The Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Awards

Chris White is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter whose debut novel, The Life List of Adrian Mandrick, was published by Touchstone Books (Simon & Schuster) in 2018. It was called “stunningly honest” (Chicago Review of Books), “intense and poignant” (Library Journal starred review), “…with a life-affirming conclusion that reminds us that endangered species aren’t the only ones that need to change and adapt in order to survive” (The New York Times Book Review).

Ross Gay is interested in joy.

Ross Gay wants to understand joy.

Ross Gay is curious about joy.

Ross Gay studies joy.

Something like that.

Eugene Gloria is the author of four books of poems—Sightseer in This Killing City (Penguin-Random House, 2019), My Favorite Warlord (Penguin, 2012; winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award), Hoodlum Birds (Penguin, 2006), and Drivers at the Short-Time Motel (Penguin, 2000; a National Poetry Series selection and recipient of the Asian American Literary Award). He is the John Rabb Emison Professor of Creative and Performing Arts and English Professor at DePauw University.

A community Afrofuturist, librarian, and teacher, Maurice Broaddus has had more than a hundred short stories published in such places as Lightspeed Magazine, Black Panther: Tales from Wakanda, Out There Screaming (edited by Jordan Peele), The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand, Asimov’s, Weird Tales, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Apex Magazine. Broaddus has more than a dozen novels in print; his latest include Black Panther: T’Challa Declassified, Unfadeable, Sweep of Stars, Breath of Oblivion, and A City Dreaming. Born in London, Broaddus moved to Franklin, Indiana, when he was six years old and to Indianapolis a couple years later.

Phillip Hoose is the widely-acclaimed author of books, essays, stories, songs, and articles, including the National Book Award winning book, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice and Attucks!: Oscar Robertson and the Basketball Team That Awakened a City.

Hoose grew up in the towns of South Bend, Angola, and Speedway, Indiana.  A graduate of Indiana University and Yale University, Hoose was for 37 years a staff member of The Nature Conservancy, dedicated to preserving the plants, animals, and natural communities of the Earth.

Saundra Mitchell has been a phone psychic, a car salesperson, a denture-deliverer and a layout waxer. She’s dodged trains, endured basic training, and hitchhiked from Montana to California. The author of nearly 20 books for tweens and teens, Mitchell’s work includes Edgar Nominee Shadowed Summer, The Vespertine series, Lambda Finalist All the Things We Do in the Dark, and the Camp Murderface series with Josh Berk. She’s also the editor of three anthologies for teens, Defy the Dark, All Out and Out Now. She always picks truth; dares are too easy.

Melissa Stephenson earned her B.A. in English from The University of Montana and her M.F.A. in fiction from Texas State University. Her writing has appeared in publications such as The Washington Post, The Rumpus, Ms. Magazine, and Narratively. Her memoir, Driven, was released by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2018. The book was longlisted for the Chautauqua Book Prize and selected for Target’s Discover New Writers program. Though born and raised in Indiana, Melissa now lives in Missoula, Montana with her two kids.

James Still’s plays have been produced throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, South Africa, China and Japan. His plays have been nominated four times for the Pulitzer Prize. He is the playwright in residence at Indiana Repertory Theatre and artistic affiliate at American Blues Theater in Chicago. He lives in Los Angeles.

The Indiana Writers Center (IWC) believes everyone has a unique story to tell, and their goal is simple: to help you tell it. For more than 30 years, it has worked to foster a vibrant writing community in Indiana, providing education and enrichment opportunities for both beginning and accomplished writers.