Andrew Hartley’s “Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Falcon” recently won the Best Young Adult Novel of the year from the Southern Independent Book Store Association (SIBA).
Hartley, the Robinson Professor of Shakespeare Studies, is director of UNC Charlotte's Shakespeare in Action Centre, which is currently engaged in the project “36 in Six,” an effort to stage an event connected to each of Shakespeare's plays by the 400th anniversary of his death in April 2016. His best-selling works of fiction (mystery/thrillers, fantasy adventure and children's/young adult novels) are published under the name A.J. Hartley.
According to the SIBA website, hundreds of booksellers across the South vote on their favorite books of the year. “These are the ‘Southern’ books they have most enjoyed selling to customers; the ones that they couldn't stop talking about. The SIBA Book Award was created to recognize great books of Southern origin.”