Kristen N. Arnett’s ‘Felt in the Jaw’ is the winner of the 2017 Coil Book Award for Best Book in the Independent Press.
We are pleased to announce the winner for the 2017 Coil Book Award, honoring the independent press’ best published book of the year, Felt in the Jaw, by Kristen N. Arnett. The winner is selected by a panel of Alternating Current Press and external editors who read and judge all entrants to the award — as well as all books reviewed on The Volt over the year — and choose one book or collection that shows outstanding merit, language, uniqueness, promise, importance, and voice. The judges’ decisions are final.
Our aim is to bring attention to an annual book that has incredible literary merit and appeals to a wider audience than it may have been able to reach, due to an ever-expanding, competitive market for indie presses. We want to help fantastic books reach the new and bigger audience they deserve, and reward indie presses with added promotion and support for releasing superior work. Presses, authors, publicists, and otherwise are welcome to submit their books for next year’s award (with 2016–2018 publication dates) HERE. Self-published books, short story collections, nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and books published within the previous two years are all considered. Entrants can NOT be affiliated with Alternating Current Press, and the winner may be from any other press, with a strong lean toward independent and small presses.
The winning book gains entrance into our Coil Select Books collection, and receives book promotion through Alternating Current, including publicity, reviews, book club giveaways and discussions, blog tours, and author spotlights and interviews. The 2017 winner receives an engraved trophy, a cash honorarium, sponsored gifts, a listing on the Coil Book Award page, spotlight features on The Coil and through our partners, and our virtual wax seal for personal and professional use on the author’s websites, blogs, and book covers. We proudly present the 2017 winner:
Felt in the Jaw
Kristen N. Arnett
Split Lip Press • August 2017
JUDGES’ & STAFF NOTES ON THE SELECTION: In this year of turbulence, we were especially looking for a book that fit the national voice of the underrepresented people who aren’t being heard. We wanted something that normalized the marginalized, plus had all the other elements of a great story, like amazing lines, powerful messages, uniqueness, poetry in the prose, and one more element that we found in this collection that we weren’t even initially seeking: humor that is so natural and uncontrived as to be a character all its own. Read our reviewer’s full review of the book HERE to learn more about our thoughts on it.
Kristen N. Arnett is a fiction and essay writer who has held fellowships at Tin House, Kenyon Review, and Lambda Literary Foundation. She was awarded Ninth Letter’s 2015 Literary Award in Fiction and was runner-up for the 2016 Robert Watson Literary Prize at The Greensboro Review. Her work has either appeared or is upcoming at North American Review, The Normal School, OSU’s The Journal, Portland Review, Grist Journal, Tin House Flash Fridays,The Guardian, Salon, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. Felt in the Jaw is her first book. You can find her on Medium at Kristen Arnett, and on Twitter at Kristen_Arnett.
Felt in the Jaw is available in paperback and all digital formats through Split Lip Press’ website, and through major distributors, such as Amazon and Ingram for booksellers (ISBN: 978–1974186044). Please support a great author and a great press, and treat yourself to a copy.
Congratulations, as well, to our Finalists:
The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O’Neill
Tell Me if You’re Lying by Sarah Sweeney
A Single Throat Opens by Michael Schmelter and Meghan McClure
It’s Just Nerves: Notes on a Disability by Kelly Davio
The River of Kings by Taylor Brown
Pull Me Under by Kelly Luce
Hole in the Middle by Kendra Fortmeyer
South Pole Station by Ashley Shelby
