Best Local Author

After reading MARA SHALHOUP’s vivid and kaleidoscopic exploration of the Black Mafia Family, BMF: The Rise and Fall of Big Meech and the Black Mafia Family, you’ll never be able to look at Atlanta’s streets, Buckhead’s mansions, or a line of cocaine the same again. Whether she’s recounting the bright lights and big heads at a high-end nightclub or parsing the machinations of a Byzantine federal investigation, Shalhoup is a sure-footed investigator of organized crime. www.bmfbook.com

Full disclosure: Shalhoup is CL’s editor in chief. Arts freelancer Wyatt Williams chose Shalhoup for this award and wrote the blurb. We trust that Wyatt was in no way influenced by Shalhoup’s role at CL when he made this selection.

We’re crazy about JACK PENDARVIS. We aspire to write stories and humor pieces as clever, fresh and seemingly effortless as his Pushcart Prize-winning work. We’re thoroughly amused by his first short-story collection, The Mysterious Secret of the Valuable Treasure and this year’s follow-up, Your Body Is Changing, particularly the title novella. We get a kick out of his blog, and can’t wait for his first novel, Awesome, to come out next year. We also think he’s a nice guy.

jackpendarvis.blogspot.com

In the Owly series of graphic novels published by Marietta’s Top Shelf Productions, Lilburn native ANDY RUNTON gives “wholesome” a good name through the black-and-white, family-friendly adventures of a young owl and his nature-loving pals. Despite the simple stories, Runton’s work achieves surprising emotional depth and, given the lack of dialogue, narrative sophistication. Runton’s Owly even makes “cute” kind of cool, without being kitschy. ‘’www.andyrunton.com .
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