Winners

2002 Winner

First Annual Award
The Language of Good-bye (Plume)
By Maribeth Fischer

How do you relinquish the past so that you may successfully start over without losing a sense of who you have become? ESL teacher Annie Helverson is trying to build a new relationship after the end of her long marriage while her students struggle to survive and prosper in a sometimes inhospitable country.

"[An] excellent novel of real people and strong emotions" (Booklist).

Maribeth Fischer has taught fiction and nonfiction, as well as writing for healthcare professionals and for caretakers and parents of children with disabilities. She founded the Rehoboth Beach Writers’ Guild of Delaware and has served as executive director of the annual Writers at the Beach: Pure Sea Glass writing conference. Her second novel, The Life You Longed For, was published in 2007 by Simon & Schuster and translated into five languages.