The 2012 Binghamton University John Gardner Fiction Book Award


Meg Wolitzer for The Uncoupling

Judge: Lois Roma-Deely

"Wolitzer's use of language is as compelling as her characters are undeniable. The storyline uses Lysistrata as a point of departure, but the book is about more than sexual politics. Wolitizer asks her reader to reimagine a world—if only for a brief moment—which is populated by another kind of "First Sex." Here, contemporary women define themselves outside the bounds of their sexuality and result is tender, challenging and provocative."

Meg Wolitzer's novels include Sleepwalking; This Is Your Life; Surrender, Dorothy; and The Wife.  She lives in New York City.

photo by Lisa Barlow

Gardner Award Finalists for 2012 (in alphabetical order):

Mary Bucci Bush for Sweet Hope (Guernica)

Lyn Di Iori for Outside the Bones (Arte Publico Press)

Leah Hager Cohen for The Grief of Others (Riverhead Books)

Valerien Nieman for Blood Clay (Press 53)

Katherine Karlin for Send Me Work (TriQuarterly Books)

Stephanie Powell Watts for We Are Taking Only What We Need (BkMk Press)