The Believer Book Award Editor’s Shortlist

Each year, the editors of the Believer generate a short list of the novels and story collections they thought were the strongest and most underappreciated of the year. In the January issue, readers were asked to send in their nominations for the best work of fiction from 2009; their answers, along with the winner from the following shortlist, will appear in the May 2010 issue of the Believer:

Christopher Miller, The Cardboard Universe: A Guide to the World of Phoebus K. Dank (Harper Perennial)

Percival Everett, I Am Not Sidney Poitier (Graywolf)

Mary Robison, One D.O.A., One on the Way (Counterpoint)

Blake Butler, Scorch Atlas (featherproof)

Padgett Powell, The Interrogative Mood (Ecco)