Overall Winner and Non-Fiction Winner
My War: Killing Time In Iraq by Colby Buzzell
Publisher: Berkley/Penguin ($15.00, paperback) Buy it
The My War blog - www.cbftw.blogspot.com
"Colby Buzzell traded a dead-end future for the army--and ended up as a machine gunner in Iraq. To make sense of the absurd and frightening events surrounding him, he started writing a blog about the war--and how it differed from the government's official version. But as his blog's popularity grew, Buzzell became the embedded reporter the army couldn't control--despite its often hilarious efforts to do so."
"Endlessly surprising…delightfully profane… an unfiltered, often ferocious expression of his boots-on-the-ground point-of-view of the Iraq war." -- Arianna Huffington
"If, in 20 years time, people want to know what it was like to fight in Iraq, they can pick up ‘My War’ and find out. It tells what it's like to be a grunt fighting in the Sunni Triangle – with more power and authority than the best ‘embedded reporter’ could manage. It is something of a triumph for blogs over traditional media." -- Nick Cohen
Colby Buzzell lives in Los Angeles, California. He's a blogger and freelance writer.
Non-Fiction Runner-Up
My Secret: A PostSecret Book by Frank Warren
Fiction Winner: The Doorbells of Florence by Andrew Losowsky
Publisher: Prandial Publishing/Lulu ($27.99, paperback) Buy it
The Doorbells of Florence photo set - www.flickr.com/photos/andrewlos
"As more than 12,500 viewers (and counting) of the Flickr set can testify, The Doorbells of Florence is cult fiction at its least predictable.
This book contains 36 real Italian doorbells (including some never before seen), each one with a strange story about the people and things that may, or may not, live inside.
This first-ever volume of "flicktion" was written by Andrew Losowsky
and lovingly put together by award-winning designer, Nuno Vargas as the
mini coffee table book that espresso was invented for."
"Let it now be said: "The Doorbells of Florence" could easily become one of the most popular cult books of the decade...The book--images to prose--is absolutely outstanding. The stories are clever and each as unique as a fingerprint, from pages long to one sentence." -- POD-dy Mouth
Andrew Losowsky is a British blogger, journalist and photographer based in Barcelona, Spain. He is the editorial director of a small publishing company that produces online travel/entertainment guides to European cities.
Fiction Runner-Up
Monster Island: A Zombie Novel by David Wellington
Comics Winner: Mom's Cancer by Brian Fies
Publisher: Abrams Image ($12.95, hardcover) Buy it
The Mom's Cancer blog - www.momscancer.com
"The true tale of my mother's battle with metastatic lung cancer. The story describes how a serious illness affects patient and family, both practically and emotionally, in ways that I've discovered are very common. Many readers wrote to tell me how surprised and relieved they were to learn they weren't alone.
Mom's Cancer began as a serialized Internet comic, with new installments added throughout 2004. Readership grew by word-of-mouth. People who needed the story found it and told their friends about it. In July 2005, Mom's Cancer won the comic industry's Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic, a new category that year."
"Mom's Cancer takes web comics beyond science fiction parodies and fan boy remixes of superhero comics. The story telling is engaging. The story is important, as well as fun, surprising and rewarding to read. Well-drawn and a real winner." -- Paul Jones, Chair of the Judges
Brian Fies is a resident of Santa Rosa, California. In addition to being a cartoonist, he is a freelance writer and journalist.
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