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Nancy Young

Editor’s note, November 18, 2014: Young’s book is the winner of six book awards in 2014—USA Best Book Awards– Finalist, Literary Fiction; Independent Publishers Award–Silver Medal Best Regional Fiction (Canada East) and the Hollywood Book Festival, New York Book Festival, San Francisco Book Festival and Great Northwest Book Festival–Honorable Mention, General Fiction.

Local author and University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumnus Nancy Young has been honored with the Silver Medal for Best Regional Fiction (Canada-East) for the Independent Publisher Book Awards, or “IPPY Awards” for her acclaimed novel Strum.

Hailed as the “world’s largest book competition,” this year’s IPPY Awards drew more than 5,500 entries from authors and publishers in all 50 states, 9 Canadian provinces and 32 countries overseas.

A tale of culture, spirit and music, Strum paints upon the world’s canvas an intimate story of enduring love and how the mysterious forces that divide us can also bring us together. Following two guitars imbued with the spirits of their maker’s ancestors, through history from a convent in the French Alps to a Canadian forest, to the jungles of Southeast Asia and an opera house in Sydney, Strum is a sweeping tale told against a backdrop of forbidden love, blinding faith, war and the legacy of six generations of a North American-European-Asian family torn by tragedy but bonded by a haunting music destined to reunite them.

“I am truly honored by the recognition Strum has received,” said author Young. “The book draws on my experiences of traveling, living and working abroad and the people—especially artists and musicians I have met around the world. I want people from all walks of life to read my story and appreciate the humanity that binds us together.”

Young has also won Honorable Mention Awards in the 2014 San Francisco Book Festival and the 2014 Great Northwest Book Festival, sponsored by JM Northern Media. As Young’s debut novel, Strum was published in 2013 and was widely acclaimed by audiences across the country.

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