Barnes & Noble Announces 2002 Discover Great New Writers Awards

Posted on April 25, 2003

Barnes & Noble Inc. has announced that Anthony Doerr, author of the short-story collection The Shell Collector (Scribner/Penguin), and Dina Temple-Raston, author of A Death in Texas (Henry Holt), have been named the winners of the tenth annual Discover Great New Writers Awards for fiction and nonfiction, respectively. Two panels of literary jurists also selected two additional fiction and two additional nonfiction writers for prizes, and for the first time, the fiction judges gave "Honorable Mentions" to three novelists. The awards were presented earlier this evening at a special ceremony at the Barnes & Noble store on Union Square in New York City.

Debut novelist Julie Otsuka, author of When the Emperor Was Divine (Knopf), and Matthew Hart's Diamond (Walker & Company/Plume) took second place in fiction and nonfiction, respectively, and Alice Sebold's novel The Lovely Bones (Little, Brown) and Ted Kooser's Local Wonders (University of Nebraska Press) received third-place honors.

The fiction jurists also insisted on giving three novelists an "honorable mention." The three novelists are Bonnie Jo Campbell, the author of Q Road (Scribner); Terrence Cheng, author of Sons of Heaven (William Morrow); and Jeremy Jackson, the author of Life at These Speeds (St. Martin's Press).

The 2002 Discover Awards honor the works of the best new literary talents featured in the Barnes & Noble "Discover Great New Writers" program during the 2002 calendar year as chosen by a jury panel of literary judges. In 2002, the Discover Great New Writers program featured the work of 77 new fiction and nonfiction writers.

Anthony Doerr and Dina Temple-Raston were each awarded cash prizes of $10,000, and a year of additional marketing and advertising support. Mr. Doerr and Ms. Temple-Raston join the ranks of past winners, including last year's winners, Manil Suri, author of the novel, The Death of Vishnu, and Hampton Sides, the author of Ghost Soldiers. Other past winners include Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl with a Pearl Earring; David Guterson, author of Snow Falling on Cedars; and Chang-rae Lee, author of Native Speaker.

Second-place winners, Julie Otsuka and Matthew Hart, each received $2,500. Alice Sebold and Ted Kooser, third-place recipients, each took home $1,000. All six finalists received engraved crystal awards from Tiffany & Co.

Three distinguished writers -- Tony Earley, Colum McCann, and Anita Shreve, whose early work was featured in the Discover program, formed the jury panel for this year's fiction award. Mr. Earley's short-story collection, Here We Are in Paradise, was tapped for the Discover program in 1994. Mr. McCann's novel, Songdogs, was chosen for the Discover program in 1995, and he has recently published a new novel, Dancer. Ms. Shreve's novel, Strange Fits of Passion, was selected for the Discover program in 1991. Now a bestselling author of numerous novels, her most recent success is Sea Glass.