Brice Mbonde Receives National Recognition Through the NYC Big Book Award®!

Liverpool, Merseyside — The 2025 NYC Big Book Award recognized Sower, Gon`s Infinity by Brice Mbonde in the category of Young Adult Fiction as a distinguished favorite.

The competition is judged by experts from different aspects of the book industry, including publishers, writers, editors, designers, booksellers, librarians and professional copywriters. Winners and distinguished favorites are based on overall excellence.

Sower, Gon`s Infinity

“An exciting second instalment of the adventures of the demi-god Apollon Sower. Fans of Brice Mbonde’s first novel will love this fast-paced and riotous story. Drawing on multiple mythic traditions, Gon’s Infinity creates a rich and vibrant fantasy world.”

~ Dr Zoe Lambert

Lecturer in Creative Writing and Author

“Gon’s Infinity is an entertaining story about a young orphan and his friends, who are all demigods. They have to solve a mystery and locate certain objects to save themselves from death and destruction. This is a great read and full of adventure.”

~ Judy O’Beirn

President of Hasmark Publishing International

After Apollon and his companions are entrapped in a deathly plot triggered by the theft of a magic wand, they dive into the undersea world of Neptune’s Wonderland where they find a musical box inscribed with a luminous infinity symbol, the name Ozartian Gon, and a series of puzzles they must decipher to thwart the threat.

As the menace of a magus and titans tightens around the demigods, they race against time to break free, climaxing in a showdown to save themselves and continue the legacy of Gon.

NYC Big Book Award received book submissions worldwide. Journalists, well established authors, small and large press, and first time indie authors participated in record numbers.  Entries this year were received from the United States as well as countries such as Australia, Canada, China, Dubai, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Scotland, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.  Cities represented among the entries were Chicago, Hamburg, Los Angeles, Melbourne, New York, Quebec, Rome, San Francisco, Seattle, Singapore, and Victoria.

Publishers included Berrett-Koehler; Brown Books Kids; Central Avenue / Simon & Schuster; Forbes Books; New Harbinger Publications; New York University Press; Old Stone Press; Oxford University Press; Pegasus Books; She Writes Press; University of Massachusetts Press to name a few.

Winners included “What is My Legacy?” by Martin Luther King III, Arndrea Waters King, Marc Kielburger and Craig Kielburger; “Mikhail Gorbachev – How he changed our lives” by Bettina Schaefer; Berrett-Koehler’s “From Founder to Future: A Business Roadmap to Impact, Longevity, and Employee Ownership” by John Abrams; The Cooking Lab’s “Modernist Bread at Home” by Nathan Myhrvold; and “Wild Fox Ridge” by Xue Mo to name some key titles on the awarded list.

“With so many quality publishers and authors from around the world participating this year, I’m eager to share these books with a global readership,” said awards sponsor Gabby Olczak.

View the NYC Big Book distinguished favorites: https://www.nycbigbookaward.com/2025-favorites.

NYC Big Book Award is announced every fall. NYC Big Book Award is open to all authors, publishers, and illustrators, and includes submissions from the big five publishers: Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster.

Join us for the Independent Press Award, deadlines every December and announced every spring, is open to independent authors and publishers. Visit: https://www.independentpressaward.com/2025winners.

Join us at the Awards Dinner on April 25th to celebrate the recipients of both programs as they receive their awards on stage. The dinner is part of the BookCAMP event, a publishing industry conference held in the New York metro area, April 24-25, 2026, https://www.independentpressaward.com/ipabookcamp.