Nature Noises Won First Place! 🏆

Well, I have some pretty exciting news to share!

I found out that my children's picture book, Nature Noises, won FIRST PLACE in the Children's Nature Books category of the 2026 PenCraft Book Awards!

I'm still a little surprised, and definitely grinning big about it. Haha!

This year's competition was apparently the largest in PenCraft's ten-year history, with thousands of books submitted across the different genres. Knowing that Nature Noises was selected for first place in its category is pretty incredible, and I'm genuinely honored to have my work recognized.

For those who don't know, Nature Noises is a book I both wrote and illustrated, inspired by my love of the outdoors and my years working as a park ranger. It's a fun little read-aloud filled with the sounds of nature, and getting to combine my love of art, children's literature, and the natural world into one book was something I'd wanted to do for a long time.

I published it back in July through my own little publishing imprint, Fablefern Press, so it's only been out in the world for a few months!

Being an independent author means wearing a LOT of hats. Between writing, illustrating, formatting, publishing, and everything else that goes into making a book, there's quite a bit that happens behind the scenes. It's something I genuinely enjoy doing, but it's also a lot of work. Having one of my books receive this kind of recognition makes all those hours drawing and writing with my baby napping on my lap feel pretty dang worthwhile.

And another exciting part...

I've been invited to attend the PenCraft Book Awards ceremony in Las Vegas next April!

I'm planning to make the trip and attend the ceremony in person, where I'll get to receive my award alongside other winning authors. I've never attended anything like this before, so I'm really looking forward to the experience!

I've also updated the cover of Nature Noises with its official gold first-place award seal, which was a pretty fun thing to get to add. I might be slightly shook at being able to do that. Haha!

Anyway, I just wanted to share the news because I'm really excited about it. This is my first literary award, and it's a pretty special milestone for me as an author and illustrator.

A big thank you to everyone who has picked up a copy, shared my books, or supported my little publishing journey so far. I appreciate it more than you know!

Here's to more books, more illustrations, and hopefully a few more exciting milestones along the way.

Sierra