Barbara Kingsolver is pleased to announce the 2002 winner of the
Bellwether Prize for Fiction. Gayle Brandeis will receive the
$25,000 award for her novel, The Book of Dead Birds, to be released
in 2003 from HarperCollins Publishers. Brandeis, of Riverside,
California, holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University,
and has been involved with community programs for many years, as a
volunteer and through her writing. This year’s judges were writers
Maxine Hong Kingston, Toni Morrison, and editor Terry Karten.
After learning that she was the winner, Brandeis expressed generous
gratitude when she told Barbara Kingsolver that the Bellwether
Prize "has created more space in our culture for people to write
from their deepest passion and conviction." Brandeis underscored
her own support for the goals of the Bellwether Prize, stating she
believes in creating literature "that is both artful and socially
aware, literature that celebrates our short time on this abundant
earth while it also illuminates where and how we need to change."
The winning novel, The Book of Dead Birds, intertwines themes of
environmental and cultural impact in an expansive narrative that
extends from rural Korea to the Salton Sea of southern California.
Prize founder Kingsolver called it "exactly the kind of book we
were looking for. It’s lyrical, imaginative, beautifully crafted
and deeply intelligent. Before anything else, its characters take
you by the heart."
The Bellwether Prize is awarded in even-numbered years to an author
who has not yet published a major novel. Manuscripts are judged
without knowledge of authorship until the final selection is made.
For more information see www.bellwetherprize.org.
