Given Ground (Bakeless Prize)
"Ann Pancake . . . is indisputably a regional writer, but her stories are free from the kitschy sentimentality and high-art self-consciousness that this label has come to imply. Pancake shares [her characters'] fondness for what ordinarily appears unlovable, depicting an ignored pocket of the country with a clear and admiring eye. She has an unusual gift for portraying difficult lives with a plain-spoken accuracy that makes them seem suddenly exceptional." —New York Times Book Review