Local Author Receives National Recognition

The 2023 Annual Florida Authors and Publishers Association President’s Book Awards recognized March of the Sea Turtles and Destiny’s Mission by Joanne Simon Tailele, in the Children’s K-2 and General Fiction categories, as Gold medal winners.

Hosted by the Florida Authors and Publishers Association, this prestigious national award was open to books published between 2021 and 2023. The judges for this national competition are librarians, educators, and publishing professionals.

The FAPA President’s Book Awards recognizes book publishing excellence and creativity in design, content, and production for authors, illustrators, cover designers, and publishers. This contest isn’t limited to Florida; it is open to anyone worldwide, as long as the book is written in English. We hope to encourage entries from all who share our complex and wonderful language.

March of the Sea Turtles is a Children’s Early Reader K-2, published by Simon Publishing LLC, which is the first in the Carly’s Island Adventure Series that teaches children about the wildlife in Southwest Florida and how we can learn to cohabitate with them.

Destiny’s Mission is Women’s Fiction, published by Simon Publishing LLC, about a female American soldier who returns from Afghanistan as an amputee and is coerced into coming to Marco Island to care for her estranged mother with early onset Alzheimer’s. She soon realizes this is the most difficult mission of her life. 

“I wish to congratulate all of our winners. Our book awards program is vital to the publishing industry because it serves to recognize excellence and creativity not just for authors, but for publishers and everyone involved in creating the book. It also serves as a tremendous boost of confidence for beginning authors who win. This year, we had the finest quality books in recent memory. The competition was exceptionally close and scores were unusually high. Our judges had a difficult time narrowing down the finalists. Earning a medal is a remarkable accomplishment and a testament to each winner’s skill and talent,” said FAPA’s President, Robert Jacob.

The Florida Authors and Publishers Association is an organization for authors, publishers, illustrators, editors, printers, and other professionals involved in the publishing industry. Its mission is to provide information, resources, professional development, and networking opportunities to the writing and publishing community throughout Florida, the United States, and the world.