Book Award Tragic

Saturday, March 19, 2011

2011 NSW PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARDS SHORTLISTS

2011 NSW PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARDS SHORTLISTS - 18th March Very possibly a first cultural duty for Libs leader Barry O' Farrell as the winners of this years awards will be announced on 16th May after the state election.

Let's hope Bazza doesn't go down the same path as his Western Australian counterparts. When they were elected a year or so back they buried the newly born Australia Asia Literary award whose one and only ever winner was David Malouf(The Complete Stories). One for trivia nights that one.

The 2011 NSW Premier's shortlisted writers were selected from more than 570 nominations across 1 0 categories. Prizes of up to $315,000 will be presented at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards dinner on 16 May, the first celebratory event of the 2011 Sydney Writers' Festival (16-22 May).

For those who like to get involved, this years People Choice Award is open to all residents of Australia for the first time. Just get your book club to read the books on the Christina Stead short list . Voting is via the website www.pla.nsw.gov.au (voting closes at midnight on 8 May). Come on! That's only a book a week and $120 cost between now and when voting closes.

2011 NSW PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARDS SHORTLISTS -
Voted by residents of Australia from the Christina Stead shortlisted books and
announced at the winners' presentation dinner on 16 May along with the rest of the winners . Voting is via the websitewww.pla.nsw.gov.au (voting closes at midnight on 8 May)
CHRISTINA STEAD PRIZE FOR FICTION ($40,000)
Peter Carey, Parrot and Olivier in America, Penguin Group (Australia)
Stephen Daisley, Traitor, The Text Publishing Company
Lisa Lang, Utopian Man, Allen & Unwin
Alex Miller, Love Song, Allen & Unwin
Kristel Thornell, Night Street, .Allen & Unwin
Ouyang Yu, The English Class, Transit Lounge Publishing
DOUGLAS STEWART PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION ($40,000)
Malcolm Fraser & Margaret Simons, Malcolm Fraser: The Political Memoirs, .Melbourne University Publishing
Anna Krien, Into the Woods: The Battle for Tasmania's Forests, Black Inc
Tony Moore, Death or Liberty: Rebels and Radicals Transported to Australia 1788-
1868, . Murdoch Books Australia
Ranjana Srivastava, Tell Me The Truth: Conversations With My Patients About Life
and Death Penguin Group (Australia)
Maria Tumarkin, Otherland, Random House Australia
Brenda Walker, Reading By Moonlight: How Books Saved a Life, Penguin Group
(Australia)
KENNETH SLESSOR PRIZE FOR POETRY ($30,000)
Susan Bradley Smith, Supermodernprayerbook , Salt Publishing
Andy Jackson, Among The Regulars, Papertiger Media Inc
Jill Jones, Dark Bright Doors, Wakefield Press Pty
Anna Kerdijk Nicholson, Possession, Five Island Press
Andy Kissane, Out to Lunch, Puncher and Wattmann
Jennifer Maiden, Pirate Rain, iramondo Publishing
ETHEL TURNER PRIZE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE'S LITERATURE ($30,000)
Michelle Cooper, The FitzOsbornes in Exile. The Montmaray Journals 2, Random House Australia
Cath Crowley, Graffiti Moon, .Pan Macmillan Australia
Kirsty Eagar, Saltwater Vampires, Penguin Group (Australia)
Belinda Jeffrey, Big River, Little Fish, University of Queensland Press
Melina Marchetta, The Piper's Son, Penguin Group (Australia)
Jaclyn Moriarty, Dreaming of Amelia, Pan Macmillan
PATRICIA WRIGHTSON PRIZE FOR CHILDREN'S LITERATURE ($30,000)
Jeannie Baker, Mirror, Walker Books Austraila
Libby Gleeson & Freya Blackwood, Clancy and Millie and the Very Fine House
, Hardie Grant Egmont
Cassandra Golds, The Three Loves of Persimmon, .Penguin Group (Australia)
John Heffernan, Where There's Smoke, Omnibus Books
Sophie Masson, My Australian Story: The Hunt for Ned Kell , Scholastic Australia
Emma Quay, Shrieking Violet, Scholastic Australia
SCRIPT WRITING AWARD ($30,000)
Shirley Barrett, South Solitary,Macgowan Films
Glen Dolman, Hawke, The Film Company
Michael Miller, The Hero's Standard,.Knapman Wyld TV, SBS
John Misto, Sisters of War, Sisters of War Pty Ltd
Debra Oswald, Offspring, Southern Star Entertainment
Samantha Strauss, Dance Academy, Episode 13: Family, Werner Film Productions
PLAY AWARD ($30,000)
Patricia Cornelius, Do Not Go Gentle, Fortyfivedownstairs
Jonathan Gavin, Bang, B Sharp - Belvoir Street Downstairs Theatre
Jane Montgomery Griffiths, Sappho…In 9 Fragments, Malthouse Theatre; Currency Press
Melissa Reeves, Furious Mattress, Malthouse Theatre
Sue Smith, Strange Attractor, Griffin Theatre; Currency Press
Anthony Weigh, Like a Fishbone, Bush Theatre Co, London; Sydney Theatre
Co/Griffin Theatre; Currency Press
NSW PREMIER'S TRANSLATION PRIZE & PEN MEDALLION ($30,000)
Winner to be announced 16 May.
COMMUNITY RELATIONS COMMISSION AWARD ($20,000)
Ali Alizadeh, Iran: My Grandfather, Transit Lounge Publishing
Anh Do, The Happiest Refugee, Allen & Unwin
Maria Tumarkin, Otherland, . Random House Australia
Yuol Yuol, Akoi Majak, Monica Kualba, John Garang Kon & Robert Colman,
My Name is Sud (Soo-d), Blacktown Arts Centre
Ouyang Yu, The English Class, Transit Lounge Publishing
UTS GLENDA ADAMS AWARD FOR NEW WRITING ($5,000)
Stephen Daisley, Traitor, The Text Publishing Company
Ashely Hay, The Body in the Clouds, .Allen & Unwin
Lisa Lang, Utopian Man, .Allen & Unwin
David Musgrave, Glissando: A Melodrama, Sleepers Publishing
Gretchen Shirm, Having Cried Wolf , Affirm Press
Kristel Thornell, Night Street, Allen & Unwin
NSW PREMIER'S TRANSLATION PRIZE
The winner and shortlist to be announced on 16 May.
BOOK OF THE YEAR ($10,000)
Chosen from among the winners of the awards. To be announced 16 May.
SPECIAL AWARD ($20,000)
Given for a work not readily covered by the existing categories, or in recognition of a
writer's achievements generally. To be announced 16 May.
JUDGES FOR THE 2011 NSW PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARDS
Paula Abood, Stephen Axelsen, Professor Robyn Ewing, Farid Farid, Judi Farr,
Joanna Featherstone, Tim Gooding, Dr Kathryn Heyman, Jacqueline Kent, Suzanne
Leal, Dr Chris Mead, Stephen Measday, Rhyll McMaster (Chair), Tony Morphett,
Omar Musa, Dr Camilla Nelson, Jane Oehr, Joseph Pugliese, Judith Ridge, Polly
Rowe, James Roy and Les Wicks.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Regional Winners 2011

