Author Charlene Wexler recently won a 2012 Communications Concepts Grand Award for her book "Milk and Oranges" in the Apex Awards competition.
A collection of short fiction and essays examining life, love, and the tragedy and comedy of the human condition, "Milk and Oranges" previously won an E-Lit Book Award from the Jenkins Group publishing services firm. "Milk and Oranges" is available in both print and electronic editions
Whether she is tackling fiction or essays, Wexler writes from the heart. With a keen eye for detail and a way of looking at the world a bit sideways, Wexler's writings in "Milk and Oranges" entertain while they make you think.
Communications Concepts is a journalism and communications think tank based outside Washington, DC. This year's Apex competition was the 24th annual.
"Apex Awards are based on excellence in graphic design, editorial content, and the ability to achieve overall communications excellence," said John De Lellis of Communications Concepts. "With close to 3,400 entries, competition was exceptionally intense."
Fewer than ten percent of the awards conferred by Communications Concepts are Grand Awards, and are presented to only the finest publications and communications vehicles.
"The Apex Awards contest is competitive and prestigious, and to win a Grand Award is particularly exciting," Wexler said. "I couldn't have written 'Milk and Oranges' without knowing all the interesting characters in my family and among my friends, so credit for this award goes to them as well."
The contest is an international one, and other winners hailed from Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, South Africa, and Switzerland, as well as from around the United States, and from such prestigious institutions as the American Bar Association; the American Cancer Society; the National Football League; Northwestern Memorial Hospital; Time Inc.; the University of Chicago; the U.S. Department of Justice; the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps; and the Walt Disney Co.
Wexler resides in Richmond, IL, and is a graduate of the University of Illinois. She has worked as a teacher and dental office bookkeeper and as "a wife, mom, and grandmother," she said. In recent years, Wexler has turned her lifelong passion for writing into her profession.
Her work has appeared in many publications and websites. Her first novel, Murder on Skid Row, received an Apex Award of Excellence from Communications Concepts in 2010.
Wexler is active with the Alpha Omega Dental Fraternity, the Authors Marketing Group, the Chicago Writers Association, Children's Memorial Hospital philanthropy, Lungevity (an organization that fights lung cancer), the McHenry Bicycle Club, the Museum of Science and Industry, the National Council of Jewish Women, the Richmond IL Book Club, the Jewish United Fund, and the University of Illinois Alumni Association.
For more information, call (312) 622-6029 or e-mail
anbcommunications@yahoo.com. Wexler's website is
http://www.charlenewexler.com The Apex Awards' website is
http://www.apexawards.com/