Michelle D. Hord Wins Christopher Award for “The Other Side of Yet”

Stamford, Conn.-based author Michelle D. Hord, has been honored with a Christopher Award for her book, “The Other Side of Yet: Finding Light in the Midst of Darkness,” (Atria Books/Simon & Schuster). It is one of 12 books for adults and young people as the Christopher Awards program marks its 74th year.

Media executive Hord has suffered loss at almost every major phase in her life; the most devastating being the murder of her beloved daughter Gabrielle at the hands of her ex-husband. Yet through it all, there was a voice inside her insisting that she must let the light shine through the holes in her heart. The book offers a compassionate blueprint on how to harness inner strength. While we can’t control the pain or trauma that alters life, we can always pivot to a yet and rebuild a new after. For anyone who has experienced grief or loss, her story will provide the inspiration and tools needed to reclaim their story.

Hord is the president of Hope Warrior, Inc., a strategic consulting agency, and former vice president of creative content and talent management at NBC Universal. The Howard University graduate has spent more than three decades in network news and entertainment. In a career that has spanned from television control rooms to corporate board rooms, she sought opportunities to inspire creativity. In 2018, she founded Gabrielle’s Wings, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to giving children of color in vulnerable communities the kind of experiences, access to programs, and exposure that she is unable to now give her late daughter.

Christopher Awards were also given to creators of 10 TV/Cable shows and feature films

The Awards celebrate authors, and illustrators as well as writers, producers and directors whose work “affirms the highest values of the human spirit” and reflects the Christopher motto, “It’s better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.”

Tony Rossi, The Christophers’ Director of Communications, said, “The stories we’re honoring acknowledge that the struggles we endure in life coexist with beauty and hope when we work together, despite our differences, to add love and healing to our world.”

The Christophers, a nonprofit founded in 1945 by Maryknoll Father James Keller, is rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition of service to God and humanity. The ancient Chinese proverb—“It’s better to light one candle than to curse the darkness”— guides its publishing, radio, and awards programs. More information about The Christophers is available at www.christophers.org.