Chesapeake Author's Dystopian Novel Wins 2026 NYC Big Book Award

CHESAPEAKE, Va. - Rezul -- Author David Somerfleck's debut novel, "One Grain of Sand," has won the 2026 NYC Big Book Award in the science fiction category. The book, the first in his Shards of a Shattered Sky trilogy, was also named a 2026 Kirkus Indie Award Contender in science fiction and fantasy, has received a Literary Titan Gold Book Award and a Readers' Favorite Silver Medal and is a nominee for an Outstanding Creator Award, with winners to be announced in December.

The novel opens in Virginia and is set in a near-future United States where the President has legalized weekend minority culling "Passes," and citizens compete on reality television for health care, the right to travel and higher education. Its protagonist, Noah Harpster, a pickpocket and three-time loser, falls for Parlisse Hardamon, a biracial climatologist and artist who may belong to a "radical" network the government calls terrorists.

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Kirkus Reviews called the book "riveting and frighteningly plausible." BookLife Reviews, the independent-author review program of Publishers Weekly, called it an "inventive high-stakes thriller"; that review is scheduled to appear in the Nov. 2 issue of Publishers Weekly. Readers' Favorite gave it a five-star review, calling it "supremely intense and fantastically imaginative."

In an interview with Literary Titan, Somerfleck said he wrote the book to explore what could happen if the United States continued on its current trajectory. "When I began writing One Grain of Sand a few years ago, I thought some of the trajectories were too extreme," he said. "But then I began seeing a lot of what's in the book actually take shape before our very eyes."

Somerfleck worked as a reporter for community newspapers and magazines before turning to fiction. He studied creative writing at Old Dominion University under poet Bruce Weigl and author Tony Ardizzone. He publishes under his imprint, Boldly Blue Press, and is also the author of the poetry collection "Love Her Blind and Other Poems." He is writing the second and third books of the trilogy.

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"One Grain of Sand" was selected for the Library of Virginia's Indie Virginia collection. Print copies are held by the Chesapeake Public Library, Virginia Beach Public Library, Fairfax County Public Library and Old Dominion University's Perry Library, and any Virginia library cardholder can read the eBook free through the Library of Virginia.

The book is available in paperback (ISBN 9798349309373), hardcover (ISBN 9798349696657), eBook and audiobook, narrated by Rebecca Veigel, through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org and other retailers. Purchase and library links are at https://boldly.blue/onegrain.

Review copies are available on request.