Three Kregel Authors Named 2026 Christy Award Finalists

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Three Kregel authors were named finalists for the 2026 Christy Awards. Finalists were announced via webcast on September 11 and included thirty-four finalists across nine fiction categories.

Echoes of a Silent Song by Amanda Wen is a finalist in the Contemporary Romance category. A washed-up composer turned high school choral director and a long-suffering school accompanist with a rocky past discover a piece of music written by a talented former student in the 1970s. They work to discover the secrets of the student who wrote it, and the truth they uncover shakes both of them to their cores.

Through Water and Stone by Karen Barnett is a finalist in the Historical Romance category. Written by a former park ranger, this split-time romance novel is set in Zion National Park. A modern-day marketing professional finds her world shaken by job loss, and later, DNA results. In the 1940s, a ranger still grieving a personal tragedy finds a baby and must make a choice.

The Accused by Cara Putman is a finalist in the Mystery/Suspense/Thriller category. Despite their mutual misgivings, a lawyer and professor pair up to find the killer of a popular college student and prove her international roommate innocent. Will they be able to untangle the mystery—and navigate their growing interest in one another—before the wrong person is charged with murder?

The winners in each category will be announced on November 6 at the Christy Award Gala in Nashville. The full list of finalists can be found here.

The Christy Award is the foremost award honoring and promoting excellence in Christian fiction since 1999 and is named for Catherine Marshall's novel Christy, which has sold over 10 million copies since its publication in 1967. ECPA assumed ownership and administration of the award in 2017 to focus and grow the unique opportunity of fiction in Christian publishing.

Kregel Publications in an evangelical Christian publisher that aims to develop and distribute—with integrity and excellence—trusted, biblically based resources that lead individuals to know and serve Jesus Christ.