The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, internationally recognised for promoting ground-breaking works of fiction from across the globe, has announced an eclectic mix of writers from the four regions of the Commonwealth who will be heading to the final stages of the competition at Sydney Writers’ Festival in May.

The 2011 regional prize winners are:

Africa:
Best Book: The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (Sierra Leone)
Best First Book: Happiness is a four-letter word by Cynthia Jele (South Africa)

Caribbean and Canada:
Best Book: Room by Emma Donoghue (Canada)
Best First Book: Bird Eat Bird by Katrina Best (Canada)

South Asia and Europe:
Best Book: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (UK)
Best First Book: Sabra Zoo by Mischa Hiller (UK)

South East Asia and Pacific:
Best Book: That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott (Australia)
Best First Book: A Man Melting by Craig Cliff (New Zealand)

The final programme of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize will bring together the regional winners from Africa, Caribbean and Canada, South Asia and Europe, and South East Asia and Pacific, at Sydney Writers’ Festival (16-22 May). The overall winners of Best Book and Best First Book

Publish Post

Friday, February 4, 2011

Minnesota Book Awards Finalists

The Minnesota Book Awards was created over two decades ago by The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library as part of a larger festival of the book.

Books created by writers, illustrators or book artists who are Minnesotans are eligible for Minnesota Book Awards. The Awards are given each year for books published in the previous year. For instance, the winners in 2010 were books published in 2009.

The award process begins with nominations, which are received from authors, publishers and others from throughout the state. From the nominated works, Award finalists are chosen by panels of preliminary round judges. Award winners are then selected by different, final round, judging panels. Over the years of the Book Awards program, the categories of Award winners and the number of finalists has varied from year to year.

The Friends maintain an excellent web site that is well worth a visit. It includes a page offering downloads of reading notes about for the Minnesota Book Award Winners for the last few years, very thoughtful.

