CHRISTY AWARDS.(authors)(Brief Article)

This year, the first Christy Awards were presented to seven authors in six categories. This award was created to recognize excellence in Christian fiction. "There is so much Christian fiction being published, and there was no way to recognize the quality and variety of what's out there," says Dan Balow of Tyndale House Publishers. The award was named to honor Catherine Marshall and her best-selling book, Christy. Perhaps her best known and most beloved book, Christy has over 10 million copies in print and is estimated to have been read by over 30 million people. The story, inspired by Catherine Marshall's mother's life in Appalachia as a young missionary and schoolteacher, was …