The Proper Words for Sin by Gary Fincke, published by West Virginia University Press, was selected as a finalist for the 2014 Paterson Fiction Prize.

The finalists for this prestigious award are a distinguished group of writers which includes: Robert Boswell for Tumbledown; Fincke for The Proper Words for Sin; Daphne Kalotay for Sight Reading; Jamaica Kincaid for See Now Then; and Alice McDermott for Someone. The winner of this year’s Paterson Fiction Prize is Robert Stone for his book Death of the Black-Haired Girl.

The Paterson Fiction Prize is awarded by the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College. The mission of the Poetry Center is to provide poetry events and workshops to a diverse audience and to provide opportunities for poets through contests, awards, a journal, anthologies, reference materials, and conferences. The Center also aims to promote poets and poetry and to bring poetry to a wider and more diverse audience throughout the United States and the world.

The Poetry Center has been accorded international recognition for many of its activities, including the Distinguished Poets Series, the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards, the Paterson Poetry Prize, the Paterson Fiction Prize, and the Paterson Prize for Books for Young People.

Within The Proper Words for Sin, Flannery O’Connor Award winner and poet Fincke brings into focus the small struggles of ordinary people. The characters within this collection, from boys and girls to fathers, mothers, and the aging, live in cities, in towns, and in rural areas. Yet, no matter the surroundings, all seem alone within a collective anxiety.

Set against extraordinary events, such as the Three Mile Island accident, the Challenger Disaster, and the Kennedy assassination, these stories personalize history through a juxtaposition between large and small tragedies and the unflinching desire to find insight within and redemption from weakness and shortcomings.

Stewart O’Nan, author of Snow Angels, The Odds, and Emily, Alone says The Proper Words for Sin is “Fine, close work from a master.” Steve Yarbrough, author of Safe from the Neighbors and The Oxygen Man calls it “Subtle yet powerful, passionate but clear-eyed.”

Fincke is the Writers Institute Director and Charles Degenstein Professor of English and Creative Writing at Susquehanna University. Winner of the 2003 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, the 2003 Ohio State University/The Journal Poetry Prize, and the 2010 Stephen F. Austin Poetry Prize for recent collections, he has published 24 books of poetry, short fiction, and nonfiction. He has been recognized by Best American Stories and the O. Henry Prize series, and cited 11 times in the past 13 years for a “Notable Essay” in Best American Essays. Gary Fincke grew up near Pittsburgh and currently lives in central Pennsylvania.

The Proper Words for Sin is published under WVU Press’s Vandalia imprint. To learn more about WVU Press, visit www.wvupress.com.

The Proper Words for Sin by Gary Fincke
PB 978-1-935978-88-6: $16.99/ePub 978-1-935978-89-3:$16.99/PDF 978-1-935978-90-9: $16.99

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