Last week, I was notified that I was featured in an article published by USA Today on September 4. I can’t express enough how flattered I am to be featured in such a prestigious publication! I have posted it here for your review. Let me know what you think! Thanks again for all your ongoing support!
Where History Finds Its Human Voice: How J.D.R. Hawkins Turned America’s Most Divisive Era Into Award-Winning Fiction
Updated Sept. 4, 2026, 8:16 a.m. ET
History has never struggled to preserve dates. It remembers battles, treaties, political speeches, and the names etched into monuments. What history often leaves behind are the quieter stories, the families separated by conflict, the ordinary people forced to carry extraordinary burdens, and the moments between the headlines where fear, hope, and resilience truly lived. That space between documented fact and human experience is where historical fiction continues to prove its enduring value.
Few periods challenge writers more than the American Civil War. More than a century and a half later, it remains one of the most examined chapters in American history, producing countless biographies, documentaries, and academic works. Yet writing fiction about the conflict demands something entirely different. It requires an author to respect history without becoming imprisoned by it, to balance research with imagination, and to create characters capable of making readers feel the weight of events they already know. The finest historical novels do not attempt to rewrite history. Instead, they restore humanity to it.
That challenge has defined the literary career of J.D.R. Hawkins, an American author whose work has quietly earned a respected place within modern historical fiction. Through meticulous research, emotionally driven storytelling, and a willingness to explore perspectives that relatively few contemporary novelists choose to examine, Hawkins has built a body of work that extends beyond entertainment. Her novels invite readers to experience the Civil War not through generals or politicians, but through families whose lives were permanently altered by the nation’s defining conflict. In doing so, she has become one of the few female authors recognized for writing extensively from a Confederate perspective, while earning awards, bestseller recognition, and a loyal readership that continues to grow.
A Writer Before She Ever Became an Author
Long before her books appeared on bestseller lists or collected literary awards, Hawkins was simply a child fascinated by stories.
Born on June 9, 1959, in Sioux City, Iowa, she discovered writing during elementary school, where stories became less of an assignment and more of an instinct. While many childhood interests disappear with age, this one never did. Encouraged by parents who valued education as much as creativity, she pursued both, eventually earning a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Iowa State University.
Journalism proved to be more than a degree. It shaped the discipline that would later define her novels. Reporters learn to verify facts before telling stories, and Hawkins carried that philosophy into fiction. Before writing novels, she experimented with short stories, magazine articles, and children’s literature, gradually developing a style that favored careful observation over dramatic excess.
That patience would eventually become one of her greatest strengths. Rather than chasing publishing trends or writing across multiple commercial genres, Hawkins chose a path requiring years of historical research and remarkable attention to detail.
Choosing the Hardest Story to Tell
Historical fiction is demanding under any circumstance. Writing about the Civil War introduces another layer of complexity.
Every battle, every political decision, and every social consequence continues to be debated today. Authors entering that space often face an impossible balancing act between historical accuracy and emotional storytelling. Hawkins approached the challenge differently. Instead of allowing politics to dominate her narratives, she placed ordinary lives at the center of extraordinary events.
Her novels ask readers to consider not simply how wars are fought, but how families survive them.
That perspective would eventually become the foundation of what is now recognized as her signature achievement.
The Renegade Series: A Family Saga Woven Into American History
Some authors become known for a single novel. Others build careers around a literary universe that grows richer with every installment.
For Hawkins, that universe became the Renegade Series, an ambitious collection of novels following the journey of a Confederate cavalryman and his family through the Civil War and the difficult years that followed. Rather than presenting isolated adventures, the books function as an evolving family saga, allowing readers to witness not only the destruction of war but also the emotional cost carried long after the fighting ends.
The series opened with A Beautiful Glittering Lie , a novel that immediately established Hawkins’ commitment to historical authenticity. Instead of treating the Civil War as a sequence of famous battles, the story narrowed its focus to people whose names never appeared in history books but whose struggles reflected those of thousands of real families. The novel resonated with both readers and literary judges, earning the 2013 John Esten Cooke Fiction Award and the 2012 B.R.A.G. Medallion, recognition that positioned Hawkins as an emerging voice within historical fiction.
Rather than viewing that success as a conclusion, Hawkins expanded the story with A Beckoning Hellfire, where the realities of war deepen and the emotional stakes become increasingly personal. The novel further strengthened the series’ reputation, later receiving another B.R.A.G. Medallion while demonstrating Hawkins’ ability to sustain both historical depth and narrative momentum.
The third installment, A Rebel Among Us, continued exploring the conflict through the eyes of individuals whose personal convictions collided with national upheaval. The novel earned the 2017 John Esten Cooke Fiction Award and the B.R.A.G. Medallion, reinforcing Hawkins’ growing reputation for combining historical precision with compelling character development.
The journey continued beyond the battlefield with Double-Edged Sword: A Novel of Reconstruction, perhaps the series’ most ambitious chapter. Reconstruction remains one of the least understood yet most transformative periods in American history, and Hawkins shifts her attention toward the uncertain future awaiting families after the war had officially ended. The novel received both the 2022 B.R.A.G. Medallion and the 2023 John Esten Cooke Fiction Award further confirming the consistency of her work across the series.
