John McLaughlin's winning novel Run in the Fam'ly wins again!Texas Institute of Letters, for Best First Novel, and Best Novel overall of 2007.

• Biography and Judge's Comments
• McLaughlin's website
• University of Tennessee Press   

"Run in the Fam'ly is an emotionally detailed exploration of a level of American society rarely seen in American fiction. It focuses on the desperate lower class people called 'inner city,' dramatized by Jake Robertson, his family, and his buddies. Mr. McLaughlin employs his
mastery of vernacular speech, his understanding of the street cultures of Chicago and Oakland, and his deeply human understanding, to explore the troubled and often violent bonds which hold together a black family."
--James Alan McPherson, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Hue and Cry and Elbow Room

“Run in the Fam’ly proves that John J. McLaughlin is a writer of exceptional talent and enormous vision. His themes are important, his characters are convincing as well as affecting, and his capture of voice dazzling. His writing is infused with unsentimental compassion. I was very moved by this ambitious novel, a marvelous debut.”
-- Bharati Mukherjee, author of The Middleman, winner of the National Book Critics’ Circle Award

“John J. McLaughlin writes with great heart, humanity, and fierce compassion. Run in the Fam’ly is a sensitive and probing look at family and poverty, an ambitious debut novel that echoes Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath in its social consciousness, empathy, and exploration of the bedrock that binds us beneath the chasms of circumstance.”
-- Alexander Parsons, author of Leaving Disneyland, winner of the AWP Novel Award

“The story of Jake and Curtis is good news for us all because they— like the best characters of Flannery O’Connor—come to God through the path we all have in common: suffering and failure. It's also good news because it heralds the emergence of a remarkable new writer of extraordinary vision and courage. The world of this novel is one which is largely ignored by middle-class America, but we experience it here in its full richness of pain, beauty, and mystery.”
-- Richard Rohr, Franciscan Friar and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation

“Run in the Fam’ly marks John J. McLaughlin’s jazzy, bold debut. The novel is both sharp-edged and tender and gives the reader a full measure of satisfaction. I await the author’s next work with great anticipation.”
-- Jonathan Coleman, author of Long Way to Go: Black and White in America

“This novel is a serious study of an aspect of the African-American experience. It is characterized by remarkable fluidity and consistency of tone, and marked by descriptive passages balanced and interspersed by a keen and convincing talent for dialogue. Altogether it recalls the novels of Emile Zola, with its amalgam of gripping narrative with sober sociological content.”
-- Jon Manchip White, Final Judge, 2006 Peter Taylor Prize