NANCY OWEN NELSON (SEARCHING FOR NANNIE B) AND DENISE BOGARD (ABOUT ELISE) WIN AND PLACE IN NATIONAL WRITING CONTESTS

Two Ardent Writer Press Authors, Nancy Owen Nelson (Searching for Nannie B) and Denise Bogard (About Elise) were recently honored with awards in national/international writing contests. Nancy’s memoir of her search about her mysterious grandmother in Searching for Nannie B (published in 2015 by The Ardent Writer Press) won the Family Book category of the 2017 Book Excellence Awards (www.bookexcellenceawards.com) and also placed as a semifinalist in the 2017 Kindle Book Awards (www.thekindlebookreview.net). Denise’s novel About Elise was a finalist for the Faulkner Society’s 2017 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition (www.wordsandmusic.org).

We at Ardent Writer are extremely happy for both of these talented writers and wish them the very best on their literary travels.

Nancy’s book will be updated to reflect these awards on its cover and Denise’s novel will be published by Ardent Writer in 2018, also showing her award on the cover.

The links to these awards are:

2017 Book Excellence Awards – Searching for Nannie B (Family Category) Winner (LINK HERE)

2017 Kindle Book Awards – Searching for Nannie B (Semifinalist) LINK HERE

2017 Faulkner Society’s William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition (Finalist) LINK HERE

Another Ardent Writer Author, Jamie Dodson, The Nick Grant Adventure Series, was a winner in the Eric Hoffer Writing Awards for 2011 (LINK HERE).

Steve Gierhart
Dale “Steve” Gierhart is a retired business manager for the United States Army. Based in Huntsville, Alabama on Redstone Arsenal, his career lasted from 1975 to 2010 in which he managed contracts, finances/accounting, and cost estimating for several missile defense systems, among which were Stinger, Avenger, Chaparral, Sentinel, JLENS, SLAMRAAM, and Non-Line of Sight.  The author wishes to thank the many co-workers, peers, and contractors who made these programs successful.  It is their tireless work that brought these systems to the soldier that needed them.  While budget constraints made it difficult for some of their work to see its full potential, they never blinked, they adjusted.  They persevered. Steve hails from Shawnee, Oklahoma; but most of his adult life has been spent in the beautiful hills of North Alabama where he lives with his wife, Bonny, who raises Tennessee Walking Horses. Between them, Steve and Bonny have 5 children and 9 grandchildren. Steve enjoys writing now that he is retired and plans more excursions of the imagination. He and Bonny, a retired engineer who worked as a contractor on several NASA and Army programs, will travel in their retirement though 15 horses, 4 dogs and 3 cats can crimp the best of plans.