WINNER OF THE 2002 BELLWETHER PRIZE
GAYLE BRANDEIS
Barbara Kingsolver is pleased to announce the 2002 winner of the Bellwether Prize for Fiction. Gayle Brandeis, of Riverside, California, received the $25,000 award for her novel, The Book of Dead Birds, HarperCollins Publishers, spring 2003. Brandeis holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University, and has been involved with community programs for many years, as a volunteer and through her writing.
Brandeis said the Bellwether Prize "has created more space in our culture for people to write from their deepest passion and conviction," and believes in creating literature "that is both artful and socially aware, literature that celebrates our short time on this abundant earth while it also illuminates where and how we need to change."
The Book of Dead Birds intertwines themes of environmental and cultural impact in an expansive narrative that extends from rural Korea to the Salton Sea of southern California. Kingsolver said "it's exactly the kind of book we were looking for. It's lyrical, imaginative, beautifully crafted and deeply intelligent. Before anything else, its characters take you by the heart."
Judges for the 2002 winner were writers Maxine Hong Kingston, and Toni Morrison, and editor Terry Karten. All manuscripts are judged anonymously.
