DECATUR, Ga.—Ave Maria Press author Judith Valente took second place for nonfiction religion book of the year for Atchison Blue.

The award was given out Sept. 20, 2014, at the Religion Newswriters Association’s 65th annual conference in Decatur, Georgia.

Atchison Blue is a meditative spiritual memoir about Valente’s transformative pilgrimages to Mount St. Scholastica monastery in Atchison, Kansas.

Valente also received second place in television news magazine religion report of the year for a PBS Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly report “Churches and Domestic Violence.”