Local Historian Wins National Award

Rocklin, Calif. – Gary Noy, historian at Sierra College and Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of the Sierra College Press has won the 2016 Regional Non-Fiction Award from the Next Generation Indie Book Awards.

Based in Oregon and Canada, the Next Generation Indie Book Awards is the largest not-for-profit book awards program for independent authors and publishers. In its ninth year of operation, the Next Generation Indie Book Awards was established to annually recognize and honor the most exceptional independently published books in more than 70 different categories.

Competing with independent authors and publishers worldwide, Noy’s Sierra Stories: Tales of Dreamers, Schemers, Bigots, and Rogues has won first prize in the category of Regional Non-Fiction for 2016.

Sierra Stories is the fourth book co-published by Sierra College Press in Rocklin and Heyday in Berkeley, California.  Noy will publish a second title with Sierra College Press and Heyday. Gold Rush Stories: 49 Tales of Seekers, Scoundrels, Loss and Luck is scheduled for a spring release.

This fall, Sierra College Press will release another co-publication with Heyday entitled King Sequoia: The Tree That Inspired a Nation Created our National Park System, and Changed the Way We Think About Nature. King Sequoia is written by William C. Tweed.

A Sierra Nevada native and current resident, Gary Noy has taught American history at Sierra College from 1987 to the present and is a graduate of UC Berkeley and CSU Sacramento. He is founding director of the Center for Sierra Nevada Studies.  Noy was born and raised in the Sierra Nevada and has spent his entire career studying and writing about this unique mountain range.