The Mark Twain House & Museum has named Stephen Graham Jones as the winner of this year's $25,000 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award, which recognizes a work of fiction "that best exemplifies or expresses a uniquely American voice," for his novel The Only Good Indians. Jones will be honored at an in-person event December 1 in Hartford, Conn., where he will be in conversation with David Baldacci, the award's founder and benefactor.
"From the opening chapters of The Only Good Indians you know you're in the assured hands of a master storyteller," said Baldacci, a trustee of the Mark Twain House & Museum.
Judge Donna Larcen commented: "The best horror stories delve into the imagination and let the reader fill in the details. Stephen Graham Jones turns that on its head by letting his characters' imaginations run wild." Judge Olivia White noted that Jones "artfully places the reader in the novel's scenes and in the culture. His veritable American voice is clear, gripping and very deserving of recognition," while Jacques Lamarre said the author "manages to have strikingly modern characters literally haunted by the ancient traditions and spirits they have turned their backs on. The book is a horror novel, a revenge story, a Native American folktale gone horribly wrong, and a deep look into the dark heart of America."