WINNER! Retreat from the Precipice — Grand Prize, 2025 Arizona Authors Association Literary Awards

Congratulations to author Duke Southard! His book, Retreat from the Precipice, has been awarded the Grand Prize in the 2025 Arizona Authors Association Literary Awards, announced at a luncheon in Phoenix on November 15, 2025. This honor marks the second major win for the book in the past five months — earlier in the year it also won the Next Generation Indie Book Awards in the Historical Fiction (1900s) category.

Duke Southard is also the award-winning author of The Fallacy of Closure and the Detective Parker Havenot series, as well as the October 2022 release Tainted Justice (Top Five Finalist, 2023 Indie Publishers Next Generation Book Awards — African-American Fiction). He has earned multiple literary awards for his short stories and essays.

This latest recognition highlights the continued impact of Retreat from the Precipice and reflects the strong reception the book has received from both readers and judges throughout the year.

Please join us in celebrating Duke Southard’s outstanding achievement and helping bring Retreat from the Precipice to even more readers. Congratulations, Duke!

By Sam Henrie|2025-11-20T20:04:35-07:00November 20, 2025|News|Comments Off

About the Author: Sam Henrie

Sam Henrie is President and Founder of Wheatmark, Inc., and Past President of the Arizona Book Publishing Association. He is Co-Chair of the Book and Movie Business Genre of the Literary Committee for the Tucson Festival of Books, the third largest book festival in the United States. Sam is also a Senior Faculty at the Authors Academy.