For vistors from outside the USA, Minnesota is the 12th biggest state in the country with a population of about 5 million. The capital is St. Paul.

The nominees for 2011 have been posted. By Tragic's reckoning this will be the 23rd time around the block for the prize.

Tragic list past winners over at Book Awards US

Finalists

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

Amazon Best Translated Book Award Longlist

The Best Translated Book Award prize is an initiative of Three Percent the web blog arm of Open Letter which is book translating press division of the University of Rochester in the USA - think that's right!

Three Percent launched in the summer of 2007 with the lofty goal of becoming a destination for readers, editors, and translators interested in finding out about modern and contemporary international literature.

The Three Percent comes from the fact that only that percentage ( or lower) of books that are published in the USA (& probably all english speaking nations) are translated from another language into english- a great shame given the marvellous amount of literature available.

The award was recently given a big leg up when no less than Amazon picked-up the sponsorship, an indication of the qualitative nature of literature in the mix. The gorgeous part of that is that unlike in the previous years that Tragic has been covering the award, the books are actually all available through Amazon. Bliss.

The gigantic US retailer gets a fair bit of stick, often for no apparent reason - victim of the tall poppy syndrome perhaps with people taking cheap shots at a highly successful, and, very useful enterprise.

Tragic sends Amazon a bouquet of fine Australian wild flowers for their involvement in promoting this quality area of our literary world to a wider audience.With their involvement maybe Three Percent will have to rename themselves, Five to Seven Percent and Rising!

Not sure what the prize money is involved but will dig around.

The 2010 (awarded in 2011) long list has just been released with a shortlist of ten due in March methinks? An ambition this year is to read the complete longlist if the book buying budget can stand it.

Tragic lists past winners over at Literary Awards Australia, Book Awards US and Literary Awards UK.

The Literary Conference by César Aira.
Translated from the Spanish by Katherine Silver.
(New Directions)

The Golden Age by Michal Ajvaz.
Translated from the Czech by Andrew Oakland.
(Dalkey Archive)

The Rest Is Jungle and Other Stories by Mario Benedetti.
Translated from the Spanish by Harry Morales.
(Host Publications)

A Life on Paper by Georges-Olivier Chateaureynaud.
Translated from the French by Edward Gauvin.
(Small Beer)

A Jew Must Die by Jacques Chessex.
Translated from the French by Donald Wilson.
(Bitter Lemon)

A Splendid Conspiracy by Albert Cossery.
Translated from the French by Alyson Waters.
(New Directions)

The Jokers by Albert Cossery.
Translated from the French by Anna Moschovakis.
(New York Review Books)

Eline Vere by Louis Couperus.
Translated from the Dutch by Ina Rilke.
(Archipelago)

Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck.
Translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky.
(New Directions)

The Blindness of the Heart by Julia Franck.
Translated from the German by Anthea Bell.
(Grove)

Hocus Bogus by Romain Gary (writing as Émile Ajar).
Translated from the French by David Bellos.
(Yale University Press)

To the End of the Land by David Grossman.
Translated from the Hebrew by Jessica Cohen.
(Knopf)

The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson.
Translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal.
(New York Review Books)

The Clash of Images by Abdelfattah Kilito.
Translated from the French by Robyn Creswell.
(New Directions)

Bad Nature, or With Elvis in Mexico by Javier Marías.
Translated from the Spanish by Esther Allen.
(New Directions)

Cyclops by Ranko Marinković.
Translated from the Croatian by Vlada Stojiljković,
edited by Ellen Elias-Bursać.
(Yale University Press)

Hygiene and the Assassin by Amélie Nothomb.
Translated from the French by Alison Anderson.
(Europa Editions)

I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson.
Translated from the Norwegian by
Charlotte Barslund and the author.
(Graywolf Press)

A Thousand Peaceful Cities by Jerzy Pilch.
Translated from the Polish by David Frick.
(Open Letter)

Touch by Adania Shibli.
Translated from the Arabic by Paula Haydar.
(Clockroot)

The Black Minutes by Martin Solares.
Translated from the Spanish by
Aura Estrada and John Pluecker.
(Grove/Black Cat)

On Elegance While Sleeping by Emilio Lascano Tegui.
Translated from the Spanish by Idra Novey.
(Dalkey Archive)

Agaat by Marlene Van Niekerk.
Translated from the Afrikaans by Michiel Heyns.
(Tin House)

Microscripts by Robert Walser.
Translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky.
(New Directions)

Georg Letham: Physician and Murderer by Ernst Weiss.
Translated from the German by Joel Rotenberg.
(Archipelago)

Book Award Tragic

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