Michael Knost presented this year’s Wings trophy to Author Sandy Lender at the Imaginarium Convention.

Louisville, Ky.—The Imaginarium 2023 Awards Banquet was held Saturday, July 15, at the convention host hotel, the Holiday Inn Louisville East, where the winners of this year’s Imadjinn Awards, Imaginarium Convention Independent Film Festival Awards, the Michael Knost Wings Award, and other recognitions were announced.

Toastmaster Tony Acree, publisher at Hydra Publications, Goshen, Ky., presided over the evening, with Carrie Canatsey and Leah Pugh assisting with the presentation of the awards. Before Acree dove into the Imadjinn announcements, Editor and Author Michael Knost presented this year’s Wings trophy to Author Sandy Lender.

The Michael Knost Wings Award focuses on authors of speculative and/or dark fiction, specifically authors who are up-and-coming or those who have been around a while but do not get the recognition they deserve. It reflects the enthusiastic dedication and support of the writing community given by the person that this award is named after.

“I’m overwhelmed by this level of validation,” Lender said. “When the five finalists were announced in early June, I thought it was enough to be mixed in with those great names, with those great talents. I figured being a finalist for this kind of overarching award would look fancy in my marketing materials of the future, right? Now I’m over the moon and grateful to be noticed among all the creative minds who were nominated.”

Nominees/finalists for the Wings award are chosen by a committee of editors and authors, and Knost selects the award recipient from those names.

This year’s nominees/finalists were (in alphabetical order):

John F. Allen

Anton Cancre

Elizabeth Donald

Sandy Lender

Tommy B. Smith

“Michael Knost is a legend among the Imaginarium family, as well as the horror writing community overall,” Lender said. “To have someone of his caliber see worth in what I’m doing is humbling. It inspires a person to keep working at the writing craft, no matter how many books we’ve got out there in the world.”

Lender isn’t the only excited author from the convention. The Imadjinns were flooded with talented entrants again this year.

“We’ve had another banner year of great entries in the Imadjinns,” said Imaginarium Convention Organizer Holly Marie Phillippe. “The amount of entries seems to keep growing each year and the judges commented they had a tough time because of the amazing quality of the entries. All the finalists should be proud of their standing. Congrats to all.”

This was the tenth anniversary of the overall convention—designed to be inclusive of creatives and storytellers of all genres and formats. And this anniversary year saw a standing-room-only crowd at the awards ceremony. The evening included live entertainment from Safiya Nawaar and her Arabesque World Dance troupe, a performance from Magician John Pyka, the 2023 Imaginarium Cosplay Contest and the 2023 Imaginarium Ball. Acree gave a heartwarming message with a shoutout to this year’s Guest of Honor Terry Brooks, and Imaginator Guests Dacre Stoker and Jeff Mudgett. A list of all winners can be found at https://bit.ly/IMADJINNS23.

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About Author Sandy Lender: Sandy Lender is a construction magazine editor by day and author of #GirlPower fantasy novels by night, living in Florida to help with sea turtle conservation and parrot rescue. You can follow her author page on Amazon, check her website at SandyLenderInk.com, or subscribe to her newsletter at https://bit.ly/SSReNews.

With a four-year degree in English and thirty-year career in publishing, Sandy’s successes include traditionally and self-published novels, hundreds of magazine articles, multiple short stories in competitive anthologies, a handful of technical writing awards, and a handful of creative writing awards and nominations. Sandy’s been writing stories since she was knee-high to a grasshopper when her great-grandmother shared her odd little tales of squeaky ghost-spiders around an apartment complex in Southern Illinois. The stories have developed to include strong young ladies working with dragons to save worlds from terrible fates, but those pesky spiders still show up from time to time.

There’s always something brewing at Sandy Lender Ink headquarters where some days, you just want the dragon to win.

About Michael Knost: Michael Knost is a Bram Stoker Award-winning editor and author of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and supernatural thrillers. He has written in various genres and helmed dozens of anthologies. His Writers Workshop of Horror won the 2009 Bram Stoker Award in England for superior achievement in non-fiction. His Writers Workshop of Horror 2 recently won the 2021 Bram Stoker Award in Denver for the same category.

His critically acclaimed Writers Workshop of Science Fiction & Fantasy is an Amazon #1 bestseller. Return of the Mothman, Barbers and Beauties, and Author’s Guide to Marketing with Teeth were all finalists for the Bram Stoker Award.

Knost received the Horror Writers Association’s Silver Hammer Award in 2015 for his work as the organization’s mentorship chair, and was recently awarded the 2021 Mentor of the Year from the organization. He also received the prestigious J.U.G. (Just Uncommonly Good) Award from West Virginia Writer’s Inc.

His Return of the Mothman novel has recently been filmed as a movie adaption. He has taught writing classes and workshops at several colleges, conventions, online, and currently resides in Chapmanville, West Virginia with his wife, daughter, and a zombie goldfish.

 About Imaginarium: The Imaginarium Convention, now in its tenth year, is a unique event for writers and storytellers of all genres, including filmmakers, game developers, artists, musicians, poets, cosplayers, and many other creatives, and their fans. The convention features three days of extensive panel and workshop programming, an expo, a film festival, live entertainment, literary and film awards, cosplay, and much more. The Imaginarium Convention hosts an inclusive environment that fosters networking, learning, professional opportunities, promotional opportunities, and other benefits to independent creatives. Visit www.seventhstarpress.com and https://entertheimaginarium.com. Email info@entertheimaginarium.com for more information.