Flying Change: Ryan Book Award Winner
Apr 12, 2013 12:12:27 GMT -5
Post by Evelyn on Apr 12, 2013 12:12:27 GMT -5
Has anyone read this? I love the cover photo.
More:
www.flyingchangememoir.com/
Smithwick wins Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award
Writer, teacher, photographer and lifelong horseman Patrick Smithwick has been awarded the seventh annual Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award, for his 2012 autobiographical work "Flying Change: A Year of Racing and Family and Steeplechasing." The work is a follow-up to the author's 2006 volume "Racing My Father: Growing Up with a Riding Legend," itself a finalist for the inaugural Book Award in 2006.
A $10,000 winner's check and a custom-designed Irish crystal trophy were presented to Smithwick Wednesday during an evening reception at Castleton Lyons farm near Lexington, Kentucky.
In "Flying Change," the author -- a son and nephew of Racing Hall of Fame horsemen and a rider possessed of his own bonafide credentials -- relates the story of his return to steeplechase competition in his late 1940s, a quarter-century removed from his previous racing career. With humor, elegance, and charming introspection he recalls the difficult road back from complacent middle-age to athletic fitness...the doubts, the joys, and setbacks along the way in his quest to compete and to defy the passage of time.
Submissions for the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award came from all over the world, including histories, biographies, fiction and a volume on equine law.
In addition to the winner, finalists for 2012 were: "Kentucky Derby Dreams: The Making of Thoroughbred Champions," by Susan Nusser; and "The Garrett Gomez Story: A Jockey's Journey Through Addiction and Salvation," by Rudolph Valier Alvarado, with Garrett Gomez.
Judges for the competition were Kay Coyte, managing editor of the Washington Post-Bloomberg News Service; HRTV broadcaster and producer Caton Bredar; and attorney and author Milton C. Toby, winner of the 2011 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award for "Dancer's Image: The Forgotten Story."
Other previous winners of the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award are Jaimy Gordon, "Lord of Misrule" (2010); James E. "Ted" Bassett and Bill Mooney, "Keeneland's Ted Bassett: My Life" (2009); Rudy Alvarado, "The Untold Story of Joe Hernandez: The Voice of Santa Anita" (2008); T. D. Thornton, "Not By a Long Shot: A Season at a Hard-Luck Horse Track" (2007); and Joe Drape, "Black Maestro" (2006).
www.brisnet.com/cgi-bin/editorial/news/article.cgi?id=35821&from=656
More:
www.flyingchangememoir.com/
Smithwick wins Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award
Writer, teacher, photographer and lifelong horseman Patrick Smithwick has been awarded the seventh annual Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award, for his 2012 autobiographical work "Flying Change: A Year of Racing and Family and Steeplechasing." The work is a follow-up to the author's 2006 volume "Racing My Father: Growing Up with a Riding Legend," itself a finalist for the inaugural Book Award in 2006.
A $10,000 winner's check and a custom-designed Irish crystal trophy were presented to Smithwick Wednesday during an evening reception at Castleton Lyons farm near Lexington, Kentucky.
In "Flying Change," the author -- a son and nephew of Racing Hall of Fame horsemen and a rider possessed of his own bonafide credentials -- relates the story of his return to steeplechase competition in his late 1940s, a quarter-century removed from his previous racing career. With humor, elegance, and charming introspection he recalls the difficult road back from complacent middle-age to athletic fitness...the doubts, the joys, and setbacks along the way in his quest to compete and to defy the passage of time.
Submissions for the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award came from all over the world, including histories, biographies, fiction and a volume on equine law.
In addition to the winner, finalists for 2012 were: "Kentucky Derby Dreams: The Making of Thoroughbred Champions," by Susan Nusser; and "The Garrett Gomez Story: A Jockey's Journey Through Addiction and Salvation," by Rudolph Valier Alvarado, with Garrett Gomez.
Judges for the competition were Kay Coyte, managing editor of the Washington Post-Bloomberg News Service; HRTV broadcaster and producer Caton Bredar; and attorney and author Milton C. Toby, winner of the 2011 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award for "Dancer's Image: The Forgotten Story."
Other previous winners of the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award are Jaimy Gordon, "Lord of Misrule" (2010); James E. "Ted" Bassett and Bill Mooney, "Keeneland's Ted Bassett: My Life" (2009); Rudy Alvarado, "The Untold Story of Joe Hernandez: The Voice of Santa Anita" (2008); T. D. Thornton, "Not By a Long Shot: A Season at a Hard-Luck Horse Track" (2007); and Joe Drape, "Black Maestro" (2006).
www.brisnet.com/cgi-bin/editorial/news/article.cgi?id=35821&from=656