2018 SAN FRANCISCO BOOK FESTIVAL HONORS VIETNAM SAGA FOR TOP PRIZE

SAN FRANCISCO_The remarkable story of an enlisted man’s struggles in the jungles of Vietnam is the grand prize winner of the 2018 San Francisco Book Festival, which honors the best books of the spring.

Johnny F. Pugh’s Through Smoke-Teared Eyes (iUniverse) is an action-packed and vivid account of one soldier’s thoughts and experiences in combat. Written to confront the demons of his past, Pugh recounts the year he spent as an Army rifleman, trapped in the Iron Triangle of the Vietnam War. His accounts of kill zones, mortar attacks and jungle survival are sobering and raise questions about the conflict and all wars.

Pugh’s work and others in the competition will be honored at a private reception in San Francisco this June.

Other winners in the competition:

YOUNG ADULT

WINNER: The Deception - Lauren Hudson

RUNNER-UP: The Engine Woman's Light - Laurel Anne Hill

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

  • A Shadow of Hope - Pamela Bauer Mueller
  • The L.A. Girl Goes to Saudi - Aziza al baloushi
  • The Crystilleries of Echoland - Dew Pellucid
  • Peripheral Vision - Courtney Zito & Tim Hammer
  • The Paranauts - Logan Stark
  • Fractured: When Shadows Arise - Cathy Hird
  • The Shoeshine of Kabul - Zahara Omar Shansab
  • The Carlswick Deception - SL Beaumont
  • The Uphill Hike - Terezia Derbala


GENERAL FICTION:

WINNER: Lucia Zarate - Cecilia Velastegui

RUNNER-UP: Three Shoeboxes - Steven Manchester

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

  • Sweet, Sweet Stories, Some Sweeter than Others - Daniel Curzon
  • Madam of My Heart - Gini Grossenbacher
  • Two Days at the Asylum - Frederick S. Walborn
  • Creole Moon Book of Roots - S.T. Holmes
  • Saddam's Parrot - Jim D. Currie
  • The Anderson Girls - Penelope Dyan
  • A Dolphin and a Pilot - Steven Lane Smith
  • American Pathfinder - Frank B. Mitchell Jr.
  • Looking Glass Friends - E.L. Neve
  • Mistress Suffragette - Diana Forbes
  • Children of a Northern Kingdom - Elaine Stienon
  • Cut From Strong Cloth: Threads of Courage Book 1 - Linda Harris Sittig
  • The Baja Redemption - Richard Bonte
  • The Search for Zarahemla - Terry Neal
  • Back to Serve: Return of a Soldier - Cesare Giannetti
  • Gaia's Majesty - Mission Called: Women in.. - Roger B. Burt
  • Dead Sugar Daddies Don't Lie - Barbara G. Villemez
  • Blinded Authority - Chad Boles
  • Abiku Shuttles To America - Lyn Thomas Ogbuji


HOW-TO

WINNER: Lessons From My Grandfather - Marc Demetriou

RUNNER-UP: Grace’s Guide: Grace Lears About the Dangers of Addiction - Angie Wilson, Illustrated by Ashley Teets

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

  • 15 Steps To Healthy Living - Gordon Fimreite
  • The Perpetual Paycheck - Lori Rassas
  • Oh No, Not Another Problem - Jeanette A. Griver/Michele W. Vodrey
  • Blindsided By His Betrayal - Caroline Madden
  • Purpose-Volume I: Meditation on Love, Relationship... - Noura


GENERAL NON-FICTION

WINNER: Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right… - David Neiwert

RUNNER-UP: Dead Serious and Lighthearted - Volume 1 - Mack W. Borgen

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

  • Back to the Basics - Lindy Kedro
  • Police Wife: The Secret Epidemic of Police…- Alex Roslin
  • Tips And Tidbits For Parents And Teachers - Pat Kozyra
  • Purpose-Volume I: Meditation on Love Relations - Noura
  • Transforming Stigma: How to Become a Mental Wellness Superhero - Mike Veny


