“By Design or by Chance?” wins two top honours

“By Design or by Chance?” wins two top honours

June 20, 2005, Toronto

At the Write! Canada convention awards night (June 17, 2004), By Design or by Chance?, an overview of the intelligent design controversy, won two Canadian Christian Writing Awards, one in the category of books on culture and the other in the category of personal growth/Bible study & theology. The culture award was shared with Dianne B. Stinton of Nairobi, Kenya, for Jesus of Africa.

By Design or by Chance? (Augsburg Fortress 2004), by Toronto journalist, Denyse O’Leary, was first published in Canada, but the US edition followed a month later. (www.designorchance.com)

“What makes the wins gratifying is that we had such a strong field this year,” O’Leary said. “The number of books that honestly deserve prizes rapidly outstripped the number of prizes available. It seems that Christians in Canada are beginning to find their literary voice.”

For the first time, Quill and Quire, the Canadian book publishing industry’s publication, sent a reporter to the Write! Canada convention. The reporter interviewed O’Leary and others at some length on the growth of high quality writing among Canadian Christians.

Write! Canada is sponsored by The Word Guild (www.thewordguild.com), which aims at “connecting, developing & promoting Canadian writers & editors who are Christian.”

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