| Started in 1997, the Thurber Prize for American Humor is the only recognition of the art of humor writing in the United States. A panel of national judges selects the three finalists from a selection of seven or eight semi-finalists. Books submitted for a prize year had to have been published the prior year.This year’s list of finalists has been announced:
Why Is My Mother Getting a Tattoo by Jancee Dunn (Villard): Thurber  Prize judge Bruce Tracy called it “funny and warm and irresistibly irritating, like the best family get-togethers.”
How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely (Black Cat): Judge Sloane  Crosley called Hely “a magnificent satirist, a real storyteller, and a creator of a narrator who is both charmingly familiar and original. [Hely] has such enviable reserves of humor and made me laugh out loud with humiliation, hope and shame.”
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home by Rhoda  Janzen (Holt): Judge Laurie Notaro said, “Rhoda made me laugh right out of the gate, first page. Atta girl! She’s a skilled storyteller and mixes tragedy with gut-busting laughter like it was brownie mix from the box.”
The winner will be announced this October 4th at a special awards ceremony at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City where James Thurber once lived. The winner of the prize receives $5,000 and then is the guest entertainment for the annual December Thurber Birthday Gala
1997: Ian Frazier, Coyote v. Acme
1999: The editorial staff of the satirical magazine The Onion for Our Dumb Century
2001: David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day
2004: Christopher Buckley, No Way to Treat a First Lady
2005: Jon Stewart, Ben Karlin and David Javerbaum for America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction
2006: Alan Zweibel, The Other Shulman
2007: Joe Keenan, My Lucky Star
2008: Larry Doyle, I Love You, Beth Cooper
2009: Ian Frasier, Lamentations of the Father |
Travel Between The Pages 