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Indiana Authors Awards Honoree

Axton Betz Hamilton

Axton Betz-Hamilton

2020 Nonfiction Shortlist

Axton Betz-Hamilton is the author of The Less People Know About Us: A Mystery of Betrayal, Family Secrets, and Stolen Identity, which received the 2020 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime. A Portland, Indiana native, she graduated from Jay County High School, where she was a member of the Academic and Speech Teams. She was also a 10-year member of Jay County 4-H. Even though she is a native of Portland, she spent much of her free time as a child in Winchester, Indiana, skating at the Starlite Skating Center and making holiday fruit baskets at the Winchester Marsh store.

Betz-Hamilton earned a B.S. in agricultural economics and an M.S. in consumer sciences and retailing, both from Purdue University. She also earned a Ph.D. in human development and family studies from Iowa State University and a graduate certificate in family financial planning from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Currently, she is an assistant professor of consumer affairs at South Dakota State University. She and her husband, Robert, have six cats.


See the entire nonfiction shortlist or learn more about the 2020 Awards.