Best Books That Would Probably be on The Above List Except That I Haven’t Read/Finished Them Yet: Rachel B. Glaser’s Pee on Water, Ethel Rohan’s Cut to the Bone, Eugene Marten’s Firework, Paula Bomer’s Baby, Amelia Gray’s Museum of Weird.
Best Big Press Fiction: China Mieville’s Kraken, Paul Murray’s Skippy Dies, Charles Yu’s How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe.
Best Chapbook: xTx’s He is Talking to the Fat Lady, Matt Salesses’s Our Island of Epidemics, Aaron Burch’s How to Take Yourself Apart, How to Make Yourself Anew.
Best Translated Work: Mo Yan’s Change, translated by Howard Goldblatt.
Best Non-Fiction: Keith Richards’ Life, B.R. Myers’ The Cleanest Race, Barbara Demick’s Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, Peter Hessler’s Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory, and Deborah Blum’s The Poisoner’s Handbook.
Best Poetry (I know all of these did not come out in 2010, but close enough and I read them this year): Natalie Lyalin’s Pink & Hot Pink Habitat, Ana Bozecevic’s Stars of the Night Commute, Mike Young’s We Are All Good if They Try Hard Enough.
Books I’m Looking Forward to Most in 2011/2012: Blake Butler’s There is No Year, Steve Himmer’s Bee-Loud Glade, Seth Fried’s The Great Frustration, Roxane Gay’s Ayiti, Matt Kirkpatrick’s Light without Heat, A.D. Jameson’s Amazing Adult Fantasy.
Writers that Need Books Now (Agents, Publishers?): Robert Kloss, Anne Valente, Salvatore Pane, Kirsty Logan, Alan Stewart Carl, Lauren Becker, Erin Fitzgerald, and Tim Jones-Yelvington.
Writers that Consistently Hurt/Massage My Brain Tissue (in the best way): Andy Devine, Christopher Higgs, and Ander Monson.
Best Discovery this Year that Everyone Else in the World Already Knew About: Aese Berg.
Most Deserved Attention for Stellar Debut: Laura Van den Berg.
Best Indie Lit World Cheerleaders: Mel Bosworth and Christopher Newgent.