{"id":38036,"date":"2017-09-01T22:41:43","date_gmt":"2017-09-02T04:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=38036"},"modified":"2018-09-20T22:42:56","modified_gmt":"2018-09-21T04:42:56","slug":"2017-15-bytes-book-award-creative-nonfiction-finalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/2017-15-bytes-book-award-creative-nonfiction-finalists\/","title":{"rendered":"2017 15 Bytes Book Award: Creative Nonfiction Finalists"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
\"\"The 5th Annual 15 Bytes Book Awards is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2017 Creative Nonfiction Award.<\/p>\n

As with all nominees, finalists were eligible for consideration if they were published professionally in 2016 and had a connection to Utah via themes, setting, or author\u2019s residence. The finalists were determined by 15 Bytes\u2019 staff and guest judges based on two criteria: quality of writing\/artistry and that\u00a0indefinable quality that makes a book special and unforgettable<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s finalists include the following (in no particular order):<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Patrick Madden<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Sublime Physick<\/strong>\u00a0(University of Nebraska Press), by Patrick Madden<\/p>\n

Patrick Madden<\/a>, in his book\u00a0Sublime Physick<\/em>, will make his reader laugh and think and self assess, all in one essay. This collection of essays, held together by a golden of thread of self discovery on the page and a literary theorist\u2019s reflection, leads the reader down an honest disassembling of Madden\u2019s own personal journeys as well as asks the reader to think about their own existence on this crazy spinning globe we all inhabit. His voice is as unique as it is approachable, not leaving anyone on the sidelines feeling less than worthy to read about some the of the high-minded\u00a0subjects as diverse as the Beatles, the life and work of Eduardo Galeano, and the nature of time itself. When reading this book, one feels in the presence of a truly extraordinary mind.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kevin Holdsworth<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Good Water<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>(University Press of Colorado<\/a>), by\u00a0Kevin Holdsworth\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Kevin Holdsworth\u2019s\u00a0Good Water<\/em>\u00a0presents the desert and mountains around Torrey, Utah as a landscape of contradictions, one that is harsh and nurturing, repellent and seductive, unforgiving and healing, and one that generates people who are passionate about their land and their way of life.<\/p>\n

Holdsworth braids his personal narrative as a survivor of life in rural Utah on the periphery of society with accounts of the nasty politics of land use, and with descriptions of the creative force that pulsates through the other worldly topography of south-central Utah. These essays are personal and historical, particular and political\u2014they allow the sacred beauty of the land to act as metaphor for the relationships that are both healthy and damaging\u2014and Holdsworth manages the conflicts and emotional angst with empathy and honest reflection.<\/p>\n

The essays in\u00a0Good Water<\/em>\u00a0treat with humanity the conflicts that are endemic to a place where ranchers contend with environmentalists. Holdsworth grapples with the rhetoric of place and with the needs of all the inhabitants of Wayne County, and his portrait is distinctive and inclusive. He appreciates all the people who love the land, even those who would use it in ways that he sees as harmful, but he also knows that one of the best ways to persuade people to take care of the earth is to help them see it the way he sees it\u2014as a \u201credemptive playground\u201d where the sacred and the aesthetic mingle and, where the wild is preserved, preserves something powerful and beautiful in us.<\/p>\n

You can read our review of the work\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Scott Abbott<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Immortal for Quite Some Time\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(University of Utah Press), by Scott Abbott<\/p>\n

No one is spared the harsh, brilliant scrutiny of\u00a0Scott Abbott<\/a>\u2018s\u00a0Immortal for Quite Some Time<\/em>\u2014not a memoir but \u201ca fraternal meditation on the question, \u2018Are we friends, my brother?’\u201d In 1991, Abbott, his sisters, and their mother traveled to Boise to retrieve the body of Abbot\u2019s younger brother, John, who\u2019d died of AIDS. Though the devout Mormon family disdained John\u2019s homosexuality, they tried to keep him close, preferring to know less, hoping he\u2019d change.\u00a0Immortal\u00a0<\/em>opens with the terrible unearthing of John\u2019s immediate past, a landscape of suffering and isolation littered with evidence of John\u2019s illness. Beer cans, too. But the family also hears anecdotes about his generosity, all these details sketching an ambiguous map of John\u2019s drift toward independence from family, faith, and the institution that rejected him, yet considered him savable.<\/p>\n

But for both John and Scott salvation would require obedience, the sublimation of sexual and intellectual questioning. What\u2019s unknown about John\u2019s pain and pleasures troubles Scott and his relations with his family, his colleagues at BYU, and the Mormon leadership.\u00a0Immortal\u00a0<\/em>patiently sifts through past and present conflicts\u2014some violent, others slow-burning\u2014intertwining the brothers\u2019 journals\u2014Scott\u2019s memories, dreams, and speculation touching John\u2019s ephemeral sketches and poetry, his questions and recipes. To be John\u2019s friend, to recover (not rehabilitate) him, to find John in himself, Scott necessarily turns the question \u201care we friends?\u201d on those around him, setting up a deeply moving struggle toward peace and independence in the brutal light of honesty and love.<\/p>\n

You can read our review of the work\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

#<\/p>\n

The winner of the award will be announced in September during the\u00a0Utah Humanities Book Festival<\/a>. Stay tuned for the award ceremonies and readings. \u00a0Finalists in fiction have been announced\u00a0here<\/a>, and those of poetry\u00a0here<\/a>. Finalists for art book will be announced soon.<\/p>\n

15 Bytes and its publisher Artists of Utah thanks everyone who nominated a book for this award and for their support of the literary arts in the Beehive State.<\/p>\n

Congratulations to the finalists!<\/h4>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 5th Annual 15 Bytes Book Awards is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2017 Creative Nonfiction Award. As with all nominees, finalists were eligible for consideration if they were published professionally in 2016 and had a connection to Utah via themes, setting, or author\u2019s residence. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":834,"featured_media":38037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3230,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-awards","category-literary-arts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/bookawardscreativenonfiction.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 12:27:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/834"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38036"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38038,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38036\/revisions\/38038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}