INDIANAPOLIS – “The Rabbit Hutch” by South Bend native Tess Gunty won one of nine awards announced Wednesday, Aug. 21, for the 2024 Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Awards.
The winning titles were selected from 52 works published in nine categories over the past two years, according to a press release, and come from a diverse group of authors, some of whom currently live in Indiana.
Gunty’s debut novel was released on August 2, 2022, and is set in a fictional town modeled after South Bend, Indiana, from where the fictional Zorn automobiles departed long ago, giving the industrial city the status of a “dying town” and the “Rust Belt.”
The story focuses on the residents of La Lapinière Apartments (better known as “The Rabbit Hutch”), a complex of affordable housing, and in particular Blandine Watkins, a young woman recently released from foster care.
Plagued by the structures, people and places that have not only failed her but actively harmed her, Blandine only wants a true physical escape in this novel that also delves deep into mysticism. The Rabbit Hutch also deals with other themes such as the foster care system, an inappropriate sexual relationship, development at the expense of nature and a traumatic mother-child relationship, to name a few.
The Rabbit Hutch won the 2022 National Book Award for Fiction, as well as the Waterstones Prize for Debut Novels and the Barnes and Noble Discover Prize.
Born and raised in South Bend, Gunty is a graduate of Marian High School and a 2015 graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where she won several awards for her writing. She also holds a master’s degree in creative writing from New York University.
There are also plans for the film to be adapted into a television series.
After previously living in Los Angeles, she now lives in Brooklyn, NY
“The Rabbit Hutch” won in the fiction category. Other winners this year include:
■ George Kalamaras’ “Sleeping in the Belly of the Horse: My Greek Poets and the Aegean in Me” for poetry
■ Edward Fujawa’s “Vanished Indianapolis” for non-fiction
■ Brittany Means’ “Hell If We Don’t Change Our Ways” debuts
■ Rebecca McKanna’s “Don’t Forget the Girl” for the genre
■ Janna Matthies’ “We’re coming!” for children
■ Maurice Broaddus’ “Unfadeable” for middle school
■ Kekla Magoon’s “The Minus-One Club” for young adults
■ Jennifer Blackmer’s “Predictor” for Drama
In addition, Susan Neville won the Lifetime Achievement Award and Tony Brewer won the Literary Champion Award.
The awards have been presented every two years since 2009. They are supported by Glick Philanthropies and administered by Indiana Humanities.
Each winner will receive $5,000, a handcrafted limestone and steel award, and the opportunity to make a $500 donation to an Indiana library of their choice.
Winners also have the opportunity to participate in an annual national speaking program and network with readers, teachers and students.
For more information, visit indianaauthorsawards.org.
