2006 VCU First Novelist Award Finalists Named

The three finalists have been named for the 2006 VCU First Novelist Award, and there's a bit of EWN flavor here:

Dean Bakopoulos - Please Don't Come Back From the Moon - Harcourt

Uzodinma Iweala - Beasts of No Nation - HarperCollins

Karen Fisher - A Sudden Country - Random House

 

These are the finalists after the folks running the award had already broken the 100 plus novels submitted down to a short list which also included:

Mark Kurlansky - Boogaloo on 2nd Avenue - Ballantine Books
Olga Grushin - The Dream Life of Sukhanov - G.P. Putnam's Sons
Kirstin Allio - Garner - Coffee House Press
Stefan Kiesbye - Next Door Lived a Girl - Low Fidelity Press
Scott Simon - Pretty Birds - Random House
Peter Pouncey - Rules for Old Men Waiting - Random House
Elizabeth McKenzie - Stop That Girl - Random House
Alicia Erian - Towelhead - Simon & Schuster
Colleen Curran - Whores on the Hill - Vintage Books

A pretty impressive list of books.  The Bakopoulos would be my favorite to win - of course I've not read the Fisher, but will be reviewing the Iweala this week and it will see a solid 4 star rating.

I have a copy of the Kurlansky novel somewhere around here, but may never get to it - I loved Cod though, his earlier non-fiction effort.  Towelhead is still in my TBR pile though, along with Erian's short story collection.

I've skimmed Stefan Kiesbye's Next Door Lived a Girl and have it set to read within the next couple of weeks with another Lofi effort - Jason Ockert's story collection, Rabbit Punches.  You have to be impressed by the sight of the Kiesbye novel, from the very small press, Low Fidelity Press, as well as the inclusion of Garner from Coffee House Press.  Nice to see some truly Emerging Writers finding their way into the struggles with the much bigger boys and girls.  The folks at each of those publishers should be very proud.

And I'm letting a bit of bias show in that last paragraph as I personally know Jeff Parker, who helps run Lofi, and Stefan Kiesbye - and both are extremely nice guys as well as talented.  And for what I assume are obvious reasons, I have to love seeing the success of Allio's Garner, an LBC Read This! selection, as well as Tournament of Books nominee, short list for this award, and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times First Fiction Award.

Comments

[steven gillis]

Much congratulations to Dean! On a personal note, great to see Stefan's wonderful novel named as a finalist. Stefan is, indeed, a great guy and wonderful writer. And also true, Lofidelity is a really sharp indie press and Jeff Parker and his crew are doing an amazing turn at publishing truly gifted writers.

[Michelle]

I loved Dean Bakopoulos's novel...just gorgeous! I'm happy he's a finalist.