Former 'New Mexican' staffer wins Hillerman prize

| The New Mexican

11/9/2007 -

Christine Barber, a former New Mexican editor now working in Peru, has won the first Tony Hillerman Prize for her novel, The Replacement Child.

The story, set in Santa Fe, draws on Barber's experiences working for local newspapers and as an emergency medical technician and firefighter.

The Replacement Child will be published by the Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Minotaur imprint in the fall of 2008. Barber received a $10,000 advance.

Barber was living in Albuquerque when she submitted the novel. Now applying to The University of New Mexico medical school, she is a volunteer for a clinic in Ayachuco, Peru, near Lima.

The prize, named for another former New Mexican editor, now famous for his mystery novels set in Navajo Country, will be awarded annually to an unpublished mystery set in the Southwest, written by a first-time author.

Barber, an assistant city editor, columnist and features writer at The New Mexican for 10 years, also has worked for the Albuquerque Journal and the Gallup Independent. She said Hillerman's novels inspired her to move to New Mexico from Florida.

A woman, nicknamed "Scanner Lady," who used to call The New Mexican to report what she had heard on a police scanner, inspired Barber to start The Replacement Child, she said in written remarks to the recent Tony Hillerman Writers Conference in Albuquerque.

Hillerman's daughter, Anne Hillerman, also a former New Mexican writer and editor, launched the conference in 2004 through the business which she and Jean Schaumberg co-founded, WORDHARVEST Writers Workshops.

The 2007 contest received about 150 submissions from writers throughout the United States. The deadline for submissions to next year's competition is July 1, 2008. For guidelines, see www.thomasdunnebooks.com or www.hillermanconference.com.