Regina Sirois, a Missouri State University alumna with a minor in creative writing, was selected as a winner in the Young Adult category of the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (ABNA) competition. Her novel, On Little Wings, was one of three finalists in the Young Adult fiction category from a pool of five thousand entries in that category. Sirois and fellow author Alan Averill, who won in the General Fiction category for his novel The Beautiful Land, each receive a contract to publish their book through Penguin Publishing. Winners were announced in Seattle, Wash. on June 16 and were determined by an online vote among Amazon customers that took place in late May.

On Little Wings tells the story of Jennifer, who abandons her comfortable life in Nebraska to search for the truth about her hidden aunt. Sirois describes the book on her website, reginasirois.com, as “a story about all the ways we get love wrong, and why, despite every disappointment, we keep fighting to get it right.”

Sirois describes herself as “90% reader and 10% writer, and as such, her loyalty lies with readers.” Sirois adds that she “believes a book should do more than mildly entertain — it should change us.” She is a summa cum laude graduate from the Departments of History and English and currently lives in Kansas.

As a finalist, Sirois had her novel reviewed by a panel of several prominent figures in the industry. You can read those reviews on Amazon and download an excerpt of On Little Wings for Kindle on Amazon’s ABNA page. You can also purchase the full book for Kindle or pre-order the print version.

Visit the English department website to read Adam Lockwood’s blog post for more information.