InterVarsity Press (IVP) is pleased to announce that six IVP titles have been recognized as finalists in the annual Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards.

As part of its mission to discover, review, and share the best books from university and independent publishers, Foreword Reviews hosts an annual awards program each year. Finalists represent the best books published in 2021. More than 2,500 entries spread across 55 genres were submitted for consideration. The finalists were determined by Foreword’s editorial team. Winners are now being decided by teams of librarian and bookseller judges from across the country.

IVP books were chosen as finalists in the following adult nonfiction categories:

Autobiography & Memoir

When Thoughts and Prayers Aren’t Enough: A Shooting Survivor’s Journey into the Realities of Gun Violence

Taylor Schumann survived a school shooting, yet she was left with permanent wounds, both visible and invisible. Weaving her own incredible story into a larger conversation about gun violence in America, Taylor shares another painful truth: Christians have largely been silent on this issue. With compassion and honesty, she encourages readers to join her in taking action for a safer future.

Body, Mind & Spirit

The Journey Toward Wholeness: Enneagram Wisdom for Stress, Balance, and Transformation

In a world of constant change and complexity, how can we achieve lasting transformation in our lives? Using the wisdom of the Enneagram, expert teacher Suzanne Stabile opens the concept of three Centers of Intelligence: thinking, feeling, and doing. When we learn to manage these centers in relation to our Enneagram number, we open a path to reducing fear, improving relationships, and finding wholeness.

Grief/Grieving

Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep

Framed around a nighttime prayer of Compline, Tish Harrison Warren, author of the award-winning Liturgy of the Ordinary, explores themes of human vulnerability, suffering, and God’s seeming absence. When she navigated a time of doubt and loss, the prayer was grounding for her. She writes that practices of prayer “gave words to my anxiety and grief and allowed me to reencounter the doctrines of the church not as tidy little antidotes for pain, but as a light in darkness, as good news.”

History

We the Fallen People: The Founders and the Future of American Democracy

The success and survival of American democracy have never been guaranteed. Arguing that we must take an unflinching look at the nature of democracy—and therefore, ourselves—historian Robert Tracy McKenzie explores the ideas of human nature in the history of American democratic thought, from the nation’s Founders through the Jacksonian Era and Alexis de Tocqueville.

Political and Social Sciences

Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry into the News

When we read the news, we are not merely informed—we’re also formed. In this refreshing call to put the news in its place, Jeffrey Bilbro helps us gain a theological and historical perspective on the nature and very purpose of news. Offering an alternative vision of the rhythms of life, he suggests thoughtful practices for media consumption in order to cultivate healthier ways of reading and being.

Religion

The Soul of Desire: Discovering the Neuroscience of Longing, Beauty, and Community

Desire and beauty go hand in hand. But both our craving to be known and our ability to create beauty have been marred by shame and trauma, collapsing our imagination for what God has for us. Weaving together neuroscience and spiritual formation, psychiatrist Curt Thompson presents a powerful picture of what it means to be human.

Winners in each genre—along with Editor’s Choice Prize winners and Foreword’s Independent Publisher of the Year—will be announced June 16, 2022.

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