The Man Who Wouldn't Stand Up by Jacob M. Appel

What is it like applying for such awards? And what advice can you give to those applying for the same award?

Your short story collection, Scouting for the Reaper, won the 2012 Hudson Prize. My choices were either purchase a tie or write humor, and I took the road less asphyxiating. The gravitas standards for comedy writers are a bit more lax – Vonnegut, J. At a minimum, you have to look like John Kerry. Yet you have to possess a certain gravitas to write a serious novel – like Tolstoy or Proust. JA: I’d always thought of myself as a serious novelist. How did you come about writing novels in the mystery/ humor/ comedy genres? You can always get my books on Amazon, but if you’re looking to enter heaven, you should order them at your local bookstore. Soon he is branded a terrorist sympathizer and must go into hiding in Central Park…. JA: The book features Arnold Brinkman, a liberal botanist from New York City who takes his son to a Yankees game and gets caught sticking out his tongue on the Jumbotron during the singing of God Bless America. For those of us readers who haven’t read your first novel, can you tell us briefly what it’s about and where we can find it online? I had always believed the Scots to be a superior people, endowed with impeccable taste-and they proved me right! As your readers may know, the Dundee International Book Award is based on Scotland. But then I realized it wasn’t a scam and I felt vindicated. So many publishers had rejected the book that I was like one of those dogs in the learned helplessness experiments who cringes even when not being shocked. I figured it must be some kind of Nigerian 419 scam. Can you describe how the moment felt when you found out? Your first novel, The Man Who Wouldn’t Stand Up, won the Dundee International Book Award in 2012.

The Man Who Wouldn't Stand Up by Jacob M. Appel