powellitzer

Like lots of people, I was perplexed when I heard they'd awarded no Pulitzer Prize in fiction this year. What this seemed to be saying was that with all the remarkable lit books that came out in 2011, nothing was worthy - which sort of felt like an insult to everyone. I know there's more to it than this, but it got my nanny anyway.

It also sparked a bit of an idea. I spoke to some folks at Powell's and put together an image, and a quick, little display was born in the Blue Room [Literature] at Powell's City of Books. Our picks for the Powellitzer Prize.

The Blue Room and our book buyers had a good time with it, which made it a really fun project. They chose a short list of six lovely, smart books:

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach,

Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman,

Open City by Teju Cole,

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward,

West of Here by Jonathan Evison

and my favorite, Zazen by Vanessa Veselka.

Had I had more time to make the graphic, I may have gone more Portland and made him a hipster on a bicycle, but I figured staying with classical was best.

[when i was a kid, i thought it was the pulit surprise.]