Monday, April 28, 2008

from Starcherone Books

http://www.firstnovelist.vcu.edu/

Joshua Harmon's novel, Quinnehtukqut, has been named one of three finalists for the Virginia Commonwealth University First Novelist Award.

Quinnehtukqut traces the real and imagined travels of Martha Hennessy, a girl wishing for a life beyond her family's farm in Northern New Hampshire. In varied and musical language, Quinnehtukqut interweaves Martha's story with those of the dreamers and drifters whose lives intersect hers: an American soldier scarred by the first World War, a mythical and murderous tramp seeking lost Indian gold, a man haunted by his memories of Byrd's expeditions to Antarctica, an industrialist longing to become a woodsman, and an old woman forced to leave her home due to the planned flooding of a valley. Elegiac and lyrical, evocative and visionary, Quinnehtukqut reveals how people inhabit place and how place inhabits people through its vivid study of the New England landscape.

Quinnehtukqut was published in 2007 by the Buffalo, NY-based small press, Starcherone Books. It is the only one of the three finalists for the VCU prize published by an independent small press. The other two finalists were issued by Dial/Random House and Vintage/Penguin, respectively. The much-lauded first novel by Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, finished as a semi-finalist.

See more about Quinnehtukqut at http://www.starcherone.com/harmon.htm . It may be ordered from Starcherone directly or from your favorite bookseller.

2 Comments:

Blogger Verse said...

That's excellent news. I read an early draft of this back in 1999, and I've been delighted by the book's reception. Harmon also has a superb story collection available. And a book of poems!

When is your Starcherone book coming out?

Brian

7:34 PM  
Blogger Johannes said...

I'll have to look into this.

My book is coming out this fall.

12:57 PM  

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