Press
The BookFest - Fall 2026 - What happens when an adventure across the stars becomes a journey of self discovery? Triple Gold BookFest Award Winner Christian Hurst invites readers into the “Lily Starling” universe, where found family, queer identity, political intrigue, and ancient secrets collide. Explore how “Lily Starling and the Voyage of the Salamander” uses the sweeping possibilities of space opera to tell an intimate story of identity and emotional growth. This spotlight celebrates science fiction’s power to take readers to distant worlds while asking deeply human questions about who we are and where we belong.
LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, September 17, 2026 - BookFest Award Winner Spotlight: Christian Hurst: Starships, Secrets, and Self Discovery in “Lily Starling”
The BookFest Founder Desireé Duffy says, “The BookFest is about bringing people together through stories, and this Fall’s programming reflects the many ways books can inform, challenge, and connect us. I look forward to this fall’s event and all the conversations and discussions that stem from the curated programming.”
PITTSBURGH, Pa. - September 3, 2026 - Outpost Books is proud to announce that Lily Starling and the Storm Riders by Christian Hurst has won Silver in the Young Adult Science Fiction category of the Readers' Favorite International Book Awards.
PITTSBURGH, Pa. - July 15, 2026 - Outpost Books is proud to announce that author Christian Hurst has received the Gold Medal for Best First Book - Juvenile/Young Adult in the 2026 Independent Publisher Book Awards for his debut novel, Lily Starling and the Voyage of the Salamander.
Presented by the Jenkins Group, the Independent Publisher Book Awards-widely known as the IPPY Awards-recognize excellence in independent publishing. The annual program honors books released by independent authors, university presses, and small publishers from around the world. The awards are celebrating their 30th anniversary this year.
Yahoo! Entertainment - July 24, 2026 - Christian Hurst is an award-winning science fiction author, graphic designer, and brand strategist based in Meadville, Pennsylvania. Drawing on a lifelong passion for classic space opera and character-driven storytelling, Hurst crafts expansive galactic adventures grounded in emotional realism, humor, and inclusive representation.
The Meadville Tribune - July 24, 2026 - Christian Hurst is an award-winning science fiction author, graphic designer, and brand strategist based in Meadville, Pennsylvania. Drawing on a lifelong passion for classic space opera and character-driven storytelling, Hurst crafts expansive galactic adventures grounded in emotional realism, humor, and inclusive representation.
Kirkus Reviews - August 2026 - Hurst has crafted a richly detailed sci-fi world, with extensive descriptions and atmospheric prose—The plot is intricate and compelling.
North Penn Now - June 2026 - Hurst’s debut opens with a strong hook: a teenager wakes aboard a spaceship with no memories, only a name tag and an inexplicable facility with complex mathematics. The amnesia trope is a familiar one in science fiction, often used as a heavy-handed way to spoon-feed exposition to the reader. However, Hurst subverts this expectation by immediately anchoring his protagonist with a tangible, practical skill. Lily’s mathematical aptitude provides her with immediate agency and utility, allowing her to process her environment rather than simply panicking within it.
PITTSBURGH, PA, UNITED STATES - April 16, 2026 - Author Christian Hurst earns top honors for the first book in his Lily Starling series as the third installment prepares for release April 30. “This recognition is incredibly meaningful,” said Hurst. “The goal has always been to tell a story that feels expansive but still grounded in the people at its center. To see it resonate at this level is something I’m very grateful for.”
LOS ANGELES - June 11, 2026 = The National Indie Excellence® Awards (NIEA) is proud to announce the results of its landmark 20th Annual competition. For two decades, the NIEA has served as a highly respected honor in independent publishing, celebrating exceptional books from self-published authors, small to mid-sized presses, and university presses across all genres.
Lily Starling and the Death Machine by Christian Hurst wins Best Book - Young Adult - Fantasy/Sci-fi.
MSN - July 2026 - Christian Hurst, a corporate Executive Creative Director, took a different approach: he treated his debut as a brand launch. Hurst has said in interviews that his background in brand marketing and design—not his creative writing experience—was the real advantage in bringing Lily Starling and the Voyage of the Salamander to market, from Big Five–caliber cover design to the advertising strategy behind the series.
Quantum of Light - July 2026 - Since April, Christian Hurst's Lily Starling series has added an IPPY Gold Medal, a Kirkus recommendation and an audiobook, with two more novels on the way.
Vents Magazine - June 2026 - To bring this expansive universe to life in audio, Hurst partnered with narrator Aryn Mello Pryor, whose nuanced performance captured the vulnerability hiding just beneath Lily’s dry, pragmatic humour. In this exclusive interview, the duo discusses the alchemy of their collaboration, the universal challenge of finding where you belong, and why sometimes, the only sane response to a chaotic universe is to laugh and keep moving forward.
Rich Books Magazine - April 2026 - Christian Hurst writes his Lily Starling novels on evenings and weekends, between a day job in advertising and a house full of rescue beagles. This month one of them quietly took First Place in three categories at the BookFest 2026 awards, and it is one of the warmest, most character-driven space operas you will read this year.
Park Magazine - May 2026 - Enter Christian Hurst, a Pennsylvania-based author and creative director who is redefining the genre with his acclaimed debut, Lily Starling and the Voyage of the Salamander. With over fifteen years of experience in visual storytelling and branding, Hurst brings a unique emotional nuance to his writing. He crafts inclusive, character-driven narratives that recently earned him three top honors at The BookFest. In this interview, we sit down with Hurst to discuss his creative process, the importance of found family in fiction, and how he uses the cosmos to explore what it truly means to be human.
CB Herald - May 2026 - Lily Starling and the Voyage of the Salamander received top honors in Sci-Fi Space Opera, Young Adult Sci-Fi, and LGBTQ+ Sci-Fi, marking a notable multi-category win for an independently published title. The BookFest, a national literary awards program recognizing both traditionally and independently published works, highlights emerging and established voices across genres.
Pittsburgh, PA - Feb 2026 - Outpost Books is pleased to announce that screen and stage actor Aryn Mello Pryor has been cast as the narrator for the audiobook edition of Lily Starling and the Voyage of the Salamander, written by Christian Hurst. The audiobook is scheduled for release on Audible later in 2026.
Pittsburgh, PA - Feb 2026 - Outpost Books is pleased to announce that screen and stage actor Aryn Mello Pryor has been cast as the narrator for the audiobook edition of Lily Starling and the Voyage of the Salamander, written by Christian Hurst. The audiobook is scheduled for release on Audible later in 2026.