Ann Arbor, MI-Dzanc Books is excited to announce that Roy Kesey's novel, Pacazo, has been selected by Word Riot as winner of the 2012 Paula Anderson Book Award. The novel was published by Dzanc in January 2011 and we are very excited to have Pacazo continue to receive the sort of recognition it deserves.
The Paula Anderson Book Award is granted to the author of a work of literary fiction, either a novel or short story collection, that was published by a small or independent press in 2011. The award will honor a writer whose work embodies the bold spirit of Paula Anderson, the late co-founder of Word Riot Press. The title should have increased awareness of or otherwise drawn attention to the small press community because of the merit of the work.
Jackie Corley, of Word Riot, about the selection: "Pacazo is a masterful work, an ambitious work. The novel seamlessly ties in centuries of history, linguistics, even the political jockeying of academic life with the narrator's attempts to comprehend his wife's horrific last hours. We wanted our first selection for the Paula Anderson Book Award to not only display literary excellence but to transcend it. The epic scale ofPacazo is transfixing, and Dzanc Books is to be commended for championing such a compelling novel."
Steve Gillis, Dzanc's Co-Founder and Publisher, noted "Roy's novel is a masterwork. The story of a man recovering from and yet trying to solve his wife's death is given such nuanced treatment that there is simply no way to easily classify what Roy has achieved. Pacazo brilliantly combines modern prose with classic story telling. There is history, pathos and mystery in a book which literally sings to the reader for 500 pages. Dzanc could not be more pleased for Roy to win Word Riot's Paula Anderson Book Award and are honored to have Pacazo represent in spirit such a remarkable woman as Ms. Anderson. Kudos to Roy and much thanks to Word Riot."
About Roy Kesey
Roy Kesey was born and raised in northern California, and currently lives with his wife and children in Maryland.
He's the author of a novel called Pacazo (the January 2011 selection for The Rumpus Book Club), a collection of short stories, All Over, (a finalist for the Foreword MagazineBook of the Year Award, and one of The L Magazine's Best Books of the Decade), a novella, Nothing in the World, (winner of the Bullfight Media Little Book Award), and a historical guide to the city of Nanjing, China. In February 2013, Dzanc Books will publish his second collection of stories, Any Deadly Thing.
About Dzanc Books
Dzanc Books was created in 2006 to advance great writing and to impact communities nationally with our efforts to advance literary readership and our advocacy of creativewriting workshops and readings. As a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization, Dzanc Books not only publishes literary fiction, but works in partnership with literary journals to advance their readership at every level. Dzanc is also fully committed to developing educational programs in schools.
For more information on Dzanc Books and its mission, imprints, books, authors, awards, and programs, please visit www.dzancbooks.org.
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