The Quiet Bower was the recipient of the OMNI Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology PeaceWriting Award.

Here is an excerpt from the award letter:

“The purpose of the (OMNI Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology PeaceWriting Contest) Awards is to stimulate writing and publication for peace and justice. We hope your novel is soon published and finds a wide reading audience. Our appreciation of your book is expressed as follows:

This bildungsroman of a boy who grows into manhood during World War II steadily illuminates both boy and the world of the 1940s. From the bombardment of Pearl Harbor to the Nuremberg Tribunal, the shy, insecure Walt becomes the Sergeant Walt at discharge from the Air Force and return home. Divided into three roughly equal parts, we follow Walt from high school (Part I) to induction into the Air Force and training (Part II), to an assignment as radio operator on a plane assigned to Justice Biddle of the Tribunal (Part III).

Despite growing up in Flint, Michigan and so close to Detroit, Walt in high school is a typically ignorant and narrow youth. The novel follows his growth into manhood through his experiences with many diverse soldiers and soldiering experiences, until furthering sobering and widening experiences in devastated Europe and the War Crimes Tribunal significantly alter his outlook toward his dream to be a bomber pilot and hero,” (and towards) “war, air war, peace, patriotism, and duty. In a powerful scene (pp. 239- 241) Walt confronts Nuremberg, devastated by fourteen Allied bombardments. In the middle of the “senseless destruction” he finds a gigantic sculpted figure with tablet and pen poised to write the word that might explain it but cannot. But the Nuremberg Tribunal offers a glimpse of hope….Whether all the destruction and death happened for a good reason or not, “ ‘What matters now is the rest of us live like we believe in what they died for in the first place.’” Surrounding this central plot are numerous other vividly depicted characters that come and go in wartime and contribute to the maturing of Walt.

We urge you to use this award to publicize your book in every way you can, and we hope you are already writing another book of such high quality.”