The Mercantile Library Center for Fiction announced on Wednesday the shortlist for its 2009 First Novel Prize. The ten-thousand-dollar award aims to promote the career of an emerging U.S. fiction writer by honoring his or her debut novel.
The finalists, whose books were all published in 2009, are:
Paul Harding for Tinkers (Bellevue Literary Press)
Yiyun Li for The Vagrants (Random House)
Philipp Meyer for American Rust (Spiegel & Grau)
John Pipkin for Woodsburner (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday)
Patrick Somerville for The Cradle (Little, Brown)
A committee of American writers selected the shortlisted books from a pool chosen by the Mercantile’s librarians, staff, and members.
The winner, announced on November 9, will join the ranks of One Story editor Hannah Tinti, who won the prize for The Good Thief (Dial Press, 2008); Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Díaz, honored for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Riverhead, 2007); and bestselling author Marisha Pessl, who received the prize for Special Topics in Calamity Physics (Viking, 2006). Tinti will present this year’s prize at the Center for Fiction's annual benefit in New York City, during which the Maxwell E. Perkins Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Field of Fiction will also be given to Gerald Howard, vice president and executive editor of Doubleday.
Check out a book trailer for The Cradle, touring the Wisconsin landscape for sites from the novel:
Here's an interview with Woodsburner author Pipkin, who talks about the process of writing the historical novel: