Window Shopping for God by Deborah Kimmett named 2024 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards Winner

Douglas & McIntyre is pleased to announce Window Shopping for God: A Comedian’s Search for Meaning by Deborah Kimmett has won Silver in the 27th annual Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards in the Humor category.

Foreword Reviews, a book review journal focusing on independently published books, announced the winners of its INDIES Book of the Year Awards today. These awards celebrate the outstanding books published in 2024 by small, independent, and university presses. 

“After Foreword‘s editorial team completes the gargantuan task of narrowing down entrants to the top ten-plus titles, we pass our finalist selections on to those whose opinions mean so much to us and to readers—librarians and booksellers,” says Editor-in-Chief Michelle Schingler. “These industry frontliners then do the careful work of telling us which three titles stand out the most. We’re always delighted to learn their final choices and to celebrate the ultimate winners alongside their authors and publishers.”

With over 2,400 entries submitted across 55 categories, this year’s competition showcased the remarkable talent and diversity of the independent publishing industry. Foreword’s editors carefully selected approximately 12 finalists per genre, which were then presented to individual librarians and booksellers entrusted with the challenging task of determining the Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Honorable Mention winners.

Window Shopping for God is the story of Kimmett’s lifelong flip through the catalog of beliefs—from her teen years, when a near-death experience gave her a new, less Catholic perspective, to her struggles with addiction and mental health that led her in and out of faith—and her search, as a woman in her sixties, for meaning that could finally plant her on firmer ground. Unflinchingly honest and wildly funny, Kimmett’s writing takes us down the serpentine routes we travel in our search for certainty, and the more familiar paths that bring us back to ourselves.

Deborah Kimmett is a trailblazer in Canadian comedy. She has been a guest on CBC’s The Debaters for seventeen years. Her last comedy album, Downward Facing Broad, reached number 5 on iTunes. She is the author of Reality Is Over Rated, Outrunning Crazy and That Which Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Funnier, and her play Miracle Mother was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award. Kimmett has also been a contributing columnist for More Magazine, Kingston Life, Toronto Life, Canadian Living and the Toronto Star. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.