PenCraft Book Awards 2025 Honors Three Women Authors with Top Literary Prizes

The 9th Annual PenCraft Book Awards announced its top three winning books of 2025, recognizing authors Heather G. Harris, Barbara Pronin, and Katherine Fabrizio for their exceptional literary contributions. This year marked a historic milestone as all three top positions were filled by women authors, each receiving monetary awards, formal certificates, and commemorative gold seals in recognition of their achievements. The PenCraft Book Awards reviews over 1,000 entries annually to select what it considers the top books from submissions, serving as a benchmark for recognizing literary excellence across genres.

Heather G. Harris, a top-100 Amazon best-selling fantasy author and recipient of the prestigious Best Book of the Year award, won for her urban fantasy novel Glimmer of the Other. Harris considers it both an honor and privilege to work full-time as an author, a dream she has turned into a thriving career. Her journey began as a student at a Liverpool university where she took up skydiving—a hobby that led her to meet her future husband. Her vivid imagination fuels storytelling filled with vampires, dragons, and strong heroines, while her three children add joy to her life outside writing.

Katherine Fabrizio received the Best Nonfictional Book of the Year award for The Good Daughter Syndrome. Fabrizio is not only a celebrated author but also a licensed psychotherapist with over three decades of clinical experience. Her work focuses on helping daughters of narcissistic, borderline, and emotionally immature mothers break free from lifelong patterns of guilt, self-doubt, and emotional entanglement. Drawing from personal experience as both a daughter and mother of two grown daughters, she offers psychological depth with practical clarity to help women rediscover their identities and live authentically.

Barbara Pronin's Winter's End earned the Best Fictional Book of the Year award. Pronin is a highly accomplished author whose work has earned praise from best-selling writers like Mary Higgins Clark, Tony Hillerman, and Faye Kellerman. She has authored eight captivating mysteries, three under the pseudonym Barbara Nickolae, and has led a varied life working as an actress, probation officer, journalist, and substitute teacher. Born in Brooklyn, she earned degrees in communications and drama from California State College and has written six mysteries, two non-fiction books, and hundreds of magazine articles throughout her career.

The PenCraft Book Awards' rigorous judging process involves meticulously reviewing entries to identify and honor the finest literary accomplishments. As Editor-In-Chief David Hearne states, "We believe that our PenCraft Book Awards help authors get their books noticed and sold. Our winning authors represent the absolute best in the industry. Our goal is to introduce to the world these talented authors and their extraordinary stories." The awards recognize not just personal achievement but also commitment to craft that inspires the literary community.

PenCraft Book Awards' mission is to inspire and entertain while giving every author a fair chance at recognition. The organization recognized the injustice of excluding authors based on publisher or expensive entry fees, creating awards that level the playing field for all authors to compete equally. From its inception, PenCraft Book Awards has supported authors worldwide and remains committed to finding new methods to assist and acknowledge creative work. More information about the awards can be found at https://pencraftaward.com.