing Group, 9780801092206 

Children 

• 101 Color & Sing Bible Stories, Stephen Elkins | Tyndale House Publishers, 9781414390192

• Goodnight, Ark!, Laura Sassi, Illustrated by Jane Chapman | ZonderKidz, 9780310737841

• Love Letters from God, Glenys Nellist, Illustrated by Sophie Allsopp | ZonderKidz, 9780310733843

• My Bible Animals Storybook, Dandi Daley Mackall, Illustrated by Heather Heyworth | Tyndale House Publishers, 9781414383538

• One God, One Plan, One Life: A 365 Devotional, Max Lucado | Thomas Nelson Publishers, 9781400322633

New Author

• And Life Comes Back: A Wife’s Story of Love, Loss, and Hope Reclaimed, Tricia Lott Williford 
  WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group, 9780307731982

• Dispatches From the Front: Stories of Gospel Advance in the World’s Difficult Places, Tim Keesee | Crossway, 9781433540691

• Jesus or Nothing, Dan DeWitt | Crossway, 9781433540462

• The Skeletons in God’s Closet, Joshua Ryan Butler | Thomas Nelson Publishers, 9780529100818

• Teach Us to Want: Longing, Ambition and the Life of Faith, Jen Pollock Michel | InterVarsity Press, 9780830843121

• Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity, Nabeel Qureshi | Zondervan, 9780310515029

“These 37 titles join a premier collection of Christian content carrying our industry’s highest accolade,” says ECPA President/CEO Mark Kuyper.  “We are honored to promote them as the apex of what we do as an industry: produce great books that feed the soul in a marketplace too often dominated by content that starves it.”

Notable to the Finalists this year:  

• New Author Nabeel Qureshi is a finalist in both the New Author category and the Non-Fiction category for Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity (Zondervan).  According to program rules, a submission to the New Author category can also be entered in their genre category as a separate entry.

• The Inspiration finalists represent a poignant array of topics: from health and wellness in The Daniel Plan (Rick Warren / Zondervan) and bullying in Stand Strong: You Can Overcome Bullying (Nick Vujicic / WaterBrook Multnomah); to a raw memoir about living while dying by young mom and blogger Kara Tippetts in The Hardest Peace: Expecting Grace in the Midst of Life’s Hard (David C Cook). 

• Zondervan leads the list this year with eight finalists in six of the seven categories.  Tyndale House Publishers has seven titles in three categories, dominating the Fiction list with three of five titles.  Ties occurred in New Author and in Bible Reference, where three of the six reference works were Baker Academic/ Baker Publishing Group titles.

Christian Book Award® program finalists and winners receive recognition and support throughout multiple retail and media outlets, including Christianity Today, ChristianBook.com, Cokesbury, Family Christian, LifeWay, Mardel, Munce Group, Parable Christian Stores, Crossings, Innovative/Signature Websites, NetGalley, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.  Christianity Today will continue their partnership with the program through ad campaigns in their digital and print publications, May through December of this year. 

The Christian Book Award® program has recognized the absolute highest quality in Christian books since 1978. Based on excellence in content, literary quality, design, and impact, the Christian Book Award® program is the oldest and among the most prestigious awards in the religious publishing industry.

The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) is an international non-profit trade organization, comprised of nearly 200 member companies worldwide, representing a combined revenue of nearly $1.4 billion. Since 1974, ECPA has strengthened Christian publishing by building Networking, Information, and Advocacy opportunities within the industry and across multiple channels so that our members can more effectively produce and deliver transformational Christian content. For more information about ECPA: 480-966-3998, info@ecpa.org, www.ecpa.org.

>> View Finalists on ChristianBookExpo.com

>> Join Thunderclap social media campaign to announce winners

>> Purchase Award Banquet Event Tickets, May 5 / Nashville / $75

>> ECPA Leadership Summit registration (includes banquet)

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Media Contact:  Mark Kuyper, ECPA President/CEO, 480-966-3998, mkuyper@ecpa.org  www.ChristianBookAwards.com