AUTHOR NOMINATED FOR PNBA AWARD

Walter Benesch's THE ECUMENICAL CRUISE AND OTHER THREE-LEGGED CHICKEN PHILOSOPHY TALES nominated for Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association's 2004 Book Award.

Walter Benesch's debut short story collection, THE ECUMENICAL CRUISE AND OTHER THREE-LEGGED CHICKEN TALES is in the running for The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association 2004 Book Award. The annual awards are given to authors and illustrators residing within the PNBA region (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska).

Book Award winners receive a cash prize, presented at the Association's spring trade show. The awards are heavily publicized, and PNBA bookstore members are encouraged to feature and promote the winning titles.

Classic paradoxes of philosophy and theology are combined with cutting-edge humor in Walter Beneschs collection of short stories, THE ECUMENICAL CRUISE AND OTHER THREE-LEGGED CHICKEN PHILOSOPHY TALES (Nonetheless Press, June 2003, Case Bound, 207 pages, $24.95). Benesch, professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, has taught and written extensively on the subjects of comparative philosophy and religion. His subjects take unusual twists in his new book, as in a queens rebellion against the tradition of all religions that when women die they are recycled again as women, whereas men and stallions go to paradise, in "Queen Vashti Goes to Heaven", and a bed bugs discussion of the consequences of drinking a single drop of blood from the little toe of the baby Jesus in The Bed Bug.

Some of the stories take appealing concepts to unlikely conclusions. For example, in the title story, "The Ecumenical Cruise", the leaders of all the worlds religions, meeting on a cruise ship to work out their differences, are suddenly overwhelmed by methane gas and vote unanimously that all gods are created equal, and all paths to paradise are equally valid". The story then examines the consequences of this action for gods and people, as it means that anybody who believes anything must be admitted to paradise.

Read a sample chapter and learn more about author Walter Benesch on the Nonetheless Press web site at http://www.nonethelesspress.com/Benesch/Benesch.html.

Previous Book Award winners include Chuck Palahniuk (LULLABY), Virginia Euwer Wolff (TRUE BELIEVER), and Chris Crutcher (WHALE TALK).

PNBA (http://www.pnba.org) exists to make bookselling in the Northwest better for the booksellers and better for the public. A trade association representing the interests of booksellers in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington, the organization is one of the oldest bookselling associations in the country and one of the largest in geographic size. Members include owners and managers of independent and chain bookstores, publishers, book distributors, authors, librarians, book reviewers, and book publicists.