The Mercantile Library Center announced the shortlist for the 2008 John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize. The winner will be named December 1: Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)Dervishes by Beth Helms (Picador) The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti (The Dial Press)Personal Days by Ed Park (Random House)Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter by Peter Manseau (Free Press)The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski (Ecco/HarperCollins)The Story of Forgetting by Stefan Merrill Block (Random House) Separately, former US poet laureate Louise Glueck was given the $100,000 Wallace Stevens Award for “outstanding and proven mastery in the art of […]
Awards
Fall Books
The Washington Post offers its extensive preview: “Consider the years of work and accumulated wisdom that have gone into producing the 116 that follow. Here is a treasure trove of knowledge, from a chronicle of the White House war room to the artistry of Marc Chagall. Here, too, is a world of the imagination, from the slave trade as conjured by Toni Morrison to the nervous ’50s with Philip Roth. This is but a mere fragment, a scattered sampling of what’s in store for our readers as we head into the busiest season of the year.”Post The SF Chronicle also […]
Awards
The Mercantile Library has selected FSG President Jonathan Galassi as the recipient of its 2008 Maxwell E. Perkins Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Field of Fiction The award will be presented at the Mercantile Library’s annual dinner on December 1. The inaugural Edwin Morgan International Poetry Competition’s £5,000 first prize was awarded to Kate Miller for her poem, After the Ban. Larry Doyle, Patricia Marx, and Simon Rich are the finalists for this year’s Thurber Prize for American Humor.
Fall Children's Indie Next List
1. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean (illus.)2. Masterpiece by Elise Broach3. Hate That Cat: A Novel, by Sharon Creech4. Impossible by Nancy Werlin 5. Sucks to Be Me: The All-True Confessions of Mina Hamilton, Teen Vampire (Maybe) by Kimberly Pauley 6. Bats at the Library by Brian Lies 7. Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship, and Survival by Kirby Larson, Mary Nethery, Jean Cassels (illus.)8. Madam President by Lane Smith 9. The 39 Clues: The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan 10. My One Hundred Adventures by Polly Horvath Click for comments and age-specific […]
Censorship Cry Against Muslim Writers Award
Max Malik was one of five writers shortlisted for the Muslim Writers Award (and last year’s winner) but he claims in the Telegraph that the book The Butterfly Hunter “was never given to the judges to read” to appease parts of the Muslim community. He said: “My creative effort is being treated as if it is somehow unclean and unworthy. Clearly, the Muslim Writers Awards has decided that the novel is so unpalatable for them that it needs to be buried.” Imran Akram, chief executive of the 2008 awards, countered: “Dr Malik’s submission was certainly one of the best we […]
Awards Notes
Michael Chabon, Connie Willis and Ted Chiang are among the winners of this year’s Hugo Awards handed out Saturday night at the World Science Fiction convention in Denver. The Bookseller, taking a cue from the Booker Prize, has opened up voting on the “Diagram of Diagrams” for the oddest book title of the last 30 years.Hugo AwardsThe Bookseller