By Emily Williams Publisher Anagrama announced this week that the 2010 winner of the house’s prestigious Herralde Novel Prize (worth €18,000) is Colombian writer Antonio Ungar for his novel Tres ataúdes blancos, or Three White Coffins. The novel is set in the fictional Latin American country of Miranda, where by mistake the protagonist is installed as leader of the political opposition. Ungar, …
Do Cash Awards Promote Publishing in Growth Markets?
By Edward Nawotka Today’s lead story covers the ongoing Sharjah International Book Fair. This year, the Fair introduced three new book awards for English language works (discussed in the piece). In addition, the Egypt-based Dar El Shorouk won the second edition of the Etisalat Prize for Arabic Children’s Literature with the book, Al Noqta Al Sawda (The Black Dot), written …
Amazon.com to Underwrite Best Translated Book Awards
PRESS RELEASE from Open Letter Books: October 20, 2010: Amazon.com has awarded the University of Rochester/Three Percent website a $25,000 grant in support of the 2011 Best Translated Book Awards. This grant will support $5,000 cash prizes for both the winning translators and authors. Launched by Three Percent (http://www.rochester.edu/threepercent) in 2007, the Best Translated Book Awards aim to bring attention …
The Booker “Six”: Prize Shortlist Includes Two-timer Carey, Donoghue and Levy
By Edward Nawotka The six books shortlisted for the 2010 Booker Prize are: Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey (Faber and Faber) Room by Emma Donoghue (Picador/Pan Macmillan) In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut (Atlantic Books/Grove Atlantic) The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson (Bloomsbury) The Long Song by Andrea Levy (Headline Review/Headline Publishing) C by Tom McCarthy (Jonathan Cape/Random …
Shortlist for Germany’s 2010 “International Literature Prize”
By Siobhan O’Leary Berlin’s Haus der Kulturen der Welt has announced the shortlist for its second annual “International Literature Prize” for books that have been translated into German. The seven-member jury — which includes Gregor Dotzauer (literary critic for Der Tagesspiegel), Katharina Narbutoviç (head of the DAAD’s Berlin artists program) and Peter Ripken (chairman of ICORN – International Cities of Refuge Network), made its selection from a pool of …
A Summer Sojourn at Paris’ Shakespeare and Company
Parisian bookstore Shakespeare and Co. has launched a new literary magazine, The Paris Magazine, along with a 10,000 euro literary prize for an unpublished novella.
Demick’s North Korea Expose Wins Samuel Johnson Prize
By Edward Nawotka Barbara Demick’s Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea won the £20,000 pound ($30,000) Samuel Johnson yesterday. We thought Demick’s look into the lives of everyday North Koreans was unique and brave. You can read our coverage of the book, “Frogs In a Well: The Literary Life of North Koreans” which also covers The Cleanest Race by B.R. Myers. …
Against the Odds: Bringing Arabic Kids Books to Life in Beirut
By Olivia Snaije BEIRUT: Dar Onboz is a small, Beirut-based publishing company with big dreams. Founded in the spring of 2006, just before the Israeli summer bombing of Lebanon, Dar Onboz has faced down financial worries, problems with distribution and the general difficulties of running a company in country where the political situation is volatile and corruption is commonplace. The …
Vitamins 2.0: How Children’s Books Can Change the World in the Digital Age
What type of illustrated kids’ books are most valuable? Perhaps those of most importance are the books done with manual, as opposed to digital artistry.
Klein, Raulff, Blumenbach Win Leipzig Prizes
By Siobhan O’Leary The 2010 Preis der Leipziger Buchmesse (Leipzig Book Fair Prize) for fiction, non-fiction and translation were announced last week. Five titles per category were selected for the longlist by seven editors and literary critics. As reported by the Goethe-Institut, (which also supplied the descriptions below) this year’s winners were: For fiction: Georg Klein, for Roman unserer Kindheit(Rowohlt), the fantastic …