R.w. Meek, a Santa Clarita resident, has won a top award at the The Palm Beach Book Festival for his book “The Dream Collector” published by Historium Press.

Meek has a Master’s degree in Art History from the American University in Washington, D.C., his areas of expertise are Impressionism and PostImpressionism, with a particular interest in Vincent van Gogh.

In addition to the Palm Beach Book Festival award “The Dream Collector” also received gold and silver medals in the Historical Fiction Company literary contest and earned runner-up for the “Best Historical Fiction’ of 2022.

Thee Palm Beach contest was judged by a panel of New York Times best selling authors.

“Our judges said this was hands down the best submission we ever received in 10 years of the Palm Beach Book Festival. A masterpiece in every sense of the word,” said Lois Cahall, founder/creative director of the Palm Beach Book Festival.

“The Dream Collector” is an historical fiction novel set in Belle Epoque Paris an exciting milieu of late 19th Century Paris when
art and medicine were in the throes of revolution, art turning to Impressionism, medicine turning to psychology.

The novel, set in 1885, begins when Julie Forette, a self-educated woman from Marseilles, finds employment at the infamous Salpêtrière, hospital and asylum to over 5,000 disabled, demented and abandoned women, a walled city ruled by the famed neurologist and arrogant director, Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot.

Forette forms a friendship with the young, visiting intern Sigmund Freud. Together they pursue the hidden potential of hypnotism and dream interpretation.

In 2022 and 2023 chapter excerpts from “The Dream Collector” were either finalists or published in various literary journals.

Visit his website and blogs to learn more, www.ronmeekauthor.com.