BIOGRAPHY/AUTOBIOGRAPHY

WINNER: Through Smoke-Teared Eyes - Johnny F. Pugh

RUNNER-UP: Confessions of a Bone Women - Lucinda Bakken White

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

  • And Then I Am Gone - Mathias B. Freese
  • Bossa Nova Odyssey - Michael N. Graham
  • Unstoppable. It's a Choice - Inga Lizdenyte
  • Why Not? Conquering the Road Less Traveled - John Brown with Donna Brown


PHOTOGRAPHY/ART

WINNER: Selected Early Creative Works: A Memoir - Donald M. Ferguson

RUNNER-UP: Just When I thought I Had You - Sal Taylor Kydd


POETRY

WINNER: Heartbeats - Jordana Landsman

RUNNER-UP: Poetry and Verses On the Nature of Things - Jim Steele

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

  • Falling Into Flowers- Lynne Barnes
  • Model Organism - Robert S. Pesich
  • Canon for Bears and Poderosa Pines - Diane Frank
  • Stellar - Kevin Hollingsworth


GAY

WINNER: The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name - Fiza Pathan

RUNNER-UP: Sky Pirates - Gregory A. Kompes

HONORABLE MENTION:

  • Falling Into Flowers - Lynne Barnes


BUSINESS/TECHNOLOGY

WINNER: Minds At Work - David Grebow and GIll Stephen

RUNNER-UP: The Lost Hitchcocks - John William Law

HONORABLE MENTIONS:


WILD CARD

WINNER: A Shadow of Hope - Pamela Bauer Mueller

RUNNER-UP: The Engine Woman's Light - Laurel Anne Hill

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

  • Finding Our She-Compass - Helen Owens
  • Curmudgeonly Yours - Richard Bonte
  • Alternative Facts: An Adult Political Coloring Book - Debbie Chesebro, Karen Bu
  • Mending the Shattered Mirror - Analie Shepherd
  • 3 Women, 4 Towns, 5 Bodies - Townsend Walker
  • Tune Up: The Secrets of Mylin -Book 1 - Joe Klinger


SPIRITUAL/RELIGIOUS

WINNER: Beyond Surviving: Cancer and Your Spiritual..- David Maginley

RUNNER-UP: My Life With Angels - Scott Friedman

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

  • Heaven And Nature Speak - Marcella Martyn
  • Unstoppable. It's a Choice - Inga Lizdenyte
  • Purpose-Volume I: Meditation on Love Relations - Noura
  • Finding Our She-Compass - Helen Owens


COMPILATIONS/ANTHOLOGIES

WINNER: Everybody Loves Conspiracy Theories - David Ritchey

RUNNER-UP: Strawberries in Wintertime- Woody Woodburn


CHILDREN’S BOOKS

WINNER: Home - Adam Leitman Bailey

RUNNER-UP: Dilby R. Dixon's The Dilbonary - Tony J. Perri

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

  • When Dragons Came To Alice Street - Francesca Hampton
  • An Army of Ants, A Colony of Bats… - Dr. Sherry Meinberg
  • The Twin Dolphin's Adventure - V.A. Boeholt
  • The Legend of Dragonfly Pond - Alene Adele Roy
  • Lollipop and Laren: A Tale Of Two Friends - Dawn Nelson
  • Not Me, It's a Trap! - Charles Forest Burton
  • Tutu the Elephant & Africa the turtle - Riva Yares
  • Stinky Owl - Melanie Burgess
  • Please Close It! - Kathleen M. Jacobs


COOKBOOKS

WINNER: A Little Bit of This and A LIttle Bit of That - M.J. West


HISTORY

WINNER: John Wilkes Booth And the Women Who Loved Him - E. Lawrence Abel

RUNNER-UP: The Heart of the Mission: Latino Art and Politics in San Francisco - Cary Cordova

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

  • Brother Daniel's Good News Revival - Bruce J. Brittan
  • The Last Moon - DeAnn Lubell


SCIENCE FICTION

WINNER: The Engine Woman's Light - Laurel Anne Hill

RUNNER-UP: The First Darkness - Mitchell Gibson

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

  • Chimera Catalyst - Susan Kuchinskas
  • Manual Automata - Benyakir Horowitz


UNPUBLISHED STORIES

WINNER: Skeletons in the Closet - Richard Bonte

RUNNER-UP: Brutal Hackage: A Young Adult Thriller - Jane Frances Ruby