People Like You Wins Balcones Fiction Prize

Balcones Logo

I am ecstatic to announce that PEOPLE LIKE YOU was awarded the 2015 Balcones Fiction Prize. There were some fantastic books on the shortlist with me, and I am humbled to be in their company.

Biggest of thanks to Joe O’Connell at Balcones Center for Creative Writing and to this year’s judge John Blair, author of the Drue Heinz Prize winning collection American Standard, who had this to say:
“Margaret Malone’s People Like You is a masterfully minimalist collection of lives lived poorly but with the best of intentions. Her stories are powerful, sad, and plain-spoken, and this debut collection takes the normative-yet-desperate circuits of the day-to-day that Bobbie Anne Mason and Frederick Barthelme brought to the forefront of American short fiction and makes them both new again and powerfully affecting.  These are marvelous and worthy stories, and very much deserving of recognition.”

I am totally blown away by this award, and really looking forward to coming down to Austin next Spring.

Thank you all so very much.

Best Day of My Literary Life – PEN Hemingway Ceremony

Today was an extraordinary day.

It started with a private tour of the Ernest Hemingway archives at the JFK Library. Wow. Super duper wow. (Sidenote: If you will be in Boston anytime before the end of the year, please go through this phenomenal exhibit.)

Then lunch at a table with, in a room with, some of the most talented American writers, who, it turns out, are also funny and charming and kind in a variety of ways.

Then the award ceremony where Joshua Ferris, presenter and a judge, along with Alexandra Marshall and Jay Parini, of this year’s PEN Hemingway award read aloud the citation from the judges for People Like You. I could not breathe as he read the following paragraph:

PEN Award Framed

And then I couldn’t breathe for two seconds after that either because, oh my sweet stars, did they just put the names Chekhov, Carver, Beattie, Moore and Twain in a sentence about People Like You? But I had no time to not breathe because I had to walk up onstage and accept the certificate and shake hands and pose for a picture and then somehow walk, without falling, all the way back to my seat, and the whole time my heart is not thumping along in my chest cavity the way it’s supposed to. No, it’s flailing, kicking, pushing, punching so loud I wanted to audibly ask it to shush please. But then I thought better of it and thanked my heart for reminding me what an undeniably extraordinary beautiful moment was happening… to me. Right that second.

Nothing left to do, then, but to simply take it all in.

My deepest gratitude to PEN New England; to judges Joshua Ferris, Alexandra Marshall, and Jay Parini; to the winner Ottessa Moshfegh, my fellow finalist S.M. Hulse, and honorable mention honorees Karim Dimechkie and Chigozie Obioma; to the crazy talented editor and publisher Mark Allen Cunningham of Atelier26 Books; to Diane Prokop, publicist extraordinaire; and most importantly to Brian Padian who kept the home fires burning (and the kids from burning the house down) so I could be in Boston, and he not only never once complained but told me again and again of how proud he was, of how much I deserved it, of how hard I’ve worked, of how much he loved me.

All of you, you changed my life today. Really.

Thank you.

PEOPLE LIKE YOU Receives PEN/Hemingway Honors

I am dumbstruck and elated to report that PEOPLE LIKE YOU was selected a Finalist in the PEN/Hemingway Award for first fiction.

***

From the PEN/New England site:

FINALISTS

The two PEN/Hemingway Award finalists are S. M. Hulse for Black River (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) and Margaret Malone for People Like You (Atelier26).

***

 

Suddenly I find myself in the company of other past winners, finalists and honorable mentions… you know, authors like George Saunders, Edward P. Jones, Jhumpa Lahiri, Colson Whitehead, ZZ Packer, Jennifer Haigh, Marilynne Robinson, Ha Jin, Sherman Alexie, Junot Diaz, Yiyun Li, Lily King, Justin Cronin, Ben Fountain, Teju Cole, Mitchell S. Jackson, and many, many other mind-blowing writers.

Biggest of thanks to PEN New England and this year’s judges, Joshua Ferris, Alexandra Marshall, and Jay Parini.

And big, big congratulations to the winner Ottessa Moshfegh for her book EILEEN (Penguin), my co-Finalist S.M. Hulse for BLACK RIVER (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), and honorable mention authors Karim Dimechkie for LIFTED BY THE GREAT NOTHING (Bloomsbury), and Chigozie Obioma for THE FISHERMEN (Little, Brown).

Lastly, never ending thanks to Atelier26 Books, the little engine that could, and Mark Allen Cunningham for making this impossible undreamed-of dream a reality.

To say I’m humbled doesn’t begin to do justice to what I feel today.

 

Here’s the full post at PEN/Hemingway Award

Here’s the full post at Atelier26 Books

Second Printing!

I’m ecstatic to share that PEOPLE LIKE YOU has already gone to a second printing.

As an author, having your book make enough noise in this crazy, loud, bustle of a world to need a second printing is a dreamy, beautiful thing.

I am so grateful to all the booksellers, booklovers, reviewers, readers, curators, librarians and friends who keep putting this book in people’s hands – you are directly responsible for this success. Thank you all so very much.

In honor of the second printing, publisher Atelier26 Books did a cool mash-up of reviews and interviews on their website. Check it out here.

Endless gratitude to you all.

xo

OTHERPPL Interview with Brad Listi

While on tour this week in LA for People Like You, I had the great fortune to be interviewed on the fantastic lit podcast Otherppl with Brad Listi. He’s spent the last several years interviewing some of the best names in literature, and I’m honored to be included in the canon.

We had such a good conversation: it was like we’d been talking about books and kids and life and writing for years already.

Here’s a link to the full interview.

Thank you so much to Brad for the opportunity.

Best of 2015!

Christmas came a few days early for PEOPLE LIKE YOU this year:

Powell’s, The Oregonian and the Portland Mercury all included the story collection on year-end “best of” lists and I could not be more grateful.

The Oregonian’s Best of the Northwest 2015

Powell’s Best Fiction Books of 2015

Portland Mercury’s Required Reading of 2015

In these lists I am keeping company with some of the finest writers working today. I’m gob-smacked to be included alongside them.

Thank you!!

 

35 Over 35

PEOPLE LIKE YOU was just selected as one of the 35 Over 35 books of the year!

So grateful for the book’s inclusion on a list. I’m honored to be named in the same breath as these other incredible writers. Thank you 35 Over 35!