Each Friday this summer, IWPA’s 3rd Vice President and Professional Contest Chair Ana Mendez will shine a spotlight on our of our 2018 Mate E. Palmer/National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest Winners. This week’s featured communicator is Lori-Radar Day…

Lori Rader-Day is a mystery author whose debut book, The Black Hour, won the 2015 Anthony Award for Best First Novel. It was also a finalist for the 2015 Mary Higgins Clark Award.

Familiar with success, her third novel The Day I Died received state and national recognition from the Illinois Woman’s Press Association (IWPA) and the National Federation for Press Women (NFPW). The Day I Died was also an Indie Next Pick, a finalist for the Chicago Writers Association (CWA) Book of the Year Award, and a nominee for the 2018 Mary Higgins Clark Award as well as the Barry Award.

Rader-Day grew up in Boone County, IN, where she studied Journalism at Ball State University, before finally pursuing her dream of creative writing at Roosevelt University in Chicago.

The accomplished author continues to be deeply involved in the literary community, as Immediate Past President of the Midwest Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America, board member of Sisters in Crime Chicagoland, member of IWPA, NFPW, CWA and the International Thriller Writers.

Of her recent awards, Rader-Day had this to say, “I’m pleased to be recognized by the IWPA and by the National Federation of Press Women for The Day I Died. I got two journalism degrees but never became a journalist—and yet the training I received, and the people I’ve met have been so valuable to the career I did choose. I still like being near journalists, though. They tell the best stories.”

Become a  Rader-Day fan!

Click here to purchase her award winning book, excerpt available.

Follow Lori on Twitter.