The ECPA Awards Celebration will take place at the Sonesta Nashville Airport Hotel on Tuesday, May 9th. Starting at 5:30 pm with a hearty hors d'oeuvres mixer, we will then gather around dessert to celebrate the industry's best content and those who have contributed to excellence in Christian publishing.

The ECPA Awards Celebration will feature bestselling author PHILIP YANCEY, who has explored the most basic questions and deepest mysteries of the Christian faith, guiding millions of readers with him. Early on he crafted best-selling books such as Disappointment with God and Where is God When it Hurts? More recently, he has explored central issues of the Christian faith, penning award-winning titles such as The Jesus I Never Knew, What’s So Amazing About Grace? and Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? Philip has written over 30 books -- selling over 20 million copies in 49 languages worldwide.

Philip will be presented with the high honor of The ECPA Pinnacle Award, in special recognition of the outstanding contribution by an author for their body of work to the industry, church, and society at large.

Also honored this evening, with the industry's Kenneth N. Taylor Lifetime Achievement Award, is renown writer and poet LUCI SHAW, in recognition of her lifetime of work in the Christian publishing industry, characterized by the words innovative, influential and enduring. 

Luci is the co-founder of Harold Shaw Publishers, which significantly elevated literary works within the ECPA and CBA environment through its history, right up until the time it was sold to Waterbrook/Multnomah/Random House. She worked in support of artful publishing at Regent College. She shared membership alongside the late Eugene Peterson, the late Calvin Miller, Philip Yancey, and many others in The Chrysostom Society, another literary bellweather within Christian publishing with work as a writer of poetry, essays, non-fiction. Luci's lasting imprint includes advancing poetry and the Arts to an important place within our industry; her impact on literary publishing is clear: it's the bar she raised for literary excellence in Christian publishing.

This important industry evening will also include:

• Presentation of the 2023 Christian Book Awards and the Christian Book of the Year®
  
• Recognition of the ECPA Milestone Sales Award recipients

Those who register for the ECPA Leadership Summit can indicate their RSVP on their conference registration form for an additional $55. Guests not attending the conference can buy a ticket for $99 through the ECPA store link available on the registration page.