Coffee House Press book on short list for Kirkus Prize

"The Story of My Teeth," by Valeria Luiselli is up against the formidable "Fates and Furies" and five others.

September 30, 2015 at 4:23PM
(The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Valeria Luiselli
Valeria Luiselli (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

The Kirkus Prize, now in its second year, is one of the most lucrative writing awards in the country. Winners in three categories each receive $50,000.

Any book that received a starred review in Kirkus Reviews is eligible. The short list, announced today, was decided by a panel of judges.

This year, Coffee House Press has a novel on the short list--"The Story of My Teeth," by Valeria Luiselli.

Here's the whole list, with links to Star Tribune reviews, when available:

FICTION

The Incarnations by Susan Barker (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster)
A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
‪Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff (Riverhead Books)
The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli; translated by Christina MacSweeney (Coffee House Press)
The Book of Aron by Jim Shepard (Alfred A. Knopf)
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (Doubleday)

NONFICTION

Between the World and Me: Notes on the First 150 Years in America by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Spiegel & Grau)
Whirlwind: The American Revolution and the War That Won It by John Ferling (Bloomsbury)
H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald (Grove Press)
The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931 by Adam Tooze (Viking)
Pacific: Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators, Fading Empires, and the Coming Collision of the World's Superpowers by Simon Winchester (Harper)
The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World by Andrea Wulf (Alfred A. Knopf)

YOUNG READERS' LITERATURE

The New Small Person by Lauren Child (Candlewick)
Lillian's Right to Vote: A Celebration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by Jonah Winter; illustrated by Shane W. Evans (Schwartz & Wade/Random House)

:Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan (Scholastic)

Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras by Duncan Tonatiuh (Abrams)

The Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbrough (Levine/Scholastic)
Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older (Levine/Scholastic)

The winners will be announced Oct. 15 in Austin, Texas.

about the writer

about the writer

Laurie Hertzel

Senior Editor

Freelance writer and former Star Tribune books editor Laurie Hertzel is at lauriehertzel@gmail.com.

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