Nancy E. Lynch’s book, "Vietnam Mailbag: Voices from the War 1968-1972," has won the first prize gold award for best regional non-fiction in the Mid-Atlantic states in the 2009 Independent Publisher Book Awards competition.
 
The IPPY Awards are presented by IndependentPublisher.com, the online “voice of independent publishing” operated by publishing services firm Jenkins Group of Traverse City, Mich. The competition, which presents both national and regional awards, drew more than 4,000 entries of books published independently in 2008 in the United States and Canada.
 
Vietnam Mailbag, a 456-page social history, is based on the nearly 900 letters written to Lynch by servicemen from in and near Delaware during the five years she wrote her column, Nancy’s Vietnam Mailbag, in the Wilmington (Del.) Morning News, predecessor to today’s News Journal. The first part of the book chronicles year by year the hopes and fears, joys and tears expressed by the servicemen as they heeded Lynch’s request to “tell it like it is” about life in the combat zone. The second part consists of a dozen “where are they now” profiles of servicemen who frequently wrote to Lynch during the war. The book features a foreword by U.S. Sen. Thomas R. Carper, D-Del., who served three tours in southeast Asia as a Navy flight officer, and a comprehensive listing of all Delawareans who lost their lives in the Vietnam War.
 
Andrew Carroll, author of  New York Times bestsellers War Letters and Behind the Lines, wrote that “Vietnam Mailbag is a timeless, breathtaking tribute to [American servicemen] and it is a gift to us all.”
 
Vietnam Mailbag was published by Broad Creek Books in Bethel, Del. For more information or to order a copy, go to www.vietnammailbag.com