The Believer’s book award finalists include Grace Krilanovich

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Grace Krilanovich’s book ‘The Orange Eats Creeps,’ published by independent press Two Dollar Radio, is among the five finalists in the running for the 2010 Believer Book Award, which is given to a work of fiction.

The other finalists are ‘Next’ by James Hynes from Reagan Arthur Books, Kira Henehan’s ‘Orion You Came and You Took All My Marbles’ published by Milkweed Editions, ‘Skippy Dies’ by Paul Murray, published by Faber & Faber, and Danielle Dutton’s ‘Sprawl,’ published by emerging independent L.A. publisher Siglio Press.

We take special note of Krilanovich in part not because she works at The Times but because she has also been recognized by the National Book Foundation, who named her one of its 5 under 35 in 2010. Krilanovich wrote about the experience for us, calling it ‘a dazzling, nerve-wracking entree into a national stage.’

Siglio Press founder Lisa Pearson was named one of The Times’ faces to watch for 2011, as David L. Ulin explained: ‘Her operating principle is a simple one: to think about the book as object, to focus on design as well as content, to demand a space for physical books in a culture that seems obsessed with other things.’

So there are two L.A. favorites in this race, but we’re equally impressed by the other books on the list. The Believer’s readers have nominated additional favorite books of the year, which will appear in the May issue -- as will the novel the magazine’s editors select as the winner of the 2010 Believer Book Award.

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-- Carolyn Kellogg