FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Post Office Fans, PO Box 11, Crystal Lake, IL 60039, 815-206-8405, info@postofficefans.com.

Local Author from Crystal Lake Named Finalist in Midwest Book Awards
(TENNESSEE POST OFFICE MURALS) by (DAVID W. GATES JR.) up for gold in NON FICTION – HISTORY / REGIONAL

MAY 1, 2022, CRYSTAL LAKE, ILLINOIS – TENNESSEE POST OFFICE MURALS (Post Office Fans, 2021) has been selected as a finalist in the history / regional category of the Midwest Book Awards, a long-running regional awards program first established in 1989.

Gates’s book explores (the history of twenty-eight murals installed in post offices during the Great Depression, the book has been well received by historical societies, libraries and New Deal enthusiast nation-wide, Gates’s sleuthing through the original correspondence between the artist and the government provides the reader a rich account of this fascinating moment in American history).

Finalists for the 32nd annual Midwest Book Awards include nearly one hundred titles from fifty- one independent publishers from a 12-state region, competing for gold medals in 35 fiction and non-fiction categories.

View the full list of finalists here. All finalist titles are available for purchase at MiPA’s affiliate bookshop link, an online bookselling platform that directly supports independent booksellers.

Winners will be announced during a YouTube premiere on June 25 at 7pm central. An in-person watch party and book sale will be held starting at 5pm at ModernWell in Minneapolis, a co- working space located at 2909 S Wayzata Blvd, Minneapolis, MN 55405. Tickets are required for the watch party, but the book sale from 5pm-6pm is open to the public. Visit www.mipa.org for more information.

About the Midwest Book Awards:

The Midwest Independent Publishers Association (MiPA) first organized the Midwest Book Awards in 1989, and the program has run continually since. Today judges for the prestigious literary award are booksellers, university staff and librarians who are subject matter experts and collectively hail from each of MiPA’s twelve states.

About MiPA:

Founded in 1984 in Minneapolis, the Midwest Independent Publishers Association exists today as a vibrant professional association that serves the publishing communities in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. MiPA aims to create an inclusive publishing community that shares educational resources, fosters networking connections, increases the quality of independent publishing coming out of the Midwest, and helps its member publishers grow.