Bards of the Borough: Finalists Announced for Inaugural Brooklyn Book Prize

    by

    What book best captures Brooklyn’s zeitgeist? That’s the question on the minds of the book lovers behind the Brooklyn Eagles Literary Prize, who’ve just announced the finalists for this year’s inaugural contest.

    The shortlist — 15 fiction works and 14 nonfiction — was culled from nominations submitted by borough bookstores and staffers at Brooklyn’s public libraries.

    The prize was created by a group called the Brooklyn Eagles, who volunteer, raise money and otherwise advocate for the Brooklyn Public Library. They’re looking to honor “authors who have lived in Brooklyn, portrayed the borough in their work or addressed themes relevant to its life and culture.”

    That offers pretty wide latitude, and the finalists reflect that. They include a mystery novel set in Brownsville, a graphic novel about dating as a single parent, a book about the borough’s craft distillers, a history of Greenpoint, a guide to creative indoor planting, an oral history of gentrification, and even a “narrative set in Northern Europe in the 19th century with themes relevant to the Brooklyn of the 21st.”

    For a complete list of the chosen books, click here.

    As prize co-chair Charles Duhigg acknowledged in announcing the finalists, the selections “pose a challenging question: What book best embodies Brooklyn’s ideals?”

    That question now falls to a panel of authors and other literary mavens, who will pick one winner from each category. The awards will be presented on October 23 at the the Brooklyn Eagles’ annual fundraising gala.

    Photo by Alexander Staubo via Flickr

    What's Happening