Del Sol Press is pleased to announce that MALL by Pattie Palmer Baker has won the 2017 Del Sol Prize for First Novel.
Baker, a collage artist, essayist, and poet, has a BA in Literature from University of Southern California and an MA in Education from Stanford, and taught high school English for six years. For twenty-five years she worked as a school counselor in elementary and middle schools. Her work has been published in Postcard Poetry and Prose Magazine, Minerva Rising, The Best of Voicecatcher, Calyx, Military Experience and the Arts, The Art and Science of Psychotherapy (essay) and Halcyon Days (essay). A Pushcart Poetry Prize nominee, Baker won the 2016 Timberline Review competition, and placed second and third in The Highland Park Review competition (2016) and the Oregon Poetry Association contest (2015), respectively.
When notified, Baker said, “I am honored and thrilled, and I am grateful for the existence of Del Sol Press!”
Contest judge, the award-winning, best-selling mystery writer Hallie Ephron said of MALL: “It was the most original idea and kudos to the author for managing those dueling viewpoints. We can all relate to going to mall we’ve never been to and getting swept up in the flow… and then, where IS the exit?!“