the
n i g h t s ta n d
Claiborne Smith is the editor-in-chief of Kirkus Reviews and the former literary director of the Texas Book Festival.
The Nightstand Anyo n e wh o r e p o rts f o r a n y l en gt h of time
Keene Prize for Literature, which bestows $50,000 upon a University
on writers gets accustomed to reading those short author bios that ap-
of Texas student who shows early promise. It is one of the largest prizes
pear on the inside flap or the back cover of the book. Awards are cited
in the world given to writing students. “I didn’t know how to handle it,”
and prestigious publications they’ve written for listed. Writers who
Hart says now. “I’d never had anything like that.”
aren’t ashamed for anyone to know that they can’t make a living as a
The judges for the Keene Prize should feel vindicated for having
full-time writer (the fate of many) will sometimes publish a laundry
chosen Hart. His first novel, Then Came the Evening, received rave
list of day jobs they’ve held to make ends meet. Take Brian Hart, for
reviews, and The Bully of Order is already earning him comparisons
example, whose list reveals that he's worked “as a carpenter, factory
to . . . oh, a certain scribbler named Cormac McCarthy. Hart isn’t
boss, welder, drywall hanger, dishwasher, commercial fisherman, line
unhappy with the comparison, though he does say that “every time
cook, and janitor.”
I turn around it seems like I’m being bracketed with McCarthy.”
And framer of elevator shafts, as I learned after talking to Hart re-
That might be because the two writers share a rough-hewn lyri-
cently about his new novel, The Bully of Order. Hart is originally from
cism that’s deeply invested in depicting violence and its repercus-
a small town in Idaho but moved to Austin to study at the Michener
sions. The Bully of Order is set in Harbor, a fictitious logging town
Center for Writers. In 2006, his second year there, he was awarded the
in the Pacific Northwest, at the end of the 19th century. Dr. Jacob
108
september 2014 tribeza.com
c l a i b o r n e s m i t h p h oto co u rt e s y o f k i r k u s r e v i e w s
By C l a i bo r n e S m i t h