Best Local Author

When Atlanta author Blake Butler's surrealist domestic novel There Is No Year showed up in the New York Times Book Review earlier this year, critic Joseph Salvatore waxed equal parts ecstatic and befuddled. In his effort to describe the language-driven tale of a mother, father and son, he dropped names like William Faulkner, Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. And then he declined to take a stab at interpreting what the book might be about. This is true in much of the criticism around Butler's work: Whether critics love him or hate him (and there are plenty of both) they seem to have no clue what to do with his work. That reaction speaks to There Is No Year's visceral power: It will run through your body as much as your mind and probably leave you mumbling to yourself for days. www.gillesdeleuzecommittedsuicideandsowilldrphil.com. less...

Terms like "subtlety," "innocence," and "whimsy" seldom describe contemporary graphic novels, but of all the creators in our lively, local comic book scene, Lilburn's ANDY RUNTON produces the most persistently impressive work with his dialogue-free, kid-oriented title Owly, which gives "cute" a good name. Move over, Winnie the Pooh. www.andyrunton.com/comics.html less...

Scorch Atlas author BLAKE BUTLER doesn't just write fiction, he creates interlocking worlds, apocalyptic visions raining gravel or glass or glitter. His thin volumes swell to the size of several books as you read them. Catch him locally at his Solar Anus reading series, where he's usually introducing other talents from small and independent presses. www.gillesdeleuzecommittedsuicideandsowilldrphil.com less...

After reading MARA SHALHOUP's vivid and kaleidoscopic exploration of the Black Mafia Family, BMF: The Rise and Fall of Big Meech and the Black Mafia Family, you'll never be able to look at Atlanta's streets, Buckhead's mansions, or a line of cocaine the same again. Whether she's recounting the bright lights and big heads at a high-end nightclub or parsing the machinations of a Byzantine federal investigation, Shalhoup is a sure-footed investigator of organized crime. www.bmfbook.com

Full disclosure: Shalhoup is CL's editor in chief. Arts freelancer Wyatt Williams chose Shalhoup for this award and wrote the blurb. We trust that Wyatt was in no way influenced by Shalhoup's role at CL when he made this selection.

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We're crazy about JACK PENDARVIS. We aspire to write stories and humor pieces as clever, fresh and seemingly effortless as his Pushcart Prize-winning work. We're thoroughly amused by his first short-story collection, The Mysterious Secret of the Valuable Treasure and this year's follow-up, Your Body Is Changing, particularly the title novella. We get a kick out of his blog, and can't wait for his first novel, Awesome, to come out next year. We also think he's a nice guy. jackpendarvis.blogspot.com less...

We’re crazy about JACK PENDARVIS. We aspire to write stories and humor pieces as clever, fresh and seemingly effortless as his Pushcart Prize-winning work. We’re thoroughly amused by his first short-story collection, The Mysterious Secret of the Valuable Treasure and this year’s follow-up, Your Body Is Changing, particularly the title novella. We get a kick out of his blog, and can’t wait for his first novel, Awesome, to come out next year. We also think he’s a nice guy.

jackpendarvis.blogspot.com

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In the Owly series of graphic novels published by Marietta’s Top Shelf Productions, Lilburn native ANDY RUNTON gives “wholesome” a good name through the black-and-white, family-friendly adventures of a young owl and his nature-loving pals. Despite the simple stories, Runton’s work achieves surprising emotional depth and, given the lack of dialogue, narrative sophistication. Runton’s Owly even makes “cute” kind of cool, without being kitschy. ''www.andyrunton.com .
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