THE TWIBLE Wins in Writer's Digest's Self-Published Book Awards Nonfiction Category

The Twible: All the Chapters of the Bible in 140 Characters or Less . . . Now with 68% More Humor! by religion scholar Jana Riess has won First Place in the Nonfiction category in the Writer's Digest 2014 Self-Published Book Awards.

The honor includes a $1,000 cash award, a one-year membership in the Small Publishers Association of North America, and a one-year membership to Book Central Station. Winners will be featured on the Writer's Digest website.

The Twible was a four-year labor of love-and laughs-for Riess, who tweeted the entire Bible, a chapter a day, 1,189 chapters, from Genesis to Revelation. Her interpretive question in approaching the text was "What would The Onion say about this passage?" The irreverent distillation of Scripture gained thousands of followers and retweets, and was featured in USA Today and The Guardian, among other media. People want the Bible, only funnier and shorter, and Riess delivers:

•Leviticus 20: More people and animals you can't have sex with. Death penalty for you and the cow. Though why it's the cow's fault we really can't say.

•Corinthians 13: Love is patient and kind. It does not get annoyed or impatient that this chapter is read at Every. Single. Wedding. Love bears all.

•Revelation 12: A sparkly woman gives birth to baby Jesus with a killer dragon as midwife. This could really spice up the nativity crèche at Christmas.

Riess, who wondered if maybe The Twible is the book that will guarantee her room reservation in hell, is pleased that she can now she can refer to it as "the award-winning Twible." Just in case, she donates 25% of the proceeds after expenses to five charities that provide humanitarian aid and disaster relief around the world.

The Twible is available in paperback and Kindle from Amazon.com.

Jana Riess blogs for Religion News Service and is the author of many books, including the forthcoming Flunking Sainthood Every Day, a devotional based on her popular book Flunking Sainthood: A Year of Breaking the Sabbath, Forgetting to Pray, and Still Loving My Neighbor, named by Publishers Weekly as one of the top ten religion books of 2011. She has a Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from Columbia University.

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