A Meridian author has been awarded the 2014 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards silver medal for a youth e-book published by History Press.

    Richelle Putnam spent a year researching and writing "The Inspiring Life of Eudora Welty," which was published in April.  

    "It's very competitive," Putnam said. "It's a worldwide competition, so it was really a great honor for the book to be recognized in this competition."

    The book focuses on Welty's childhood in Jackson, where she began to enter writing competitions at the age of 9.

    "I tried to concentrate on mostly was her childhood because those were the formative years that really molded her into the writer she became as an adult," Putnam said.  

    Welty attended Mississippi State College for Women (now Mississippi University for Women) and finished at the University at Wisconsin. She also studied advertising at Columbia University.

    Welty lived in New York for a short time before returning home after her father died in 1931.

    "New York is where she wanted to be, actually," Putnam said. "She moved back to Jackson to help take care of her mother and her two brothers and found a way from Jackson, Mississippi to pursue her dream anyway and I think that says a lot about her."

    Welty is best known for her Pulitzer Prize winning novel "The Optimist's Daughter" and her Depression era photography.

    The book includes fine art illustrations by Putnam's son John Aycock.

    Putnam has had three other books published, "A Brief History of Lauderdale County, Mississippi," "Legendary Locals of Meridian" and a youth novel, "Fallout." She is currently working on two projects, "Mississippi: The Depression Years" with author Diane Williams and book about stories behind headstones throughout the state, including those of the Gypsy king and queen in Meridian.