Mom's Cancer Wins the Blooker

More than a word that sounds as if it were made up by Mel Brooks, a "blook" is a book that originated as a blog or similar online content. Such as mine. Lulu is a print-on-demand publisher that each year awards Lulu Blooker Prizes to blooks in fiction, nonfiction, and comics. Such as mine.

As announced this morning, Mom's Cancer has won the Lulu Blooker Prize for comics. Judge Paul Jones said, "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." The other judges on the panel were Arianna Huffington, author Julie Powell, philosopher/writer Rohit Gupta, and journalist Nick Cohen.

The nonfiction and overall first prize winner is Colby Buzzwell's My War: Killing Time in Iraq, which began as a series of blog posts from the front. The fiction winner is Andrew Losowsky's The Doorbells of Florence, whose subject appears to be exactly as described--photos of ornate Italian doorbells accompanied by short stories about the people or events behind them. That sounds just odd enough to check out.

This is terrific recognition that I appreciate very much, and not just because it comes with $2500 (wow, that's like ten college textbooks for my kids!). Blogs are increasing in literary, cultural, and journalistic importance at the same time print-on-demand publishers such as Lulu have the potential to transform the publishing world. It feels like a vital, interesting place to be tangentially connected to, even if my book was not self-published (which was not a prerequisite for the prize).

All my thanks to the judges and others involved with the Blooker, I'm very grateful. This is nice.