Local author is Colorado Authors’ League finalist

Libby James

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Colorado Authors’ League (CAL) has announced 42 finalists in 12 categories vying for annual awards presented by the organization. Winners will be revealed at an awards banquet at 6 p.m., May 4, at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd., in Arvada. Maura Weiller, past CAL award winner for mainstream fiction will be the featured speaker.

The event will also celebrate the 75^th anniversary of CAL member Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize winning work, Harvey. A lifetime achievement award will be presented to Tom “Dr. Colorado” Noel, who joins previous winners Phyllis Perry (2017), Margaret Coel (2016), Clive Clussler (2015) and Beebe Hayna (2014). Jeff Lee and Anne Marie Martin, co-founders of the Rocky Mountain Land Library, will receive CAL’s Author Advocate Award.

Awards will be presented for outstanding work in poetry, essays, children’s, young adult, non-fiction, creative non-fiction, mainstream and genre fiction.

Wellington-based local author R. Gary Raham is among four finalists in the feature article category. The author of 19 books in the areas of science, science fiction and science education, Raham is also graphic designer for North Forty News and author of a four-part series on the Poudre River appearing monthly in the paper through June 2018. He was selected finalist in the CAL awards for his piece, “Plant Internets and other Botanical Wonders,” published in Colorado Gardener in 2017.

His latest work, a sci-fi novel, A Once-Dead Genius in the Kennel of Master Morticue Ambergrand, was published by Penstemon Publications in 2018 and is available on Amazon. The book will launch officially in August along with a display of Raham’s artwork at the Loveland Museum entitled “Saur to Soar, A Synergy of Art and Science.”