“By the Sweet Gum,” a book written by Sugar Hill author Ane Mulligan, won a Selah Award at the 2023 Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference.
The 12th annual Selah Awards drew more than 450 entries, and “By the Sweet Gum” was one of nine finalists for the Selah Award in historical/Biblical fiction genre.
“Winning the Selah in historical fiction is a thrill.” Mulligan said. “I’ve been entering the contest for years. It’s a prestigious award and I’m so honored to have won.”
Mulligan’s book also placed third in general fiction in the Directors’ Choice Awards, which drew more than 80 submissions.
“Placing in the Director’s Choice award fills me with joy,” Mulligan said. “It’s a special category for former attendees and faculty members to enter. The two directors are highly respected, so it means a lot to me to place.”
“By the Sweet Gum,” published in 2022, is the third book in Mulligan’s Georgia Magnolias series, which also features the standalone titles “In High Cotton” and “On Sugar Hill.”
“Each book has an ensemble cast of strong women, who help each other throughout the story,” Mulligan said of the books in the series. “By the Sweet Gum” is set in the early 1930s in a north Georgia mill town called Sweet Gum, where Genessee Taylor dreams of a life beyond running the mill-owned hotel with her family.
Mulligan has plans in place for a fourth book, titled “Up Level Creek.”
