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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

Maria Brandt Wins 2014 Grassic Short Novel Prize and Publication


Congratulations to Maria Brandt, whose novella "To Pin the Tired Home" (current working title) is the winner of the 2014 Grassic Short Novel Prize, which is offered every other year; the novella will be published by Evening Street Press before the end of 2015.

"To Pin the Tired Home" is a 33,000-word literary novella that focuses on a single train ride. Jane, the novella’s protagonist and narrator, travels home with her father to prepare their house for its impending demolition. En route, she remembers the events leading to her brother’s suicide when she was eleven years old—including newfound friendships with the wayward Cate and the impaired Simon. The novella isn’t about suicide, however, as much as it’s about the tangled mess that confronts those left to make sense of fractured memories and an ambivalent desire to heal. Jane’s narration increasingly embodies this entanglement as various memories and imaginings collide along her movement towards the novella’s climax.

Cathryn Smith
English/Philosophy
02/26/2015