San Diego Book Awards
Written by Drusilla on June 13th, 2011
Last Saturday night a crowd of writers and well-wishers came together for the annual San Diego Book Awards. For the last seventeen years, these awards have singled out local published and unpublished writers in a crowd of categories. To be honest, I thought I had a chance of winning the best contemporary novel because the nominated book, The Good Sister, is a powerful story about the inner life of a woman whose psychotic state of postpartum depression led her to believe that killing her children and herself was the best thing she could do. Even so, when I heard my name called there was an instant of disbelief and I was suddenly blushing like a kid.
I’m not normally a person who enters contests so, not surprisingly, I don’t win many. As a matter of fact, the last time I won anything was when I was sixteen. I remember how much I wanted to win the Olivia de Havilland Cup for dramatic interpretation and what courage it took for me to go and dramatize the recognition scene from the play “Anastasia” in front of an audience of my high school peers. When I won that, the blush of happiness lasted all day as I walked around in a daze, carrying the big silver cup donated to Los Gatos High School by the great actress herself, its most illustrious alum.
Last Saturday wasn’t quite like that but it was most certainly a thrill to be honored for my work. And then (wait for the drum roll) what bowled me over completely came at the end of the evening when the host announced that “The Best of the Best” Theodore Geisel Award went to…Drusilla Campbell. Thank you, Dr. Seuss!
In addition to my personal recognition, I was proud to see the SD Writers Ink family so well represented amongst the winners: Judy Reeves’ A Writer’s Book of Days, General Nonfiction Winner; Laurel Corona’s Penelope’s Daughter, Historical Fiction Winner; Zoe Ghahremani’s Sky of Red Poppies, Historical Fiction Finalist; and San Diego Writers, Ink’s, A Year in Ink – Volume 3, Best Anthology Winner.
SD Writers, Ink's San Diego Book Award Winners
What a wonderful evening with friends!
Filed under Books, Writing | Tags: Contemporary Fiction, Drusilla Campbell, San Diego Book Awards, The Good Sister, Theodor Geisel Award
Congratulations on your win! So happy for you!