Congratulations to The Malahat Review’s 2010 Novella Prize Winner

The Malahat Review congratulates Tony Tulathimutte of San Francisco, CA on winning our 2010 Novella Prize! His story, “Brains,” was chosen from 196 entries by our three final judges: Bill Stenson, Bernice Friesen, and Patricia Robertson.

Of “Brains,” our judges said: “It was a pleasure to read a story where both structure and language worked seamlessly together to produce a rare page-turner. As the clever title signals, the premise involves a brainy protagonist whose medical specialty is brains, yet her brilliance isn’t, in the end, enough to save her from messy emotional complications. “Brains” is not only a compelling, unpredictable story, gripping from beginning to end, but one in which the writer brings authority and authenticity to his use of medical jargon while sending up the protagonist’s sense of her own superiority. The story’s tongue-in-cheek, satiric wit was a welcome change. Above all, the characters are utterly original and stay with the reader after the story ends.”

Tony Tulathimutte’s first publication (in Threepenny Review) was selected for a 2008 O. Henry Award. He studied cognitive sciences and creative writing at Stanford University. He currently lives in San Francisco, and will be attending the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop in the fall.

Bill Stenson lives and writes in Victoria, B.C.

Bernice Friesen is a visual artist and a writer. She has written books of short fiction (The Seasons Are Horses), poetry (Sex, Death, and Naked Men), and a novel (The Book of Beasts), which was longlisted for the Rogers Writers Trust of Canada Fiction Award, was in the Globe and Mail’s top 100, and won the Saskatchewan Book Award for Fiction in 2007.

Patricia Robertson was one of twenty short story writers featured in the “Salon des Refusés,” a counter-anthology published by two Canadian literary magazines in response to the “establishment” choices of The Penguin Book of Canadian Short Stories. Her work has been nominated for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, the Journey Prize, the Pushcart Prize, and the National Magazine Awards (three times). Her most recent collection is The Goldfish Dancer: Stories and Novellas (Biblioasis).

The Malahat Review’s Novella Prize runs every other year, alternating with our Long Poem Prize. The deadline for the next Novella Prize is February 1, 2012 (postmark date).

We would also like to congratulate the 2010 Novella Prize finalists:

Darryl Berger, “Broken Hill (an illustrated story)”; Kim Clark, “Solitaire”; Cary Fagan, “The Hebrew Sorcerer”; Don McKay, “Gambari”; and D. W. Wilson, “Valley Echo.”