{"id":87328,"date":"2024-10-06T18:10:05","date_gmt":"2024-10-07T01:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=87328"},"modified":"2024-10-05T21:30:28","modified_gmt":"2024-10-06T04:30:28","slug":"karin-anderson-lance-olsen-and-stacie-shannon-denetsosie-are-finalists-for-this-years-15-bytes-award-for-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/karin-anderson-lance-olsen-and-stacie-shannon-denetsosie-are-finalists-for-this-years-15-bytes-award-for-fiction\/","title":{"rendered":"Karin Anderson, Lance Olsen and Stacie Shannon Denetsosie are Finalists for this Year’s 15 Bytes Award for Fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since its inception in 2013, the 15 Bytes Book Awards have honored exceptional books by Utah authors or those with a Utah connection, showcasing the diverse voices in the state’s literary landscape. Artists of Utah is proud to announce the finalists for this year’s award in Fiction. The finalists were determined by 15 Bytes\u2019 staff and guest judges based on the overall conception of the book and the quality of the writing.<\/h4>\n

The finalists for our 12th annual award are (in no particular order):<\/h4>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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What Falls Away, Karin Anderson, Torrey House Press<\/strong><\/h4>\n

In What Falls Away<\/em>, Karin Anderson creates a stunning exploration of family, art, and the raw process of healing. The novel follows Cassandra Soelberg, who, after being cast out by her religious community as a pregnant teenager, returns to her rural Utah hometown nearly forty years later to care for her senile mother. As she confronts the traumatic memories of her past, she meets a young man who uncannily resembles the father of the child she was forced to give up for adoption. Set against the fiercely beautiful landscapes of Utah, Anderson\u2019s novel captures Cassandra\u2019s journey of reconciliation as she grapples with her past and the landscapes that shaped her.<\/h4>\n

Not unlike the historical epoch from which it emerged, What Falls Away<\/em> looks back in anger at a patriarchal order while looking ahead with hope. Anderson crafts a compelling narrative in which Cassandra, now a professional artist, is drawn back into the familial and societal dynamics of her youth. The novel delves into issues of gender roles, premarital sex, adoption, and the clash between old and new values in the Latter-day Saint community, addressing these controversial topics with both candor and precision (see our review<\/a>).<\/h4>\n

Karin Anderson\u2019s prose is powerful, weaving together the characters\u2019 experiences with an eloquent narrative style that reflects the nuances of Utah\u2019s landscapes and the complexity of personal and societal struggles. What Falls Away<\/em> is a provocative and moving novel that challenges the reader to reconsider what falls away and what endures.<\/h4>\n

Karin Anderson<\/strong> is a gardener, writer, and English professor who hails from the Great Basin of Utah.<\/em><\/h4>\n
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Always Crashing in the Same Car, Lance Olsen, University of Alabama Press<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Lance Olsen\u2019s Always Crashing in the Same Car<\/em> is a prismatic, imaginative exploration of David Bowie\u2019s final days. This intricate collage-novel fuses and confuses fact with fiction, weaving together multiple perspectives\u2014including Bowie himself, an academic working on a monograph about him, and those within his orbit. Set during Bowie\u2019s last months as he worked on his acclaimed final album Black Star<\/em> while battling liver cancer, the novel delves into questions of identity, legacy, and the fluidity of time and memory. Through a kaleidoscopic narrative that traverses Bowie\u2019s exhilarating life, Olsen enacts a poetics of impermanence, capturing the fleeting nature of art, love, and even death.<\/h4>\n

Our review<\/a> notes that Always Crashing in the Same Car<\/em> challenges readers with its blend of historical fact and fictional invention, offering a profound meditation on the nature of art and fame. As the novel explores Bowie\u2019s life, it wrestles with the idea of living for acclaim while maintaining an aura of authenticity. Olsen\u2019s narrative, filled with vivid and often bewildering flashbacks, imagines Bowie\u2019s life as a hallucinogenic trip through time, blurring the lines between past and present, fact and fantasy. The novel culminates in two contradictory yet revelatory endings, reflecting the paradoxes inherent in both Bowie\u2019s life and the human condition.<\/h4>\n

Lance Olsen<\/strong> is a celebrated novelist and former professor at the University of Utah, known for his experimental and boundary-pushing literary work.<\/em><\/h4>\n
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The Missing Morningstar and Other Stories, Stacie Shannon Denetsosie, Torrey House Press<\/strong><\/h4>\n

In The Missing Morningstar and Other Stories<\/em>, Stacie Shannon Denetsosie confronts the long-reaching effects of settler-colonialism on Native lives through a series of gritty, imaginative stories. A young Navajo man catches a ride home alongside a casket he\u2019s convinced holds his dead grandfather. A gas station clerk witnesses the kidnapping of the newly crowned Miss Northwestern Arizona. A young couple\u2019s search for a sperm donor raises complex questions of blood quantum. Through this debut collection, Denetsosie grapples with a painful history while celebrating an inheritance of beauty, ceremony, and storytelling.<\/h4>\n

Our review<\/a> praises The Missing Morningstar and Other Stories<\/em> for its deep engagement with Denetsosie\u2019s Navajo heritage and insightful portrayal of contemporary Native American life. The stories blend ancient traditions with 21st-century realities, offering a narrative tapestry that addresses generational struggles, redemption, and joy. Denetsosie avoids both romanticism and sensationalism, presenting harsh realities like murder and kidnapping as part of a broader narrative of growth and understanding. Her characters are rooted in the landscape of the Southwest, where the physical and emotional terrain is shaped by cultural inheritance and contemporary struggles. With themes of grief, humor, and truth-telling, Denetsosie\u2019s collection is a vibrant and moving reflection on cultural identity and the power of storytelling.<\/h4>\n

Stacie Shannon Denetsosie<\/strong> is a Din\u00e9 writer originally from Kayenta, Arizona, now residing in northern Utah. <\/em>The Missing Morningstar and Other Stories is her debut collection.<\/em><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since its inception in 2013, the 15 Bytes Book Awards have honored exceptional books by Utah authors or those with a Utah connection, showcasing the diverse voices in the state’s literary landscape. Artists of Utah is proud to announce the finalists for this year’s award in Fiction. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":87332,"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-87328","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\/2024\/10\/Screenshot-2024-10-01-at-12.23.59-PM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-01 03:58:33","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\/87328","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=87328"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87335,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87328\/revisions\/87335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}