New Literary Prize Honors Carla Cohen

Shelf Awareness

Anthony Marra's novel A Constellation of Vital Phenomena and David Finkel's book Thank You for Your Service are the inaugural winners of the Carla Furstenberg Cohen Literary Prize. The award was created by family and close friends of the late Carla Cohen, co-founder of Politics & Prose Bookstore, Washington, D.C. It will be presented annually to authors of first or second books in fiction and nonfiction--judged by two independent juries--with the winner in each category receiving $5,000. The 2013 winners will be honored May 11 at Politics & Prose.

"Carla's legacy lives," said David Cohen, her husband and chairman of the prize's board. "Two talented writers exemplify a new generation of probing, resilient and compassionate writing. Anthony Marra and David Finkel have an uncommon understanding and feel of courage and building lives under continuing adversity. I can see Carla thrusting Marra's and Finkel's into customers hands and telling them and me, 'You just have to read these books.' Who says there's no future for serious books that dig deeply?"

This year's fiction judges were Cohen's longtime Politics & Prose co-owner Barbara Meade, P&P book buyer Mark LaFramboise and novelist Howard Norman. Nonfiction judges were author Rick Atkinson, NPR producer Darcy Bacon and America's Promise president and CEO John Gomperts. According to prize organizers, the jurors, who were chosen by a board, "represent readers who have been part of the Politics & Prose community and reflect the values that Carla Cohen brought to the endeavor. Neither the Cohen family nor the Politics and Prose current owners, Bradley Graham and Lissa Muscatine, and staff had nor will have a veto over the selections."