NM writer Christine Barber captures Hillerman Prize;
George Padgett wins short story contest

WORDHARVEST Writers Workshops and Thomas Dunne Books have announced that Christine Barber’s novel "The

Replacement Child" has won the first Tony Hillerman Prize. And Cowboys & Indians magazine and WORDHARVEST have selected George Padgett as the winner of the 2007 Tony Hillerman Writers Conference mystery short story contest.
Both announcements came at the fourth annual Tony Hillerman Writers Conference: Focus on Mystery held in

Albuquerque, N.M. Nov. 1-4, 2007.  In addition to the $1500 prize, Padgett’s story "Hey Old Man" was published in the March, 2008 issue of Cowboys & Indians.The Tony Hillerman Prize will be awarded annually to the best unpublished mystery set in the Southwest written by a first-time author. "The Replacement Child" will be published by the Thomas Dunne Books/ St. Martin’s Minotaur imprint in the fall of 2008. Barber received a $10,000 advance.

The Hillerman Prize: Christine Barber

Barber's "The Replacement Child" is set in Santa Fe, N.M. and draws upon Barber’s experiences working for local newspapers and as a volunteer EMT/firefighter with Santa Fe County. Barber was an editor at the Santa Fe New Mexican for ten years and has also worked for the Albuquerque Journal and the Gallup Independent. Barber credits Tony Hillerman’s

novels with inspiring her to move to New Mexico from Florida. She lives in Albuquerque. Thomas Dunne Books and St.

Martin’s Minotaur are imprints of St. Martin’s Press, which is a subsidiary of Macmillan.

The deadline for submissions is July 1, 2008. The 2007 contest received 150 submissions from writers throughout the United States. 
 

Just in...Praise for our Hillerman Prize Winner

About The Replacement Child by Christine Barber, Winner of the Tony Hillerman Prize
Release date: Fall 2008
 

"Isn't it great when a new writer comes along and makes you sit up and take notice?
Christine Barber does just that with The Replacement Child. Don't miss it."
--Michael McGarrity, bestselling author of Nothing but Trouble

“In this excellent debut, newcomer Christine Barber weaves a heartbreaking mystery with the assured hand of an old pro.  The Replacement Child has many charms: It’s a riveting procedural, a compassionate and perceptive study of human nature, and a wonderfully labyrinthine whodunit.  But it’s the heart of this story that is the real charmer: the fascinating landscape of northern New Mexico and the tangle of cultures, old and new, that populate it.  I guarantee that if you let Christine Barber take you there once, you’ll want to go back with her again.”
—William Kent Krueger, author of Thunder Bay

 “A promising new author, Barber writes with first hand insight into the unique cultures of the Southwest.”
--Aimée and David Thurlo, authors of the Ella Clah mysteries

“The Replacement Child is a gripping story set against the deceptive calm of an ancient land in modern times.  In northern New Mexico, lives and events are interconnected and Christine Barber weaves a tale where nothing is irrelevant and no one is unimportant.  Barber is a wonderful storyteller and her characters invite us into their hidden places, compelling us to turn the page.”
--David Sundstrand, author of Shadow of the Raven

“Smart, taut, psychologically convincing. Christine Barber has a sure hand with character and a strong sense of place.
A fine choice for the first Tony Hillerman Prize.”
--Susan Wittig Albert, best-selling author of Nightshade

The Tony Hillerman Mystery Short Story Contest: George Padgett

Short story winner Padgett, a resident of Burlington, N.C., is on the faculty in the School of Communications at Elon

University, Elon, N.C.. He teaches writing, Media Law & Ethics, and the Five Freedoms of the First Amendment. He is the author of a textbook. “New Directions in Diversity: Covering America’s Multicultural Communities.”

Padgett recently completed his first mystery novel, “Random Acts” (unpublished), set in New Mexico and Arizona, and is

working on a second mystery novel set in the Carolinas.  The contest, now in its fifth, receives approximately  200 entries from professional and amateur writers throughout the U.S and Canada. All entries are judged anonymously.
Margaret Brown, executive editor of Cowboys & Indians said, “We are pleased to offer a forum for short mystery fiction

that reflects the wonderful setting of the American West and delighted to be associated with writers like Tony Hillerman,

Margaret Coel and David Morrell at the annual mystery conference.”

“I am thrilled and honored to have had my short story selected as the winner of the 2007 Tony Hillerman Mystery Short

Story Contest. I have been a fan of Tony Hillerman for over 20 years and to win a contest named for him is extremely

gratifying,” Padgett said.