Woodsburner Wins Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize

In a ceremony last night in New York City, John Pipkin’s Woodsburner won the Center for Fiction’s 2009 First Novel Prize beating out a strong list of contenders that included Tinkers by Paul Harding, American Rust by Phillip Meyer, The Cradle by Patrick Somerville, and The Vagrants by Yiun Li. Last year’s winner, Hannah Tinti (The Good Thief), presented the award, whose previous recipients also include Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Díaz (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao) and bestselling author Marisha Pessl (Special Topics in Calamity Physics).

In the clip below, MPB Radio producer Karen Hearn talks with Pipkin about his first novel, which tells the little known story of how Henry David Thoreau accidentally started a fire that burnt 300 acres of Concord Woods.

Congratulations to our author! You can find his website here.