INDIANAPOLIS (September 7, 2012) - Winners and finalists have been named for the 2012 Best Books of Indiana Competition for nonfiction – the first of four categories to be announced this month.  The Indiana Center for the Book in the Indiana State Library thanks the many authors and publishers that entered the eighth-annual contest and congratulates the following 2012 honorees:

Nonfiction Category:

Winner:

A Generation at War: The Civil War Era in a Northern Community, by Nicole Etcheson (Muncie). University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS.

Best Books Finalists:

A Home of Her Own, by Nancy R. Hiller (Bloomington) and Kendall Reeves (Bloomington). Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN

Bean Blossom: The Brown County Jamboree and Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Festivals, by Thomas A. Adler (Lexington, KY). University of Illinois Press, Champagne, IL.

The Best Book award for A Generation at War: The Civil War Era in a Northern Community joins a growing list of accolades for the title and Ball State University Professor Nicole Etcheson. The book also recently took home the Avery O. Craven Award, Organization of American Historians. All three Best Books authors are first-time contest finalists.

"I congratulate this year’s nonfiction winner and finalists and thank the many authors and publishers that entered the 2012 contest," said Roberta L. Brooker, Indiana State Librarian.  "One copy of each Best Book honoree will permanently join the works of great Hoosier authors like Gene Stratton Porter, James Whitcomb Riley and Kurt Vonnegut within the State Library’s Indiana Authors Room."

A Generation at War: The Civil War Era in a Northern Community and the author’s name will be engraved on a plaque in the Indiana Authors Room. One copy of each finalist entry will remain housed in the Authors Room indefinitely. Two copies of all 2012 Best Books entries have been added to the State Library's collection.  Indiana residents can borrow any Best Books of Indiana title from the State Library or request a copy via interlibrary loan at their local public library. 

The Indiana Center for the Books administers the Best Books of Indiana contest annually and accepts entries from Hoosier authors or books that have an Indiana theme or setting.  The competition accepts books published between January 1 and December 31 of the previous year and consists of four categories - children's/young adult, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. A panel of judges in each category considered all entries and chose finalists at their discretion. Entries were judged on the quality of writing, with organization and interpretation also considered. A complete listing of this year's finalists and judges' comments, as well as past years' winners and finalists, can be found on the Indiana Center for the Book's website.

About the Indiana Center for the Book:
The Indiana Center for the Book is a program of the Indiana State Library and an affiliate of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. The Center promotes interest in reading, writing, literacy, libraries, and Indiana's literary heritage by sponsoring events and serving as an information resource at the state and local level. The Center also supports both the professional endeavors and the popular pursuits of Indiana's residents toward reading and writing.

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