The Chautauqua Prize /
2013 Winner & Shortlist
Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher
wins 2013 Chautauqua Prize
Chautauqua Institution is delighted to announce Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) by Timothy Egan as the 2013 winner of The Chautauqua Prize.
As author of the winning book, Egan receives $7,500 and all travel and expenses for a one-week summer residency at Chautauqua, a not-for-profit educational and cultural center in southwestern New York state. He will host a public reading and book signing on Wednesday, July 10, on the Institution grounds.
"Given the history of Chautauqua, and its role as a summer retreat for lovers of history, art, brisk argument and the written word, I couldn't be more thrilled to be a small part of this," said Egan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for The New York Times and the best-selling author of six books. "You've helped to give the subject of my book, the American Indian photographer Edward Curtis, a bit of a renaissance."
Now in its second year, The Chautauqua Prize is a national prize that celebrates a book of fiction or literary/narrative nonfiction that provides a richly rewarding reading experience and honors the author for a significant contribution to the literary arts.
Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher is a nonfiction account of Edward Curtis' early-20th-century quest to document the lives of 80 American Indian tribes. Chautauqua Prize reviewers described the book as "compelling" and "exhaustive," and noted that Egan, who won the 2006 National Book Award for The Worst Hard Time, "captures in language what Curtis expresses in photography."
Press Kit:
Full press release | Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher cover image | The Chautauqua Prize logo
The Chautauqua Prize 2013 Finalists
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Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk |
The Presidents Club |
Devil in the Grove |
The Song of Achilles |
The Name of Things |
>> Read the April 19 press release announcing the finalists
The Chautauqua Prize 2013
Chautauqua Institution is the preeminent expression of lifelong learning in the United States. It is the home of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, founded in 1878 and believed to be the oldest continuous book club in the country. Drawing from its considerable literary legacy, Chautauqua Institution is pleased to invite submissions for its important new annual prize for a work of fiction or literary/narrative nonfiction.
Awarded for the first time in the summer of 2012, The Chautauqua Prize is a national prize which celebrates a book that provides a richly rewarding reading experience and honors the author for a significant contribution to the literary arts. The author receives $7,500 and all travel and expenses for a one-week summer residency at Chautauqua Institution in western New York.
Eligible books for the 2013 prize will have been published in English in the United States within 2012. Nominations will be accepted beginning Sept. 4, 2012, from publishers, agents, authors, and readers. The deadline for nomination is December 31, 2012. Longlist finalists will be notified in February 2013, at which time authors will be asked to select their summer visit time to Chautauqua should they be awarded the prize. Shortlist finalists and the winner will be notified in April 2013. Chautauqua Institution will celebrate the winner in the summer of 2013, at a time selected by the winner and Chautauqua Institution.
Chautauqua’s commitment to the literary arts is immersed in its rich history. In addition to the 135-year-old Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, Chautauqua’s literary arts programming includes summer-long interaction of published and aspiring writers at the Chautauqua Writers’ Center, the intensive workshops of the nationally recognized Chautauqua Writers’ Festival, and lectures by prominent authors on the craft and art of writing.
The Chautauqua Prize is awarded through a two-tiered judging process that includes Chautauquans who are writers, publishers, critics, editors, librarians, booksellers, and literature and creative writing educators. Each nominated book is evaluated by three reviewers, with the final selection made by a three-member, independent, anonymous jury.
