Showing all posts tagged: literature
Marzahn, Mon Amour by Katja Oskamp wins 2023 Dublin Literary Award
26 May 2023
German author Katja Oskamp has won the 2023 Dublin Literary Award with her 2019 book Marzahn, Mon Amour. The Dublin Literary Award is an international literary award that has been recognising excellence in global literature since 1994. Books written in, or translated into, English are eligible, but must be nominated by one of the award’s participating libraries.
After Story by Larissa Behrendt, Bodies of Light by Jennifer Down, and Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au, were some of the Australian authors to be longlisted for this year’s award.
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books, Katja Oskamp, literary awards, literature
Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov wins International Booker Prize
24 May 2023
Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov, book cover.
Georgi Gospodinov, described as the most translated and internationally awarded Bulgarian writer after 1989, has won the 2023 International Booker Prize, for his 2022 novel Time Shelter.
Translated by American literary translator Angela Rodel, Gospodinov’s fourth book features a curious medical facility that assists Alzheimer’s patients, by masquerading as a time machine:
In Time Shelter, an enigmatic flâneur named Gaustine opens a ‘clinic for the past’ that offers a promising treatment for Alzheimer’s sufferers: each floor reproduces a decade in minute detail, transporting patients back in time.
As Gaustine’s assistant, the unnamed narrator is tasked with collecting the flotsam and jetsam of the past, from 1960s furniture and 1940s shirt buttons to scents and even afternoon light. But as the rooms become more convincing, an increasing number of healthy people seek out the clinic as a ‘time shelter’, hoping to escape from the horrors of our present — a development that results in an unexpected conundrum when the past begins to invade the present.
The winning author and translator each receive half of the £50,000 prize money on offer. If there had been an award for best book cover of the International Booker Prize shortlist, I would have adjudged Time Shelter the winner at the time I wrote about the shortlist.
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Georgi Gospodinov, International Booker Prize, literary awards, literature
The Book Thief, Australia’s Eurovision book contest 2023 entry
22 May 2023
The Book Thief, the 2005 novel by Sydney based Australian author Markus Zusak, is Australia’s entry in the inaugural Eurovision book contest. Yes, you read that right. The Eurovision book contest, which is an initiative of the annual Hay Festival, a literary festival held in Hay-on-Wye, Wales.
The victor will be decided by way of audience discussion on Friday 2 June 2023. A full list of contenders in the contest can be seen here.
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Tiktok reading community BookTok prompts reading surge
22 May 2023
Short-form video hosting service TikTok certainly has its nay-sayers. Security analysts believe the app may be compromising the privacy of users, while lawmakers in some countries are considering banning it. But the news isn’t all bad: TikTok appears to be behind a recent surge in book readership, thanks to the app’s reading community, BookTok, according to Kristen McLean of NPD Bookscan:
The romance novel It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover was the second best-selling Adult Fiction book and sixth best-selling book overall in 2021 — selling more than 770,000 copies last year — despite being a backlist title originally published in 2016, and McLean believes that is “almost exclusively there because of BookTok,” where it was championed.
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books, literature, social media, tiktok
Australian authors, illustrators say generative AI is a threat
22 May 2023
A recent poll of just over two hundred Australian Society of Authors (ASA) members reveals local authors and illustrators are concerned generative AI technologies pose a threat to their livelihoods. This despite about twenty percent of poll participants stating they made use of AI tools — if only partially — in their work.
The survey results demonstrate that while a small minority of authors are using AI tools as part of their writing and illustrating process, there is overwhelming concern about the threat generative AI poses to already precarious writing and illustrating professions.
While it seems certain authors will more fully embrace tools such as ChatGPT to help brainstorm, edit, and correct work, most ASA members feel the part AI technologies play in the writing of a book should be publicly divulged.
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books, literature, technology, writing
Barbara Kingsolver, Hernan Diaz win 2023 fiction Pulitzer Prize
9 May 2023
The Pulitzer Prize, which recognises excellence by American writers, be they journalists, magazine writers, and book authors, announced its 2023 recipients, early this morning, Australian time, with Barbara Kingsolver, and Hernan Diaz being named winners in the fiction category:
The Pulitzer prize for fiction was awarded on Monday to two class-conscious novels: Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver’s modern recasting of the Dickens classic David Copperfield, and Hernan Diaz’s Trust, an innovative narrative of wealth and deceit set in 1920s New York.
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literary awards, literature, Pulitzer Prize
Jarad Bruinstroop wins unpublished poetry 2023 Val Vallis Award
3 May 2023
Some late news to hand, Jarad Bruinstroop has been named winner of the 2023 Val Vallis Award for unpublished Australian poetry, with a poem titled Fragments on the Myth of Cy Twombly.
Bruinstroop’s debut collection of poetry, Reliefs, is due to be published by the University of Queensland Press later this year.
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Australian literature, Jarad Bruinstroop, literary awards, literature, poetry
The 2023 Better Reading Top 100
3 May 2023
The Wife and the Widow by Christian White, and The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams, are among Australian titles I’ve read that make the 2023 Better Reading Top 100 list.
Other books by authors outside of Australia I’ve finished, include Normal People by Sally Rooney, and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
A full list of all one hundred titles in PDF format can be found here. For those not in the know, Better Reading is a Sydney based Australian community of engaged book readers. Just the sort we like…
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books, Christian White, literature, novels, Pip Williams, Sally Rooney, Taylor Jenkins Reid
Do you share your birthday with a famous author?
30 April 2023
Australian writer and book reviewer Sheree Strange has put together a list of the birthdays of well-known authors. If you’re stuck for a birthday gift idea for a friend or relative, maybe you could get them a book written by the writer who they share their birthday with.
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Debut Writers Over 50, a literary award for mature authors
26 April 2023
Jenny Brown Associates, a literary agency based in Edinburgh, Scotland, announced the launch of a literary prize for emerging authors aged fifty and over, the Debut Writers Over 50 award, at this year’s London Book Fair. Speaking at the event, which was held last week, agency associate Lisa Highton said when it comes to starting out as a writer, youth should not be a prerequisite:
“The bestseller lists are full of debut novelists who are older, but the perception is that you have to be young when your first book comes out,” says literary agent Lisa Highton of Jenny Brown Associates. “But being a debut is not just about being a shiny, sparkly, young person. The reason we launched the award was to say to people over 50 yes, you too can be a shiny, sparkly, new writer – just older.”
This is a great initiative. I’m not sure how many literary awards cater for mature authors, but there sure seems to be plenty aimed at youth writers, and people aged under thirty-five. And that’s fine. Emerging younger writers need to be encouraged, since it’s difficult to become established in an industry dominated — usually — by, you know, older, big name authors, or those with several books to their name.
While the Debut Writers Over 50 award is for unpublished novelists residing in the United Kingdom, it’s good to see people commencing writing careers later in life being recognised. Submissions for the inaugural award close at the end of next month. A shortlist will be published on 27 July 2023, and the winner will be named on 26 August 2023, at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
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