The Christy Award takes notice

The October issue of WORLD Magazine highlighted some of the struggles that Christian writers of fantasy and science fiction face in getting published, but one popular writer of Christian speculative fiction is getting the genre some attention.

On Nov. 14, speculative fiction writer Sharon Hinck was inducted into the Christy Award Hall of Fame, an honor awarded to authors who have won four or more Christy Awards. Hinck is the tenth Hall of Fame inductee in the award’s 25-year history.

After releasing three contemporary novels with Bethany House, Hinck began her speculative publishing journey with her portal fantasy novel, The Restorer. This story of a soccer mom pulled into another world earned her a Christy finalist medal. Her second fantasy trilogy, The Dancing Realms, won her three consecutive Christy Awards. Then in 2023, Hinck won a fourth time for her standalone fantasy novel, Dream of Kings. She has also won four Carol Awards for fiction.

Dream of Kings is her gender-swapped retelling of the Biblical story of Joseph, and in it Hinck spins an epic tale about a servant named Jolan. Torn from her simple life as a court dream teller, Jolan journeys through betrayal, kidnapping, and prison, and finally becomes an adviser to the king. Though a flawed character with a beautiful arc, Jolan possesses the virtue of humility from page 1: “I would always see myself as a servant to the high lord, the courtiers, and to the humblest villager. I'd seen what could happen to a dream teller who forgot that truth.” In these moments, Hinck shares Christ’s upside-down kingdom, where God uses the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

During the awards gala, Hinck was praised for her wide-ranging artistry in theater, dance, and writing, and also for her gift of encouragement. In an interview with her publisher, Enclave, Hinck said she would like to be remembered as “someone who participated in the arts in a way that helped others catch a glimpse of how deeply God cherishes them, and as someone who stirred hearts to worship Him in a variety of ways.”

It was that variety that led Hinck to write fantasy in the first place. “I’ve always believed that God is so awesome and multifaceted that we need a variety of ways to communicate with Him and about Him,” she said from the stage while holding her Hall of Fame award. “And isn’t it great that He gave us the arts? So we need all of it—we need music ... we need sculpture and painting and we need writing—all the genres represented here. And even that is not enough. I think of that old hymn ‘O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing.’ It’s never enough, but boy, it’s fun trying.”