Christian fiction pioneer Carol Johnson's role in championing and establishing what is now one of Christian publishing's most popular categories was recognized with the naming of a top annual award in her honor.

The American Christian Fiction Writers' (ACFW) highest annual Book of the Year Award will be known as The Carol Award from this year, when the prizes are presented at the group's annual conference in Indianapolis, in September.

The change makes the ACFW trophy the second honor for Christian fiction to bear a woman's name, joining the Christy Awards, founded in 1999 and named after the title of the groundbreaking 1967 novel by Catherine Marshall.

Johnson broke ground in Christian publishing in 1979 by acquiring Janette Oke's Love Comes Softly for Bethany House Publishers, where she was an editor.

The ACFW announcement was made by its president, Cynthia Ruchti, and award-winning author Colleen Coble, who said that Johnson's contribution to modern Christian fiction was impossible to measure. "Where would we be today if she had turned down those earlier projects and the firestorm of fiction they helped unleash?"

Ruchti said that ACFW-whose annual awards have recognized writers including Tracie Peterson, DiAnn Mills and Robin Lee Hatcher-owed "a great debt of gratitude to the pioneers of Christian fiction and to those that helped make Christian fiction the storytelling powerhouse it is today."

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