This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.
One of my favorite award short lists was announced this week, the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award. From their website:
Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award
From his home in Hartford, Mark Twain changed the way the world sees America and the way Americans see themselves.
Part of what makes Mark Twain’s work such an iconic piece of American history is the part he played in establishing a uniquely American voice in literature – especially with his 1885 masterpiece Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Just as Huckleberry Finn defined the voice of 19th-century America, The Mark Twain House & Museum looks to recognize modern voices that define our current America.
First presented in 2016, the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award honors a work of fiction from the previous calendar year that speaks with an “American Voice” about American experiences.
The award carries a $25,000 cash prize underwritten by bestselling author and former trustee of the Mark Twain House and Museum, David Baldacci.
The 4 finalists this year are:
by Ash Davidson
(Scribner)
A novel about love, work, and marriage that asks how far one family and one community will go to protect their future.
The Final Revival of Opal and Nev
by Dawnie Walton
(37 Ink)
A novel about the rise of an iconic interracial rock duo in the 1970s, their sensational breakup, and the dark secrets unearthed when they try to reunite decades later.
The Five Wounds
by Kirsten Valdez Quade
(W.W. Norton & Company)
A debut novel about a New Mexican family’s extraordinary year of love and sacrifice.
Virtue
by Hermione Hoby
(Riverhead Books)
A novel of youth, desire, and moral conflict, in which a young man is seduced by the mirage of glamour—at terrible cost.
The first thing you may notice is that these titles are not brand new. This award is normally a full year behind. So these are titles that came out in 2021. This is wonderful for you because these are titles that I know you own AND they are probably on he shelf right now.
But what I also love about this award is that it recognizes the "American" experience as captured in a novel and the committee loves genre and marginalized voices. As they should because those authors and story types capture a wider view of America.
Last year I wrote at length about Stephen Graham Jones winning this award for The Only Good Indians which it a MASTERPIECE of American literature. In that post I also talk about why this award is such a great resource. Click through for more on that.
Also of note, when I wrote about this award last year here, I also posted the long list for the Carnegie Medal [for which I am on the selection committee this year] and The Five Wounds was on that list.
Speaking of the Carnegie Medal, believe it or not, our longlist is due at the end of THIS MONTH! So that announcement will be coming soon as well. Which reminds me, I have some books to read.
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