Ten years into its run of honoring the best in Christian fiction, the Christy Awards, held as a pre-ICRS event Saturday evening, continue to evolve to maximize its exposure and reception.

Nine awards were handed out in a variety of genres. Winners included Beyond the Night by Marlo Schalesky (The WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group) for Contemporary Romance; You Had Me at Good-Bye by Tracey Bateman (FaithWords) for Contemporary Series, Sequels and Novellas; Dogwood by Chris Fabry (Tyndale House Publishers) for Contemporary Standalone; Blue Hole Back Home by Joy Jordan-Lake (David C. Cook) for First Novel; Until We Reach Home by Lynn Austin (Bethany House Publishers/Baker Publishing Group) for Historical; From a Distance by Tamera Alexander (Bethany House Publishers/Baker Publishing Group) for Historical Romance; The Rook by Steven James (Revell/Baker Publishing Group) for Suspense; Vanish by Tom Pawlik (Tyndale House Publishers) for Visionary; and I Have Seen Him in the Watchfires by Cathy Gohlke (Moody Publishers) for Young Adult.

Donna Kehoe, executive director, explained the downsizing of the event from a dinner to a dessert reception by pointing out that less than a month before the awards, only 35 had registered.

"We had Kindle desires on a used-paperback budget," she said. Downsizing the awards helped keep the crowd "at almost the same" number of attendees at 160, she said. In her opening remarks, Kehoe also said the number of submissions had been reduced, with this year's numbers at nearly 140.

Emcee Susan Brouwer opened the evening, pointing out the popularity of Christian fiction as noted by general market media attention and the growth of new genres. The keynote was delivered by Richard J. Foster, co-author of Longing for God (IVP Books/InterVarsity Press), whose comments centered on "The Spiritual Disciplines of a Writer."

Kehoe announced at the awards that the Christys' board of directors would be meeting  Sunday to discuss the future of the event and welcomed input from publishers.

"We are working on ways to keep (the awards) meaningful," she told Christian Retailing. "We're open to ideas."

This year, in keeping with new technologies, the first-ever live blog event was conducted, bringing in 209 additional participants. Another change included the division of romance into the contemporary and historical categories and dropping the "Lits" category. Kehoe said Lits was a "genre whose time had come and gone."

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