Montana Author Receives Distinguished Writing Award

Mount Hermon, California April 15, 2003 — Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference recently named Montana author, Tricia Goyer, as one of two "Writers of the Year" at their 34th annual event. Mount Hermon Conference Center hosts the nation's largest Christian writer's conference, this year attracting 488 participants, including 64 faculty/staff. Over 30 states and four foreign countries were represented (Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Uganda). The intensive four-night conference offered over 70 workshops, personalized critique service, and an advanced track for published and advanced authors.

Goyer, a Kalispell, Montana resident, received the top award for having three books out or contracted within a year. She is also the founder of an on-line writer's group. Sharing the award was Roxanne Henke of Wishek, North Dakota. Henke was honored for publishing three books in quick succession. The two winners where chosen by conference faculty, which included best-selling authors, literary agents, and staff from most major Christian publishing houses.

This is Goyer's 7th year attending the event. "When I first attended the conference in 1994, I was a starry-eyed, young woman who wanted to be a writer," Goyer says. "The Mt. Hermon conference has been crucial in giving me the inspiration and the education I needed in order to make my writing dreams possible."

The first book Goyer was noted for is her recently-released novel, From Dust and Ashes (Moody Publishing). This WWII historical piece is currently in its second printing after only three months of publication. The novel is inspired by true events dealing with the liberation of a Nazi concentration camp in Austria. Goyer first learned about these liberation events during a research trip to Austria in 2000. In the course of her research, Goyer interviewed Holocaust survivors, citizens of Austria, and dozens of WWII veterans. "When I heard about the twenty-three, American GIs who liberated over 25,000 camp prisoners and about the former Nazi wife who began helping the survivors at the risk to her own life, I knew I had to write this story," Goyer says.

Goyer's second novel, The Orchestra, is currently under contract—also with Moody Publishing, based out of Chicago. The Orchestra incorporates some of the same themes as Goyer's first novel, including United States GIs and concentration camp survival. But for this book, Goyer's main focus is the Mauthausen camp orchestra, which between 1942-1945 was comprised of world-renowned musicians forced into the camps because of their Jewish heritage.

The additional book Goyer will be writing this year is What Every Teen Mom Needs. This book will be published for the MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) Corporation. Goyer's interest in this book stems out of her work with teen moms at Hope Pregnancy Center in Kalispell.



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