The Journey Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Overcoming Adversity in Narrative Non-Fiction and Memoir. The Journey Book Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards and Novel Competitions (CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring true stories about adventures, life events, unique experiences, travel, personal journeys, global enlightenment, and more. We will put books about true and inspiring stories to the test and choose the best among them. See our full list of Non-Fiction Divisions here. 

These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from the 2024 Journey Non-Fiction SEMI-FINALISTS. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC25).

The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 25 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 5th, 2025 in beautiful Bellingham, WA at the Four Points by Sheraton sponsored by the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference. 

These titles are in the running for the FIRST PLACE and GRAND PRIZE WINNERS of the 2024 Journey Book Awards novel competition for Overcoming Adversity in Non-Fiction!

Join us in celebrating the Finalist authors and their works in the 2024 CIBAs.

• Lynne Spriggs O’Connor – Elk Love: A Montana Memoir
• Tamra McAnally Bolton – His 100th Year
• Kirsten Throneberry – Guided: Lost Love, Hidden Realms, and the Open Road
• Irena Smith – The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays
• Jennifer Gasner – My Unexpected Life: Finding Balance Beyond My Diagnosis
• Kathryn Caraway – Unfollow Me
• Karen Elizabeth Lee – The Village That Betrayed its Children
• Anne Gately – Sunburnt – A memoir of sun, surf and skin cancer
• Rachael Siddoway and Sonja Wasden – An Impossible Life: A True Story of Hope and Mental Illness
• Ernestine Whitman – Countermelodies: A Memoir in Sonata Form
• Jacqueline Acho – Cancer Culture: Fixing the Landscape by Infusing Empathy
• Ginelle Testa – Make a Home Out of You
• E. Adrienne Wilson – I’d Rather Be Dead Than Deaf: A Young Woman’s Journey with Liver Cancer
• Lindsey Henke – When Skies Are Gray
• Heidi Beierle – Heidi Across America – One Woman’s Journey on a Bicycle through the Heartland
• Claudia Marseille – But You Look So Normal: Lost and Found in a Hearing World
• Mary Jumbelic, M.D. – Here, Where Death Delights
• Tracy Mayo – Childless Mother: A Search for Son and Self
• Marsha Jacobson – The Wrong Calamity
• David Vass – Liar, Alleged

PROMOTING OUR AUTHORS! 

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We will also be promoting this list in our Newsletter, which you can sign up for here!

Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2023 JOURNEY Awards is:

Barbed: A Memoir

By Julie Morrison

See the full list of 2023 First Place Journey Winners here!

We are now accepting submissions into the 2025 Journey Book Awards for Overcoming Adversity in Narrative Non-Fiction.

Please click here for more information.

Winners will be announced at the 2024 CIBA Awards Ceremony that is sponsored by the 2025 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

April 3 – 6, 2025! Save the Date for Registration!

Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887)  has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.

Join us for our annual conference as we enter our second decade and discover why!