2023 John Esten Cooke Fiction Award Winner
As promised last week, I have big news I’d like to share. My latest novel, Double-Edged Sword, has received the recognition of receiving the 2023 John Esten Cooke Fiction Award. This award is given annually (if there is a worthy recipient) by the Military Order of the Stars and Bars.
According to their website, “The Military Order of the Stars and Bars is the only Confederate heritage organization founded by Confederate Veterans. In 1938 in Columbia, South Carolina, fifteen former Confederate officers, twenty-six sons, and twenty-one grandsons of Confederate officers gathered to organize the Order. Included in this group were the sons and grandsons of six general officers; subsequently the sons and grandsons of an additional thirteen general officers also joined the Order. Initially membership was restricted to lineal descendants of a qualifying Confederate. Later the Order invited those with collateral relationships to Confederate officers or government officials to join.
“Each year the Order gives back to our country. We award college scholarships and recognize outstanding teachers through our Teacher of the Year program. We recognize outstanding authors who write about our Southern heritage. We also donate money to other heritage organizations to help them with their own heritage projects.
“We are mindful of the nearly one-million Americans who died in this conflict as well as those who survived it. Our mission is to perpetuate the idealism that animated the Confederate Cause and to honor the courage, devotion and endurance of those who dedicated their lives and services during four years of devastating war, and who, throughout the dreadful decade of reconstruction, labored heroically for the restoration of self-government as the most precious heritage of the American Revolution.”
http://www.militaryorderofthestarsandbars.org/
This is a very tremendous honor, and I am once again humbled to receive the award. Thank you very much, MOSB, for choosing my novel as the recipient of the 2023 John Esten Cooke Fiction Award.
J.D.R. Hawkins 