Check Out Literary Award-Nominated Books About Our Neighborhood

Finally, a summer reading list that revolves around ‘the most literary borough’, featuring books that are not only fun to read but can teach us more about the place we call home.

Today, the Brooklyn Public Library announced the fiction and nonfiction longlist nominees for the second annual Brooklyn Eagles Literary Prize, an award bestowed on two Brooklyn authors who artfully portray the borough’s life and culture.

“The award celebrates the authors, booksellers, librarians and readers who have made Brooklyn the most literary borough in America’s most literary city,” said BPL President and CEO Linda E. Johnson.

Thanks to local bookstores in Park Slope and Fort Greene for curating a fantastic selection of local authors and submitting books for the Prize, including Community Bookstore, BookCourt, Barnes & Noble (7th Avenue & Court Street), and Greenlight Bookstore.

Featured local writers for the 2016 award include Flatbush-based Caribbean author Naomi Jackson with her debut novel The Star Side of Bird Hill. “Naomi’s debut is wonderfully written,” said Rebecca Fitting, co-owner of Greenlight Bookstore. “Being partly set in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn and partly set in Barbados, I loved how it represented the Caribbean community, which is such a big part of Brooklyn’s culture.”

Emma Straub’s novel Modern Lovers was selected by Cobble Hill bookstore BookCourt. Modern Lovers is set in Ditmas Park and packed with hyper-local references (there’s even a blog that covers the local beat!)

“This book is special because it captures a moment of gentrification in Brooklyn, and not in Williamsburg or Cobble Hill that usually get featured,” said Andrew Unger, BookCourt’s events manager. “[Straub] paints a portrait that’s accurate and beautiful and funny. What I personally loved, as someone who lives in Crown Heights, is that I am reading about what’s happening right now in front of me.”

The nonfiction longlist includes local gems like An Unlikely Union: The Love-Hate Story of New York’s Irish and Italians, a historical account by Paul Moses. Moses is a seasoned journalism professor at Brooklyn College who has, incidentally, taught a few of our editors at Corner Media Group.

Joseph Alexiou’s Gowanus: Brooklyn’s Curious Canal was also nominated — and well deserved — based on Donny Levit’s feature on our sister site Park Slope Stoop, which colors Alexiou as a multi-layered author, tour guide, and neighborhood historian.

The two winners, one fiction and one nonfiction, will be announced at the Brooklyn Eagles Fundraiser event in September, and awarded $2,500.

Check out the full list of nominees here, and also visit any branch of the Brooklyn Public Library to literally check out all of the nominated titles for the 2016 Eagle Literary Award!