By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 10/16/12 5:02pm

writing awards

Hilary Mantel (Photo credit: Henry Holt's Twitter)

Hilary Mantel Wins Second Man Booker Prize

Hilary Mantel has won the Man Booker Prize for fiction for Bring up the Bodies. The award was announced today during a dinner ceremony at London’s medieval Guildhall.

“You wait 20 years for a Booker Prize and two come along at once,” Ms. Mantel said, when accepting the award. Ms. Mantel won the prize for Wolf Hall in 2009. Bring up the Bodies is a sequel to Wolf Hall, which is something that the judges are hesitant to do, according to the  broadcasters we were listening to on the BBC Livestream.  Read More

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 9:15am

The State of Literature

Sir Peter Stothard

British Literary Editor Bemoans Current State of Literary Criticism

The chair of this year’s Man Booker Prize, and the editor of the Times Literary Supplement, does not like all these uninformed opinions about literature flitting about the Internet. Indeed, Sir Peter Stothard fears for the very state of serious literature and criticism.

“Eventually that will be to the detriment of literature. It will be bad for readers; as much as one would like to think that many bloggers opinions are as good as others. It just ain’t so,” Sir Peter Stothard told the Independent, we imagine over a proper tea service. “People will be encouraged to buy and read books that are no good, the good will be overwhelmed, and we’ll be worse off.” Read More

By Emily Witt 10/19/11 8:41am

Good Morning

Morning Book Reads: Norman Mailer’s Apartment Up for Grabs and a Book Site for 20-Somethings

A hedge fund manager wants assurances that Norman Mailer’s curious apartment in Brooklyn Heights complies with zoning codes before he buys it. Or maybe he just found out that Mailer stabbed one of his wives with a penknife there. In any case, the buyer appears to have cold feet. Occupy Norman Mailer’s apartment? [NYT]

Book Riot is a book site for 18 to 34-year-olds. As this article points out, it does not seem to have made up its mind whether it’s for adults who like to read, or for adults who hate to read (viz. “Charles Dickens is reigning king of Dead White Guys You Should Have Read in High School, But Probably Just Read the Cliff Notes or Possibly Watched the BBC Mini-series.”) Read More

By Emily Witt 10/18/11 4:51pm

Prizes

Barnes.

Man Booker Prize Goes to Julian Barnes

After being named to the shortlist three times before, Julian Barnes has finally won this year’s prize for his book The Sense of an Ending.

The Man Booker Prize, Britain’s most prestigious literary award, has suffered this year from lots of fuss and discussions in the British press about whether the books named to its shortlist were elected for their “readability” or their literary merit. Mr. Barnes was the favorite to win among both gamblers and literary critics (perhaps because he has been nominated so many times in the past). Stella Rimington, who chaired the panel of judges, said that “The Sense of an Ending has the markings of a classic of English Literature. It is exquisitely written, subtly plotted and reveals new depths with each reading.” Read More

By Emily Witt 9/14/11 2:20pm

Publishing

Edugyan.

Esi Edugyan's Publishing Cinderella Story: Man Booker Prize Finalist Signs with Picador

Esi Edugyan’s Man Booker shortlisted novel Half-Blood Blues is narrated by an African-American jazz musician from Baltimore. Through a mix of flashbacks and first-person narration, the story recounts the mysterious disappearance of a black German jazz musician – son of a French-African father and a German mother – against a backdrop of Nazi Germany and Nazi-occupied Paris. Ms. Edugyan is Canadian, and her book is a story of Americans in Europe, but her novel failed to interest U.S. publishers as a first draft. Read More