RISING STAR Award

2026 Finalists

The Island in her Blood by Jillian Alderman

Soil scientist Mina Pascual travels to a remote Caribbean island to investigate thriving crops that defy explanation as the rest of the region faces famine. When she enters the island’s waters, she begins experiencing ancestral memories passed through the Indigenous women of her mother’s bloodline. As the memories uncover the Pascual family’s role in the soil crisis and suppression of the island’s people, Mina must choose between protecting the life she has always known or betraying her family to expose the truth.

Grounds by Missy Brame

After years of mounting emotional abuse and coercive control by her prominent Mississippi attorney husband, Rachel Langston finally finds the courage to leave, only to discover that the state’s archaic divorce laws may keep her trapped forever. Denied freedom by a legal system that refuses to recognize the realities of psychological abuse, Rachel takes her fight for reform to the Mississippi State Capitol. GROUNDS is a novel about female autonomy, institutional injustice, and the voices of women too often silenced in marriage, courtrooms, and government.

Memories of a Madam by Shelley Carey

In 1880s Alabama, a gifted young Black singer named Lulu White flees marriage and motherhood, chasing a dream of reinvention in New Orleans. Thrust into the world of an elite brothel, Lulu rises from naivety to a place of power as the architect of her own myth. But when love and betrayal collide within her carefully controlled world, Lulu must decide how much of herself she’s willing to sacrifice to keep the power she’s fought to claim.

The Sum of Regret by Kristi Leonard

Lottie survived childhood cancer; her best friend Angela didn’t, and the “If Only” list they made together fueled sixteen reckless years as a whitewater guide. But when a river rescue goes catastrophically wrong, Lottie loses everything and lands in Florida, where a stray dog and the quiet world of a horse therapy farm begin cracking open the grief she’s spent years outrunning. Soon, Lottie must confront the terrifying possibility that the promise keeping her alive may also be keeping her from truly living.

The Indispensable Myrtle Bergheim by Sara Revsin

It’s 1938, and South Dakota farm girl Myrtle Bergheim has just landed her dream job as a White House secretary when a sudden illness threatens to upend everything she’s worked for. When she returns to Washington, this time with her younger sister in tow, Myrtle must redefine ambition, family, and love in a world that expects women to follow the rules.