Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Picks of the Litter

There are certainly some surprises among the winners of this year’s Spinetingler Awards, sponsored by Spinetingler Magazine, voted upon by Web readers, and revealed today in a series of posts. Some very recognizable authors were shut out, while several significantly less-familiar writers won recognition for their efforts.

The full rundown of winners and nominees can be found below. Asterisks denote works that, as far as I can tell, are currently available in the United States only as e-books.

Best Novel — New Voice (authors with 1-3 books published):
The Devil All the Time, by Donald Ray Pollock (Doubleday)

Also nominated: Beautiful, Naked and Dead, by Josh Stallings (Heist Publishing); Mule, by Tony D’Souza (Mariner); The Dead Women of Juárez, by Sam Hawken (Serpent’s Tail)*; Dove Season, by Johnny Shaw (AmazonEncore); The Drop, by Howard Linskey (No Exit Press); Dust Devils, by Roger Smith (Tin Town)*; Good Neighbors, by Ryan David Jahn (Penguin); Raise a Holler, by Jason Stuart (Double Action Press); and Wire to Wire, by Scott Sparling (Double Action Press)

Best Novel — Rising Star (authors with 4-8 books published): All the Young Warriors, by Anthony Neil Smith (Blasted Heath)*

Also nominated: Already Gone, by John Rector (Thomas & Mercer); Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead, by Sara Gran (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt); Cold Shot to the Heart, by Wallace Stroby (Minotaur); El Gavilan, by Craig McDonald (Tyrus); and The End of Everything, by Megan Abbott (Little, Brown)

Best Novel — Legend (from authors with 9+ books published):
A Drop of the Hard Stuff, by Lawrence Block (Mulholland)

Also nominated: The Bitch, by Les Edgerton (Bare Knuckles Press)*; Falling Glass, by Adrian McKinty (Serpent’s Tail); Hard Cold Whisper, by Michael Hemmingson (Black Mask); Seven Spanish Angels, by Stephen Graham Jones (Dzanc)*; and The Wrong Thing, by Barry Graham (PM Press)

Best Short-Story Collection: Volt, by Alan Heathcock (Graywolf Press)

Also nominated: Crime, by Ferdinand von Schirach (Knopf); Crimes in Southern Indiana, by Frank Bill (FSG Originals); From the Darkness Right Under Our Feet, by Patrick Michael Finn (Black Lawrence Press); Gone Bad, by Julie Morrigan (Morrigan Publishing); Nowhere to Go, by Iain Rowan (Infinity Plus); and The Outlaw Album, by Daniel Woodrell (Little, Brown)

Best Anthology: Beat to a Pulp: Hard-boiled, edited by David Cranmer and Scott D. Parker (Beat to a Pulp)*

Also nominated: L.A. Noire: The Collected Stories (Mulholland)*; Off the Record, edited by Luca Veste (Lulu.com); Pulp Ink, edited by Chris Rhatigan and Nigel Bird (Needle Publishing)*; Warmed & Bound, edited by Pela Via (Velvet Press); and West Coast Crime Wave, edited by Brian Thornton (Bstsllr.com)*

Best Crime Comic or Graphic Novel: 99 Days, by Matteo Casali and Kristian Donaldson (Vertigo Crime)

Also nominated: Blue Estate (Vol. 1), by Viktor Kalvachev, Andrew Osborne, et al. (Image Comics); Cowboys, by Gary Phillips and Brian Hurt (Vertigo Crime); Liar’s Kiss, by Eric Skillman and Jhomar Soriano (Top Shelf); Like a Sniper Lining Up His Shot, by Jean-Patrick Manchette and Jacques Tardi (Fantagraphics); Loose Ends, by Jason Latour, Rico Renzi, and Chris Brunner (12-Gauge Comics); Noche Roja, by Simon Oliver (Vertigo Crime); Rat Catcher, by Andy Diggle (Vertigo Crime); Criminal: Last of the Innocent, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Marvel); and Scalped: You Gotta Sin to Get Saved, by Jason Aaron (Vertigo)

Best Short Story on the Web:Either Way It Ends with a Shovel,” by David James Keaton (from Crime Factory)

Also nominated: “Abriani’s Six,” by Atul Sabharwal (from Tehelka); “The Cloud Factory,” by Court Merrigan (from PANK Magazine); “Disney Noir,” by Peter Farris (from Shotgun Honey); “Hoodwinked” by Nigel Bird (from All Due Respect); “The Other Man” by Hilary Davidson (from Beat to a Pulp); “Road Kill” by William Dylan Powell (from Flash Fiction Offensive); “Silas’ Good Run” by Matthew C. Funk (from Beat to a Pulp); “Silent Game” by Stephen Graham Jones (from Plots with Guns); and “Vorovsky Mir” by M. James Blood (from Plots with Guns)

Best ’Zine: Crime Factory

Also nominated: Beat to a Pulp, Needle, Noir Nation, Pulp Modern, and Shotgun Honey

Best Crime Fiction Publisher: New Pulp Press

Also nominated: Blasted Heath, Mulholland Books, and Serpent’s Tail

David Thompson Community Leader Award: Musings of an All Purpose Monkey (Elizabeth White)

Also nominated: My Friends Call Me Kate (Sabrina Ogden); My Little Corner (Sandra Seamans); Pattinase (Patti Abbott); Psycho-Noir (Heath Lowrance); The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (Adrian McKinty); and Dead End Follies (Benoit Lelievre)

Fireball Award for Best Opening Line: “This is Detroit, so welcome to the jungle.” -- In Nine Kinds of Pain, by Leonard Fritz

Best Cover: Noir at the Bar, edited by Jedidiah Ayres and Scott Phillips

Congratulations to all of the nominees.

1 comment:

Derek Pell said...

Oh no, not Figless Newtons--this is truly bad news.