Discover Great New Writers Awards

According to PW Daily of 2/28/08, authors Kate Braestrup and Joshua Ferris, "took the top prize yesterday in Barnes & Noble’s 15th annual Discover Great New Writers Awards, which, according to B&N, "honor the works of exceptionally talented writers featured in the Barnes & Noble 'Discover Great New Writers' program during the previous year.” "

These are the winning works:

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris Published 2007 by Little Brown and Company

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REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 01/08/2007
In this wildly funny debut from former ad man Ferris, a group of copywriters and designers at a Chicago ad agency face layoffs at the end of the '90s boom. Indignation rises over the rightful owner of a particularly coveted chair ("We felt deceived"). Gonzo e-mailer Tom Mota quotes Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the midst of his tirades, desperately trying to retain a shred of integrity at a job that requires a ruthless attention to what will make people buy things. Jealousy toward the aloof and "inscrutable" middle manager Joe Pope spins out of control. Copywriter Chris Yop secretly returns to the office after he's laid off to prove his worth. Rumors that supervisor Lynn Mason has breast cancer inspire blood lust, remorse, compassion. Ferris has the downward-spiraling office down cold, and his use of the narrative "we" brilliantly conveys the collective fear, pettiness, idiocy and also humanity of high-level office drones as anxiety rises to a fever pitch. Only once does Ferris shift from the first person plural (for an extended fugue on Lynn's realization that she may be ill), and the perspective feels natural throughout. At once delightfully freakish and entirely credible, Ferris's cast makes a real impression.

Here If You Need Me: A True Story by Kate Braestrup Published 2007 by Little Brown and CompanyHardcover, English. ISBN: 9780316066303
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Jacket Notes:
Kate Braestrups remarkable journey from grief to faith to happiness is a dramatic, funny, deeply moving, and simply unforgettable story. She shares her uplifting account of finding God through helping others, and reminds readers of the small miracles that occur every day when life and love are restored. More . . .