Winner of FC2’s Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize, Joanna Novak’s short fiction debut is a stunning look at the labor of obsession and the industry of self-destruction.

Winner of FC2’s Catherine Doctorow Innovative Fiction Prize, Yannick Murphy’s gathering of luminescent stories illustrates how fraught and contingent the simplest of lives can be, and the often unexpected means available to each of us for our own salvation.

A fiercely ecstatic tale of betrayal and self-sacrifice, Messiahs centers on two nameless lovers: a woman of east Asian descent and a former state prisoner “exonerated” after more than two years on death row.