Calvin Professor Wins Book Award

A Calvin professor has been awarded a Juvenile Book Merit Award by the Chicago-based Friends of American Writers for her 2008 young adult novel.

Nancy Hull, a professor of English at Calvin College, is this year's winner of the Juvenile Book Merit Award. The award is handed out by the Chicago-based Friends of American Writers.

Hull's book, On Rough Seas, is a young adult novel which tells the story of a youth in England who makes a dramatic transformation during World War II from galley boy on a fishing vessel to a courageous seaman.

Hull will speak at a luncheon and receive the award in Chicago on April 15. Friends of American Writers, established in 1922, has awarded the Juvenile Book Merit Awards since 1960.

Hull completed her bachelor of arts in English secondary education at Huntington College in 1974. She taught high school and worked in the professional writing world for many years before receiving her master of arts in community college teaching of writing from Michigan State University in 1985. She started working as an adjunct in the English department at Calvin in 1985 and in 1999 was appointed assistant professor of English.

She is currently working to complete two more novels for young adults. Professor Hull is actively involved in the Youth Writing Festival and the Festival of Faith Writing at Calvin.

Read an excerpt from Nancy Hull's novel On Rough Seas.