Franktown author wins international award

By David Poyer

“No way!” Lenore Hart of Franktown, Virginia, exclaimed in surprise, as she was called up to the stage at Dartington Hall, a 14th Century castle near Totnes in Devon, England, last week. She’d just been announced as winner of the overall Grand Prize in the Historical Novel Society’s First Chapters Award international writing contest. Hart’s entry had already been shortlisted, then won a First Prize gold medal in the first round of the competition, in one of the nine historical genre categories that were judged back in June (Speculative/Alternate History/Slipstream).

“And that was great, since well over 400 writers had entered, from several countries, and the overarching criterion was quality of the writing. And there were so many excellent entries they noted that the competition, through several rounds of judging, would be fierce. So I’d already convinced myself that as an American, with an entry that wasn’t straight realistic fiction, and also set in the U.S., I wouldn’t win the Grand Prize. I was already quite happy with my genre category win. So I didn’t even prepare any coherent remarks!”

Hart’s winning novel-in-progress is titled THE ALCHEMY OF LIGHT, about an 1880s traveling Daguerrean photographer who specializes in the Victorian practice of postmortem portraits. On his journey east back to NYC he  rescues a distressed mute girl, who turns out to possess a curious talent related to his work. But on their journey they are also being stalked by a killer.

Hart, a former creative writing professor, has published eight previous novels and is series editor of the popular Night Bazaar fantastic fiction anthologies. Her Eastern Shore Writer’s Workshop has met for over 25 years, graduating several well-published and prize-winning local writers. She’s also core fiction faculty at the Ossabaw Island Writers Retreat in Savannah. Find Hart’s books at the Book Bin, Blue Crow, Uniques & Antiques, Sundial Books, or any online bookseller.