Amazon and Penguin today named James King winner of the second annual Breakthrough Novel Award for Bill Warrington's Last Chance. "One of the best things you can say about a novel is that the story lingers after you finish it," said Sue Monk Kidd, a member of the contest's expert panel. "I have gone on thinking about this one without trying."
From the announcement: "King, an Ohio native and current resident of Wilton, Conn., has
been a corporate communications specialist for the past 20 years, but
dreamt of becoming a fiction writer since the age of six. In 2006, with
the support and encouragement of his wife and two children, King
decided to pursue his dream. He entered the Master of Arts program in
creative writing at Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y., and when
he completed his degree in May 2008, he had written most of what would
become the novel Bill Warrington's Last Chance."
King will receive a publishing contract worth twenty-five thousand dollars from Penguin. This year's contest drew thousands of entries; the other finalists were Ian Gibson for "Stuff of Legends" and Brandi Lynn Ryder for "In Malice, Quite Close."