The Grace Irwin Prize is Canada’s largest literary award for writers who are Christian. It celebrates the best book published in the associated year by a Canadian author who writes from a Christian worldview. Each year, all shortlisted books entered in The Word Awards are automatically considered for the Grace Irwin Prize.

During this secondary stage of competition, independent judges determine the winner of the Grace Irwin Prize. The prize is presented at The Word Awards Gala to the author of what judges deem is the year’s most outstanding book. All judges’ decisions are final.

With scores of books entered in the competition across multiple genres, I am humbled to be the winner of the grand prize, the 2021 Grace Irwin Best Book of the Year Award.

If you routinely follow my I Love the Psalms blog posts, you are in reality reading the daily devotions found in the double award-winning book, Psalms 365: Develop a Life of Worship and Prayer.

Grace Lilian Irwin, after whom this prize is named, was a trailblazing Canadian Christian writer who passed away in September 2008 at age 101 after a vibrant life as an author, Classics scholar and ordained minister. Her alma mater, University of Toronto’s Victoria College, called her “an inspirational force in the lives of all who knew her.”

During her 38-year career teaching English, Latin and Greek at Humberside Collegiate Institute in Toronto, she spent her summers writing at her cottage in Haliburton, Ontario. Her first and best-known novel, Least of All Saints, was published in 1952.

For a closer look at the book that won this year’s  Grace Irwin Best Book of the Year Award click here.

Here is a brief author bio taken from my website:

David Kitz is a Bible dramatist, an award-winning author, a conference speaker and teacher. For more than thirty years, he has served as an ordained minister with the Foursquare Gospel Church of Canada.

David has a Master’s degree in Biblical Studies, in addition to Bachelor’s degrees in both Arts and Education. His love for drama and storytelling is evident to all who have seen his Bible-based performances. For several years now, he has toured across Canada and the United States with a variety of one man plays for both children and adults. Though born and raised in Saskatchewan, David now lives in Ottawa, with his wife Karen. They have two adult sons, Timothy and Joshua and daughter-in-law Jasmine.

In all things let the Lord be lifted up. He is the source of all wisdom.