{"id":46401,"date":"2019-07-21T08:30:56","date_gmt":"2019-07-21T14:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=46401"},"modified":"2019-08-07T14:27:29","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T20:27:29","slug":"james-mclaughlin-wins-15-bytes-book-award-for-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/james-mclaughlin-wins-15-bytes-book-award-for-fiction\/","title":{"rendered":"James McLaughlin Wins 15 Bytes Book Award for Fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>James McLaughlin has been awarded this year\u2019s 15 Bytes Book Award for Fiction for his debut novel Bearskin,<\/em>\u00a0published by Ecco.<\/p>\n

James McLaughlin holds law and MFA degrees from the University of Virginia. He grew up in the mountains of Virginia and now lives in the Wasatch Range east of Salt Lake City.\u00a0<\/em>He is the recipient of the 2019 Edgar Award for Best First Novel, and a finalist for several other first novel awards.\u00a0Bearskin\u00a0<\/em>has received outstanding reviews in\u00a0The New York Times, The Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, and USA Today<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In naming the book as a finalist for the prize, the jurors said:<\/p>\n

James McLaughlin employs vivid descriptions, expansive setting, and multiple layers of plot to draw the reader into an adventure that is not soon forgotten.\u00a0Bearskin<\/em>\u00a0is a mystery set in the rural wilderness of a game preserve in the mountains of western Virginia where Rice Moore must sacrifice the safety of his solitude to investigate the poaching of several bears on the preserve. We learn gradually of Rice\u2019s former life as a smuggler along the Mexican border, a violent past that threatens to catch up with him if he is not diligent in protecting his identity. McLaughlin provides us with a protagonist who is dedicated to justice, but recognizes his own fallibility, a hero who chooses to protect the vulnerable at the cost of confronting his own troubled past.<\/p>\n

In addition to the excitement of the primary plotline, McLaughlin also provides insight on conservation, solitude, and man\u2019s relationship with the wild. Rather than impose a particular system of values on the reader, McLaughlin illustrates several points and raises questions for us to consider long after reaching the final page of the novel.\u00a0It is a page turner that is also an impressive piece of literary fiction.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Michael Ferry wrote about the book for us\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since 2013, Artists of Utah has recognized excellence in publishing associated with Utah and Utah writers with its annual 15 Bytes Book Awards. Books published in the previous calendar year written by a Utah writer or with a Utah connection are considered by a panel of invited jurors in the categories of art book, fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction. A small cash prize is awarded to the winner.<\/p>\n

Tokyo\u00a0<\/em>(Fiction Collective 2) by Michael Mejia and\u00a0American Fork (<\/em>Roundfire Books) by George B. Handley were finalists for this year\u2019s fiction award.\u00a0See here<\/a>\u00a0for more on the finalists.<\/p>\n

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The 7th annual 15 Bytes Book Awards are made possible with a generous grant from:
\n\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James McLaughlin has been awarded this year\u2019s 15 Bytes Book Award for Fiction for his debut novel Bearskin,\u00a0published by Ecco. James McLaughlin holds law and MFA degrees from the University of Virginia. He grew up in the mountains of Virginia and now lives in the Wasatch Range east […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46402,"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-46401","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\/2019\/07\/james_mclaughlin.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-18 00:04:58","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\/46401","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46401"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47061,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46401\/revisions\/47061"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}