At the beginning of the month, we told you about the shortlist for Barnes & Noble‘s Discover Great New Writers award, where four of the six slots (three each for fiction and nonfiction) were held by HarperCollins books. Well, the results are in, with Ben Fountain‘s short story collection Brief Encounters with Che Guevara (published under the literary Ecco) imprint and Eric Blehm‘s real-life thriller The Last Season (from Harper proper) each earning $10,000…and, perhaps more importantly in the long run, a full year of B&N’s marketing muscle behind their continued promotion. The push starts tonight with a reading at the superstore across the street from Lincoln Center, where Fountain and Blehm will be joined by other finalists.