Embry-Riddle Author Wins Florida Book Award Gold Medal

Daytona Beach, Fla., April 15, 2008 – Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Thomas Cavanagh has won the Gold Medal for Popular Fiction in the 2007 Florida Book Awards. The award recognizes Cavanagh’s Orlando-based crime novel Head Games, which features a cynical private investigator, a missing member of a popular boy band, and a brain tumor named Bob.

Cavanagh serves as director of course design and production for Embry-Riddle’s Worldwide Online and is an assistant professor in the Worldwide Department of Arts & Sciences. He oversees and teaches the Worldwide Technical Report Writing course.

Established in 2006, the Florida Book Awards are coordinated by the Florida State University Program in American and Florida Studies and is co-sponsored by more than a dozen statewide humanities organizations. The awards recognize literary achievement by Florida authors in seven categories that include fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and books for young readers, bestowing bronze, silver, and gold medals.

Cavanagh and the other six gold medalists received their medals at the 2008 Historic and Cultural Awards Ceremony in Tallahassee, which featured speakers such as Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottcamp, and Secretary of State Kurt S. Browning.

Published by St. Martin’s Press, Head Games was critically acclaimed, including being named a 2007 “Killer Book” by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association, receiving a starred review in Library Journal, and being compared to authors such as Carl Hiaasen, Donald Westlake, and Peter Abrahams. A sequel to Head Games titled Prodigal Son will be released in July 2008. For more about Cavanagh and his novels, visit www.thomasbcavanagh.com.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering. The university educates more than 34,000 students annually in undergraduate and graduate programs at residential campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and Daytona Beach, Fla., through its Worldwide Campus at more than 130 centers in the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Middle East, and through online learning. For more information, visit www.erau.edu.

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