The Quills Awards
For Published Texts
2026 Diamond Quill Winner
Hallie in Heels
Lindsay Hiller
What secrets would you keep to protect the people you love?
Hallie Cross walked away from everything she cared about—her career, her multi-million-dollar company, and the way her heart skipped a beat around her business partner, Lucas Croft. Leaving nearly destroyed her, but she’d witnessed a secret so devastating it would shatter everything Lucas believed about his life. To protect him, her only option was to disappear.
For four years, the plan worked.
Now, Hallie has built a new life at a PR firm while secretly helping keep Croft Power afloat from afar. But one week before Lucas’s massive international expansion, the FBI—and Lucas himself—show up at her door. Someone has unleashed a cyberattack on Croft Power’s servers, locking the entire network behind a $100 million ransom demand. If Lucas doesn’t pay before the launch, the company will collapse.
2026 Quills Award Winners
Adult Novels:
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Gold Quill: C.R. Langille "The Worms Shall Feast" (Romance)
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Silver Quill: Pat Partridge "Buried at Bears Ears" (Infinite Monkeys)
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Bronze Quill: Claudine DiScala "When Mountains Crumble" (Write On St. George)
Young Adult Novels:
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Gold Quill: J.D Penndagger "The Always Train" (Salt City Genre Writers and Good AF Writers)
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Silver Quill: Johnny Worthen "Things Revealed" (Infinite Monkeys)
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Bronze Quill: Haley Bono "Killed By True Love's Kiss"
Middle-Grade Novels:
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Gold Quill: Jill Ammon Vanderwood "The Unkindness Club: Purdy Franklin Mysteries #1" (Utah Kid Lit)
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Silver Quill: Linda Peterson "Canine Z" (Typewriters Farmington)
Novellas & Novelettes:
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Gold Quill: Bryan Young "Shadowrun: Cortex Bomb" (Salt City Genre Writers)
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Silver Quill: Gale Sears "Brilliant"
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Bronze Quill: C.W. Allen "The Hound of Castle Elsinore" (Utah KidLit and Utah Freelance Editors)
Nonfiction:
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Gold Quill: Sharon Spaulding "Women Make History: Fifty-Three Stories of Courage, Strength & Resilience" (Sandy/Holladay Wordcraft)
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Silver Quill: Sue Fullmer "More Spiritual than Religious, A Journey into Past Lives and Metaphysical Mysteries" (Write On)
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Bronze Quill: Kim Oswalt "Abiding with God" (Blue Quill)
Collections:
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Gold Quill: Inna V. Lyon "Bewitchery: Tales of Love and Magic" (Blue Quill and Infinite Monkeys)
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Silver Quill: Steve Capone, Jr. "Dread Mondays: A Whisper House Press Horror Anthology" (Salt City Genre Writers, Screenwriters, and Infinite Monkeys)
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Bronze Quill: Steve Capone, Jr. "Costs of Living" (Salt City Genre Writers, Screenwriters, and Infinite Monkeys)
The Quills Awards are open to League of Utah Writers members who have published a book in the past year.
Winners were announced at the Quills Conference Awards Ceremony, August 8th, 2026.