The 2017 winner for Creative non-fiction is Randall Horton, Hook, published by Augury Books.  Our GLCA judges note:

Randall Horton's memoir, Hook, is an intriguing modern take on a classic American tale of self-reinvention, as in Horatio Alger's nineteenth-century rags-to-riches stories. Horatio Alger's heroes never become international drug lords and cocaine smugglers, though. Also they never go to jail, exploit prostitutes, or critique paradigms of race and governance in their journal. But, like Horton, they do end up thriving in the very structures that once made them feel marginalized. Randall Horton delivers careful, rough-hewn, poetically-charged language at the service of a memoir that runs against the grain of a typical "recovery" narrative.  What results is searing commentary, social critique under the guise of a memoir within a memoir.  Because his life has been truly intersectional: from college student to homeless drug addict to international cocaine smuggler to inmate and finally college professor, this text has the potential to speak to people for generations.  Through a bravado performance of structure and sentence, Horton gives his readers an unsentimental and important view into how a person works to rebuild after a downward spiral, showcasing how literature can be part of that recovery.

The judges of the 2017 award in Creative non-fiction were:

Samuel Autman, DePauw University

Matthew Ferrence, Allegheny College

Rhoda Janzen, Hope College