Hans Christian Andersen Award jury president Anastasia Arkhipova has resigned from the 2024 award committee. Reuters reports that Arkhipova, a Russian illustrator, is on the board of the Moscow Branch of Artists Association of Russia (MOCX), which last year ran a contest for artists to create Russian war propaganda. After Arkhipova was elected to the award committee in September, several IBBY member countries protested and withdrew from participation in the award, which has been called the Nobel Prize of children’s literature, reports Danish broadcaster DR. The queen of Denmark, Queen Margrethe II, withdrew her patronage of the award, and the […]
Awards
Silvers-Dudley Prizes
The Robert B. Silvers Foundation announced the winners of the $135,000 Silvers-Dudley Prizes. Literary Criticism Parul Sehgal Ryan Ruby Arts Writing T. J. Clark Tausif Noor Journalism Timothy Snyder Catilin Dickerson
National Book Foundation Looks Ahead
The NBF released their strategic plan through 2025, following an extensive survey process. Among their goals is to double the viewership of the National Book Awards, “establish an ongoing fund to support the literary field” through a “permanent iteration of the Literary Arts Emergency Fund,” add two or three new staff positions with a focus on development and programmatic work, and “formalize the Foundation’s commitment to diversity, equity, access, and inclusion.”
Gunty, Perry Win National Book Awards
The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty (Knopf) won the National Book Award for fiction at the 73rd annual awards ceremony—resuming an in-person event for the first time since 2019. Gunty, who didn’t prepare a speech, thanked her fellow nominees for “putting their work into the world.” She referenced something Sharon Olds had said at an event the previous day, “How we’ve been preparing to put forth actions for the good, and that’s why we don’t have to be afraid. And when I think about everyone else on this list, that’s what each of those books accomplished, as different as they may […]
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka, Forthcoming from Norton, Wins Booker Prize
Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka won the Booker Prize for his second novel, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. A creator of rock songs, screenplays and travel stories as well, Karunatilaka’s debut novel, Chinaman (published in the US by Graywolf as The Legend of Pradeep Mathew), won the Commonwealth Prize in 2011. Norton bought North American rights to Seven Moons at auction shortly before the shortlist was announced, and currently has trade paperback publication scheduled for November 1. Independent press Sort of Books published in the UK, and Karunatilaka is represented by David Godwin Agency. In the spring, Little Brown UK […]
Ada Limón Named Poet Laureate
The Library of Congress named Ada Limón the 24th poet laureate of the US. Limón, 46, has published six books, including, most recently The Hurting Kind (2022, Milkweed Editions) and The Carrying (2018, Milkweed Editions), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. She succeeds Joy Harjo and takes up the position it the fall, beginning with a reading on September 29. Limón told the New York Times, “Right now, so often we are going numb to grief and numb to tragedy and numb to crisis. Poetry is a way back in, to recognizing that we are feeling […]