Collectively, the Renegade Series reflects more than a sequence of novels. It represents years of historical research transformed into stories that emphasize the human experience behind one of America’s most defining eras.
Expanding a Literary Portfolio Beyond One Series
Although Civil War fiction remains central to Hawkins’ career, her bibliography reflects a writer unwilling to remain confined to a single project.
Her nonfiction work, Horses in Gray: Famous Confederate Warhorses, explores an often-overlooked aspect of military history. Rather than focusing on generals or battlefield strategy, the book highlights the remarkable horses that carried soldiers through one of the nation’s bloodiest conflicts, offering readers a unique perspective on the role animals played during wartime.
She also returned to the fictional world of the Renegade Series through A Becharmed Callie Christmas, a historical Christmas story that later earned the 2025 Best Historical Christmas Fiction Award. While lighter in tone, the novella demonstrates Hawkins’ ability to revisit established characters without sacrificing historical atmosphere.
Her writing interests have also extended beyond historical fiction. Success Mindsets: How Top Entrepreneurs Succeed in Business and Life revealed another side of Hawkins as she explored leadership, personal growth, and professional success. The project showed that the qualities defining her fiction, discipline, curiosity, and thoughtful observation, could translate into nonfiction as well.
Most recently, Fool’s Gold Folly: A Story of Irish Resilience, also a part of the Renegade Series, continues her fascination with history while broadening both her geographical and cultural focus.
Together, these works illustrate an author whose creative interests continue to evolve while remaining rooted in storytelling.
Recognition Earned Through Consistency Rather Than Hype
Publishing often rewards visibility. Hawkins has built her reputation through consistency.
Across her career, her books have collected multiple John Esten Cooke Fiction Awards, several B.R.A.G. Medallions and Maincrest Media Awards, reflecting sustained recognition rather than isolated success. Each honor represents more than a trophy; collectively, they acknowledge years devoted to historical accuracy, narrative craftsmanship, and literary discipline.
Commercial success has followed.
Hawkins has earned recognition as an Amazon, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Journal bestselling author, demonstrating that carefully researched historical fiction continues to attract a substantial readership despite an increasingly competitive publishing landscape.
For many writers, critical recognition and commercial popularity rarely arrive together. Hawkins’ career illustrates that thoughtful storytelling can achieve both.
Research Before Recognition
What separates historical fiction from historical fantasy is credibility.
Readers may forgive fictional characters, but they rarely forgive fictional history.
That understanding has shaped Hawkins’ writing philosophy throughout her career. Her background in journalism appears throughout her novels, where historical settings are built with careful attention to documented detail rather than dramatic invention. Battles unfold within authentic timelines. Communities reflect the realities of nineteenth-century America. Everyday routines receive as much attention as major historical events.
Yet research alone cannot sustain a novel.
Hawkins combines factual accuracy with emotionally driven storytelling, ensuring that history never overshadows the people living through it. Her characters experience grief, uncertainty, loyalty, and hope in ways that feel immediate rather than distant, allowing modern readers to connect with events separated by more than 150 years.
That balance has become one of the defining characteristics of her work.
An Author Committed to the Literary Community
Beyond publishing, Hawkins remains actively engaged with organizations that celebrate both literature and history.
She is a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, The International Women’s Writing Guild, Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, Pikes Peak Writers, and the Historical Novel Society, affiliations that reflect her continued involvement with fellow writers, historians, and readers.
Away from the page, Hawkins is also an artist and singer-songwriter. She has been married for more than four decades and shares a close family life with her husband, two sons, daughter-in-law, and two grandsons. While those details remain largely separate from her public literary identity, they provide the personal foundation behind a career built on patience, discipline, and creative persistence.
Writing History Without Becoming Part of the Noise
Publishing trends change with remarkable speed. Genres rise and fade. Bestseller lists evolve almost weekly.
Historical fiction, however, has always rewarded something different.
It favors patience over urgency, substance over spectacle, and research over assumption.
J.D.R. Hawkins has built her career according to those principles. Rather than pursuing the fastest path through the publishing industry, she invested years in understanding one of America’s most examined historical periods and transformed that knowledge into stories that continue to find new readers.
Her novels do not attempt to settle historical debates, nor do they ask readers to revisit the Civil War simply as an academic exercise. Instead, they remind us that history is ultimately measured not only by the events that shaped nations but also by the lives forever changed because of them.
That perspective has become Hawkins’ greatest contribution to historical fiction. In an era when publishing often rewards immediacy, she has chosen endurance. And through an expanding body of award-winning work, she has demonstrated that stories grounded in careful research, emotional honesty, and literary craftsmanship can continue to resonate long after the final page is turned.
Where History Finds Its Human Voice: How J.D.R. Hawkins Turned America’s Most Divisive Era Into Award-Winning Fiction
Amazon.com: J. D. R. Hawkins: books, biography, latest update
