Local author Sherman Alexie was recently nominated for the PEN/Faulkner award for his story collection, War Dances. Tuesday, the announcement came...Alexie it is! Among other, he joins company with Philip Roth, John Updike and E.L. Doctorow.
Alexie, who grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation and currently lives in Seattle, has previously won a National Book award for Young People's Literature and a Pushcart Prize, among countless other awards and fellowships. He has also been selected for the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award.
For the PEN/Faulkner selection process, the judges considered close to 350 novels and short story collections by American authors published in the US during the 2009 calendar year. The submissions came from over 90 publishing houses, including small and academic presses.
The PEN/Faulkner is the largest peer-juried prize for fiction in the US. Alexie's fellow nominees include Barbara Kingsolver for The Lacuna, Lorraine M. López for Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories, Lorrie Moore for A Gate at the Stairs and Colson Whitehead for Sag Harbor. The winner will receive $15,000 while the other nominees will receive $5,000 apiece.
War Dances is a collection of short stories and poems. "That book was the one we all liked immediately," said Kyoko Mori, one of the three judges. "There was something special about the range of characters. It was like watching a dance. I liked how some of the characters were unlikable but compelling."
Get Lit! would like to congratulate this beloved author.
IN OTHER NEWS:
Festival author, Victor Lodato, received the 2009 Barnes and Noble Discover Award for Fiction with his debut novel Mathilda Savitch. Pick it up early and then join the facebookclub with Michael Bowen at "Inlander Book Club."
Watch for a feature by festival author, Sallie Tisdale, coming out in the April issue of Harper's. It is about raising an child with special needs. Watch for it on the racks!
FREE DOWNLOAD! Author Renee Riva just gave us a heads up that her novel, Saving Sailor, will be offered as a free download on Kindle through the end of March! Saving Sailor is the first in a trilogy, with the other two books being Taking Tuscany and Heading Home (April 1). The trilogy follows a family of seven in the 1960's, and Saving Sailor focuses on the relationship between a ten-year-old girl named A.J. and her dog Sailor.
