Today, I am incredibly proud to officially share that Inheritance of Silence has been named a Finalist in Contemporary Fiction in the 2026 Storytrade Book Awards.

Every recognition this novel receives means something different to me, but this one feels particularly significant.

Inheritance of Silence began as a story about what happens when people carry the weight of things left unsaid—the grief we inherit, the identities we struggle to understand, the relationships that shape us, and the difficult work of learning how to move forward when the past refuses to remain quietly behind us.

I wanted to write characters who felt human rather than perfect. People who make mistakes. People who hurt. People who love imperfectly. People who sometimes have absolutely no idea what they are doing but continue moving forward anyway.

In many ways, that is what Inheritance of Silence has always been about: the complicated, imperfect process of becoming.

To now see that story recognized as a finalist in Contemporary Fiction by the Storytrade Book Awards is deeply meaningful.

From Manuscript to Recognition

When you write a novel, there is an enormous period of uncertainty between finishing the manuscript and discovering whether the story will actually connect with anyone else.

You spend months—or years—inside a world that exists almost entirely in your own head. You know the characters. You know their histories. You know why a particular sentence matters or why a seemingly insignificant scene carries more weight than it initially appears to.

Then eventually, you have to release it.

The story stops belonging exclusively to you.

Readers interpret it through their own experiences. Reviewers evaluate it. Awards programs judge it. Booksellers decide whether to stock it. Publishers determine how to position it. And somewhere along the way, the manuscript that once existed quietly on your computer begins developing a life entirely separate from the person who wrote it.

That has been one of the most fascinating parts of watching the journey of Inheritance of Silence.

What began as one story has continued finding readers, generating conversations, and earning recognition beyond anything I could have known when I first started writing it.

The 2026 Storytrade Book Awards Finalist recognition for Contemporary Fiction becomes another important part of that journey.

What This Recognition Means to Me

Awards are wonderful, and I will absolutely celebrate them.

But what matters most to me is what they represent.

Every finalist placement, nomination, review, reader message, bookstore opportunity, and conversation surrounding this novel tells me that the story reached beyond the page.

Someone connected with it.

Someone understood what I was trying to say.

Someone saw value in the story.

For an author, particularly while building a career one book at a time, those moments matter enormously.

They create momentum, certainly. They strengthen an author's professional platform and introduce the work to new audiences.

But they also provide something much simpler:

Confirmation that the story mattered to someone besides the person who wrote it.

That may be the greatest compliment a writer can receive.

And This Is Still Only the Beginning

One of the strangest things about becoming an author is realizing that publication isn't actually the finish line.

It is the starting line.

Since the publication of Inheritance of Silence, my writing career has continued expanding in directions I could not have completely predicted. New manuscripts have been completed. New stories have emerged. New publishing conversations have begun. New opportunities have appeared.

And through all of it, Inheritance of Silence remains the book that started this chapter of my life.

It introduced readers to my work.

It gave me the opportunity to call myself a published novelist.

And now it carries another distinction:

2026 Storytrade Book Awards Finalist — Contemporary Fiction.

I am extraordinarily proud of that sentence.

Thank You

To everyone who has purchased the book, read it, reviewed it, recommended it, shared a post, attended an event, followed this increasingly unpredictable author journey, or simply told me to keep writing:

Thank you.

Independent and emerging authors build careers one reader at a time, and I never forget that there is a real person on the other side of every book sold, every page read, and every message received.

Thank you to the Storytrade Book Awards for recognizing Inheritance of Silence among this year's Contemporary Fiction finalists.

And thank you to everyone who continues to give these stories a place in your world.

There is much more ahead.

For today, though, I'm going to enjoy this one.

Inheritance of Silence

2026 Storytrade Book Awards Finalist — Contemporary Fiction

— John Erik Dunnam