Thunder Bay by William Kent Krueger (Atria) has won the annual Dilys Award, honoring the book that members of the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association most enjoyed selling last year. The announcement was made Saturday evening at the Left Coast Crime 2008 conference in Denver, Colo. Thunder Bay is the latest Krueger book featuring Cork O'Connor, a Minnesota sheriff turned PI.
The award is named for Dilys Winn, founder of the first specialty bookstore of mystery books in the U.S., Murder Ink.
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Glen Pourciau, author of the collection Invite, has won the 2008 Iowa Short Fiction Award, and Molly McNett, author of One Dog Happy, has won the 2008 John Simmons Short Fiction Award.
The judges wrote about Invite: "Intense inner and outer monologues resonate through the lives of Glen Pourciau's characters. We hear the voice of a man who will not stop talking, the voice of a man who does not want to talk, the voice of a man stunned into silence by his sudden awareness of a desire he did not know he felt, and the voice of a man struggling to accept his imminent death.
"Inhabiting an outwardly bland landscape that overlays internal questions and recurring confusion, the narrators of these ten intensely felt stories strive to understand their varied predicaments. Conflicts with neighbors arise, troubling memories return, suspicions and fears lead people into isolated corners as distances open up inside them and around them. And in those open spaces, the sometimes humorous, sometimes obsessive voices continue their quest. In the final story, 'Deep Wilderness,' the voices seem to fragment as a family comes apart.
"While his characters struggle to come to terms with their inner wilderness, Glen Pourciau's spare, riveting voice maintains a constant presence. Invite is a debut collection that speaks volumes."
Concerning McNett, the judges wrote: "In One Dog Happy, McNett couples laugh-out-loud dialogue and wry observation reminiscent of Flannery O'Connor with disquieting strains of dashed hope, troubled sexuality, and disillusionment. The adults in these stories can seem as hapless and helpless as the younger characters. Two neglected daughters use the language of clothes to cope with their parents' divorce and their father's mail-order bride. A young girl's bizarre sexual fantasies help her gain control over the chaos of her family life. A gang of teenagers accuse a farmer of bestiality. A divorced father tries to create a pony-filled world that might appeal to his daughters. In the title story, Mr. Bob, the minister's housesitter, loses a dog but finds someone to believe in. And in 'Helping,' the darkest story in this amazing collection, Ruthie's anger conquers her religious faith when she takes care of a severely disabled child."