For Immediate Release — August 28, 2025

The Christy Award® program to host online fall events featuring Christian authors and Award announcements

Finalist Reveal webcast is September 19 at 10 am central

Winners Gala webcast is November 7 featuring award winning authors

August 28, 2025, Chandler, AZ – The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) has announced the fall celebrations for THE CHRISTY AWARD announcing the finalists and then the winners of the industry’s top award for Christian fiction.

The Christy Award finalists will be revealed in a free webcast on Friday, September 19th at 10 am CT with radio host and award-winning novelist Chris Fabry and ECPA president Jeff Crosby.

Then the winners from each category – along with the Book of the Year and the Amplify Award—will be announced at The Christy Award Winners Gala webcast held on Friday, November 7 at 7 pm central.

Hosted by award winning novelist and radio host Chris Fabry, the Gala will feature keynotes by Fletcher Jones Chair of Great Books at Pepperdine University, Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson, and Christy Book of the Year 2024 author, T.I. Lowe.

The event will also include award-winning novelists Jaime Jo Wright, Johanna Rojas Vann, Lori Z. Scott, Katie Powner, Jamie Ogle, Rachelle Nelson, Vanessa Miller, Gabrielle Meyer, Crystal Caudill and Amanda Barratt.

Free registration is available for both webcasts at https://christyawards.com/registration.html.

There are two in-person watch parties scheduled in St. Louis (JustRead Rendevous) and Grand Rapids (Baker Book House) that evening with information detailed on The Christy Award registration page.

The 2025 program events are virtual in order to extend the opportunity for more authors and fans to participate. The 2026 in-person Christy Award Art of Writing program and Winners Gala will be held in Nashville on November 6, following ECPA PubU. Sign up for updates at TheChristyAward.com.

Chris Fabry is an award-winning author of more than 80 books, including Saving Grayson and his latest, The Forge, based on the film by the Kendrick Brothers. He’s the winner of the Carol Award and five Christy Awards, and was inducted into the Christy Award Hall of Fame. Chris is also the host of Chris Fabry Live on Moody Radio.

Jessica Hooten Wilson is the Fletcher Jones Chair of Great Books at Pepperdine University. She is the author of several books, most recently Flannery O’Connor’s Why Do the Heathen Rage?: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in Progress. Her book Giving the Devil his Due: Flannery O’Connor and The Brothers Karamazov received a 2018 Christianity Today Book of the Year in arts and culture award, and The Scandal of Holiness received a 2022 Award of Merit. In 2019 she received the Hiett Prize for Humanities from the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. Other awards include a Fulbright Fellowship to Prague, an NEH to study Dante in Florence, a Biola University sabbatical fellowship funded by the John Templeton Foundation, and the 2017 Emerging Public Intellectual Award. She is a Senior Fellow at The Trinity Forum.

T. I. Lowe is an ordinary country girl who loves to tell extraordinary stories. She is the author of 21 novels, including the #1 international bestseller and critically acclaimed Under the Magnolias and her debut breakout Lulu’s Café. Her novel Indigo Isle won the prestigious Christy Award in the contemporary romance category and was subsequently named The Christy Award Book of the Year. She lives in coastal South Carolina with her husband and family. Fans of Delia Owens and Nicholas Sparks will enjoy Lowe’s novels brimming with Southern charm and coastal vibes. Perfect for beach reads and book clubs!

The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) is an international non-profit trade organization comprised of member companies that are involved in the publishing and distribution of Christian content worldwide. Since 1974, ECPA has strengthened Christian publishing by building networking, information, and advocacy opportunities within the industry and throughout multiple channels so that our members can more effectively produce and deliver transformational Christian content. ECPA.org

The Christy Award® is the foremost award honoring and promoting excellence in Christian fiction since 1999, and is named for Catherine Marshall’s novel, Christy, which has sold over 10 million copies since its publication in 1967. ECPA assumed ownership and administration of the award in 2017 to focus and grow the unique opportunity of fiction in Christian publishing. TheChristyAward.com FB: ChristyAward X: @ChristyAward IG: @thechristyaward

Media contacts:
Jeff Crosby, ECPA President, jcrosby@ecpa.org, 630-989-0222
Cindy Carter, ECPA Awards & Recognition Manager, ccarter@ecpa.org, 480-966-3998 ext. 806

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