Tinkers author Paul Harding read at the first (and last, to date) Powells-hosted Indiespensable happy hour—it was also the eighth book in the subscription series. I wrote about the reading and the book here.

For distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

Awarded to "Tinkers," by Paul Harding (Bellevue Literary Press, a powerful celebration of life in which a New England father and son, through suffering and joy, transcend their imprisoning lives and offer new ways of perceiving the world and mortality.
Finalists

Also nominated as finalists in this category were "Love in Infant Monkeys," by Lydia Millet (Soft Skull Press), an imaginative collection of linked stories, often describing a memorable encounter between a famous person and an animal, underscoring the human folly of longing for significance while chasing trifles; and “In Other Rooms, Other Wonders,” by Daniyal Mueenuddin (W.W. Norton & Company), a collection of beautifully crafted stories that exposes the Western reader to the hopes, dreams and dramas of an array of characters in feudal Pakistan, resulting in both an aesthetic and cultural achievement.

Bellevue Literary Press, which put out Tinkers, is, oddly, operated out of the Bellevue Hospital Center—this is a big deal for an indie publisher. Meanwhile Soft Skull also does great work, and that Millet collection is one of my favorite books of the past few years. More Pulitzer winners and finalists here.