InterVarsity Press is pleased to announce that The Gift of Hard Things by Mark Yaconelli was selected as the 2016 Silver Winner in the Self-Help category of the nineteenth annual Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards.

In The Gift of Hard Things: Finding Grace in Unexpected Places Yaconelli uses extraordinary stories from his own life and the lives of others to offer a narrative journey through ways in which disappointments have turned into gifts. Anne Lamott, author of Traveling Mercies, said, “To my thinking, Mark Yaconelli is one of this country’s most important and articulate spiritual teachers. Anyone seeking knowledge and union with God will be informed, edified, nourished, and utterly charmed by The Gift of Hard Things. I savored every story and was nurtured by the expression and depth. It is a book absolutely after my own heart.”

Each year, Foreword Reviews shines a light on a select group of indie publishers, university presses, and self-published authors whose work stands out from the crowd. Thousands of books are entered each year, and a panel of over 120 librarians and booksellers take part in the judging, narrowing it down to a group of finalists and winners that represent the best books, all independently published, in over sixty categories. Winners in each genre—along with Editor’s Choice winners and Foreword’s INDIE Publisher of the Year—were announced during the 2017 American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago on June 24.

For a complete list of IVP award winners visit ivpress.com/award-winners.