Groundbreaking Coming-of-Age Asexual Romance Mask of Celibacy Wins Top Prize at the 11th annual Wattys Award
The Watty Awards have long been a launching pad for some of the most exciting new voices in fiction, with Mask of Celibacy joining previous winners like V.S. Santoni’s I’m a Gay Wizard, Nandi Taylor’s Given, and Beth Reekles’ The Kissing Booth
TORONTO - December 3, 2021 - Wattpad, the global entertainment company and leading social storytelling platform, today announced the winners of the 2021 Watty Awards. Carolyn Hill’s (@carolyn_hill) Mask of Celibacy, a coming-of-age asexual romance, about two students discovering their identities, is the grand prize winner of book deal from Wattpad Books.
Mask of Celibacy follows Jess Perez, a junior in high school in the late 90s living in a strictly Catholic household. After proclaiming herself celibate, Jess meets asexual senior Eric Stevens and begins a journey of self discovery, learning to navigate family expectations and traditions while forging her own path. With more than 57k reads on Wattpad, Carolyn Hill’s (@carolyn_hill) Mask of Celibacy is an honest and character-driven coming of age story about two asexual students trying to understand themselves and each other, while making sense of the world around them.
In 2021, writers around the world submitted more than 40,000 stories to the Watty Awards. Winning stories are already taking the platform by storm and building a global audience, as nearly one million people around the world have read the 60 winning English-language stories. To date, the Watty Awards has received more than one million story submissions from around the world.
Along with long-established Watty Award genre categories like Romance, Fantasy and Young Adult, in 2021 Wattpad introduced a number of exciting new categories. New categories and winners this year include: Best Characters, awarded to @worldfrommywindow for All that Remains (79.8k reads); Most Engaging World, won by @nyxiekitsune for the sable spy (740 reads); Catchiest Hook, won by @rskovach for The Plague Doctor’s Daughter (15.9k reads); and Biggest twist, going to @lydiahephzibah for The Key to Anchor Lake (89.4k reads).
“We created the Watty Awards to recognize some of the most diverse, exciting, and innovative voices on our platform, and every year I’m thrilled to see entries pour in from the next generation of incredible voices in fiction,” said Jeanne Lam, President, Wattpad. “We’re so happy to award Carolyn Hill the Watty Awards grand prize for Mask of Celibacy, and I can’t wait for the story to find new fans on bookshelves everywhere.”
The Watty Awards have been the source of some of Wattpad’s most well-known and successful stories. 2020 Grand Prize Watty Award-winner How to Be the Best Third Wheel by Loridee De Villa will be published by Wattpad Books on May 3, 2022. Previous winner V.S. Santoni, who won for I’m a Gay Wizard, has a TV series in development with Wattpad WEBTOON Studios for his award-winning story, and has also published two books with Wattpad Books. Other previous Watty Award winners include, Nandi Taylor’s Given, Beth Reekles’ The Kissing Booth, Vic James’ Gilded Cage, Katerina E. Tonks’ Death is My BFF, and Kara Barbieri’s White Stag.
The Watty Awards are Wattpad's annual celebration of the electrifying, visionary, and diverse voices that choose to share their stories on Wattpad. For more than a decade, The Watty Awards have celebrated the journey of millions of Wattpad writers who bring the stories of their dreams into the lives of readers around the world. A full list of winners is available on the Watty Awards website.
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