Kristina Blank Makansi

Blank Slate Press, an imprint of Amphorae Publishing Group (and also Blank Slate Communications)
Editor and Publisher

Tucson, Arizona

Member Since:
March 2013

Last online:
> 2 weeks ago

Invites sent:
2

About Kristina

author, editor, publisher, book designer

Co-founder of Blank Slate Press (now an imprint of Amphorae Publishing Group) and Blank Slate Communications (an editorial and design service for authors), Kristina has a B.A. in Government from University of Texas at Austin and a M.A.T. from the College of New Jersey. She has worked as a copywriter, marketing coordinator, designer, and editor. Authors she has worked with on either the editorial or the design side have won numerous awards including Benjamin Franklin awards, IPPYs, Beverly Hills Book Awards, a da Vinci Eye award for FOLLY BEACH DANCES, the design category of the Eric Hoffer Award for Excellence in Independent Publishing. PAINTING FOR PEACE IN FERGUSON won a Gold Medal as one of the 2015 Outstanding Book of the Year from Independent Publishers in the Peacemakers category, and Kristina was recognized with a WILLA Literary Award for her editorial work on AGNES CANON’S WAR. She is the author of ORACLES OF DELPHI (under the penname Marie Savage) and co-author of The Seeds Trilogy, including THE SOWING, THE REAPING, and THE HARVEST, with her two daughters. The Sowing and The Prelude, a novella of the Seeds Trilogy, have been optioned for film by Big Pictures Ranch, an independent film company whose films have won the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary, selected as a New York Times Critics’ Pick, and shortlisted for an Academy Award. Kristina has served on the board of the Missouri Writers Guild and the Missouri Center for the Book.

Unique traits: My best work is done in helping other writers hone their craft and polish their work so it is the best it can be.

Gender:
Female

Certifications

Awards

Beneath Still Waters (Gold, Independent Publishers Association: Mystery, Noir)
(2015)
Snow Globes and Hand Grenades (Gold, Midwest Independent Publishers Association: Humor)
(2015)
Beneath Still Waters (Gold, Midwest Independent Publishers Association: Mystery/Crime)
(2015)
Try to Kiss a Girl (Gold, Midwest Independent Publishers Association: Humor)
(2014)
Never Hug a Nun (Silver Benjamin Franklin Award for Fiction: Humor)
(2013)
Slant of Light (David J. Langnum Sr. Prize for American Historical Fiction, runner up)
(2012)
The Samaritan (IBPA's The Bill Fisher Award for Best First Book: Fiction)
(2011)
The Samaritan (USA Book Awards, Cross-Genre)
(2011)
The Samaritan (short listed for a Kitschie)
(2011)