Maplewood Author Wins $10K Prize For Unpublished Novel

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — As shocking as it may sound, writers often don't make a lot of money. But persistence can pay off, as it did for Maplewood-based author Marco Kaye, who recently won a $10,000 prize from the James Jones Literary Society for his novel-in-progress, "Levon."

Kaye, who moved to Maplewood from Hoboken with his family two years ago, said he is finishing revisions on the book and hopes to submit it to publishing companies in spring. Winning the prize has already attracted the attention of an agent who will help him try to land a deal: Samantha Fingerhut of Compass Talent, whose agency has also represented Candace Bushnell and Tom Bissell.

"I've been workshopping the book with a fantastic group of writers I met through CRIT," he said on Sunday, "a workshop in Brooklyn run by Tony Tulathimutte."

Kaye grew up in Lewes, Delaware and went on to get a Master's of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at NYU in 2013. He worked full-time in advertising before leaving to become a freelance writer in 2011.

Over the years, he's published work in hard-to-get-into outlets, such as the New Yorker's Shouts And Murmurs (the satire column), and the on-line literary and humor outlet McSweeney's. He also has continued to freelance in advertising.

Kaye said his book's protagonist, Levon O'Connell, "is loosely based on Drew Haines, a graphic designer and web developer I met in the Visual Communications Department at the University of Delaware. Sadly, Drew passed away in 2005 from his arthritis, which was a very rare systemic form. I lived with Drew in Hoboken during an internship, and have never forgotten his witty and sardonic sense of humor. I put a similar spirit into Levon."

He said that while in Hoboken, he and Drew "hung out at the now closed Mile Square bar, Imposto's Pizza and Rogo's. Drew got around in a motorized wheelchair, but that didn't prevent him from doing everything me and my friends did. He even came to an event I hosted called Walkahattan, where we took the bus from Hoboken and made our way down the entire length of Manhattan."

He's been working on the novel for two years. He described it thusly: "Levon 'Lee' O’Connell has every reason to hate being a teenager in the mid-90s. At age seven, Lee developed systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis, an autoimmune disease. The disease has stunted his growth, confined him to a wheelchair and racks his body with unpredictable pain. Medical bills have driven his lower middle-class family into bankruptcy. To take his mind off his condition, Lee finds solace in his computer. He codes his own video games. When Lee seeks help on a tricky piece of code, he meets Sunny, an acolyte of Dev, the self-styled 'CPU Guru.' Based on the real-life Dr. Frederick Lenz, Dev introduces Levon to meditation, faith, and his first source of income. Lee learns to heal himself. But Dev, and Sunny, aren’t all they say they are."

More of Kaye's writing can be found here.

Besides winning the money, Kaye will have an excerpt from his novel published in the literary journal Provincetown Arts.

Kaye won the Society's annual First Novel Fellowship. The award is given each year for a novel-in-progress that "honors the spirit of unblinking honesty, determination, and insight into modern culture exemplified by the late James Jones." The contest is run by the creative writing program at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, PA.

Two runner-up prizes of $1,000 were given to authors Lorinda Toledo of West Hollywood, CA, and Latifa Ayad of Columbus, Ohio.

Those seeking to enter the contest this year can click here.

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