On Saturday, the best of the best gathered for the Whitney Awards gala to honor this year’s awards winners.

What are the Whitney’s you ask?

From their website

“The Whitneys are an awards program for novels written by LDS authors. Elder Orson F. Whitney, an early apostle in the LDS church, prophesied “We will yet have Miltons and Shakespeares of our own.” It is our hope to be a part of that journey toward excellence by honoring the LDS writers also working toward that goal.”

Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to a wonderful group of authors, publishers, judges, our president and the committee who put in countless hours of work to get the results. This year I had the chance to work as a committee member and judges coordinator, and realized just how much has to go in (by many hands) to coordinating the process. You can find all the titles nominated and past years’ winners on Wikipedia.  Thanks so much to everyone who received our numerous emails and mailings, and to those who were kind along the way!

Here are my photos from the event and the 2013 Whitney Award Winners…

Best Novel of the Year

Blackmoore by Julianne Donaldson

Best Youth Novel of the Year

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Best General Fiction

Mile 21 by Sarah Dunster

Best Historical

Esther the Queen by Heather B. Moore

Best Romance

Blackmoore by Julianne Donaldson

Best Mystery/ Suspense

Deep Cover by Traci Hunter Abramson

Best Speculative

Dark Memories by Jeffrey S. Savage

Best Young Adult Speculative

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Best Young Adult General

All the Truth That’s in Me by Julie Berry

Best Middle Grade

The Runaway King by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Best Novel by a New Author

Pivot Point by Kasie West

Lifetime Achievement

Blaine Yorgason

Outstanding Achievement Award

Rachel Ann Nunes

View all the Gala photos as  they are edited and uploaded this week on Heather Gardner Photography’s  facebook and smugmug page.