
Sul Ross State University Writer-in-Residence Sid Balman Jr. has been nominated in the fiction category of the 34th Annual Reading the West Book Awards for his latest novel, Algorithms.
The final novel in the acclaimed Seventh Flag Trilogy rides through the American West with two Texas families after the fall of civilization 30 years in the future as they hunt for the key to their salvation: the Algorithms of everything.
“It is such an honor to walk in the footsteps of such previous winners as Wallace Stagner, Barbara Kingsolver and Peter Heller,” said Balman. “One always hopes to win, which will be decided by industry
and reader votes over the next 60 days, but just to have Algorithms among the handful of deserving nominees is enough.”
The Reading the West Book Awards were created by the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association “to celebrate the diversity, courage, tenacity, expertise, and indie spirit” of its member bookstores, according to www.readingthewest.com.
A Pulitzer-nominated national security correspondent, Balman has covered wars in the Persian Gulf, Somalia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, and has traveled extensively with two American presidents and four secretaries of state on overseas diplomatic missions. After leaving daily journalism, he helped found a news syndicate focused on the interests of women and girls, served as the communications chief for the largest consortium of U.S. international development organizations, led two progressive campaigning companies, and launched a new division at a large international development firm centered on violent radicalism and other security issues on behalf of governments.
Balman joined the faculty at SRSU in 2020, and he remains a working journalist and magazine contributor.
For more information, visit sidbalman.com or email sid.balman@sulross.edu.