Former Czech president and writer Václav Havel died Sunday. Imprisoned by the Communist regime for four years, Havel led the 1989 Velvet Revolution which precipitated the end of totalitarian rule in Czechoslovakia. Several of the plays Havel wrote satirized the Soviet-backed leaders of his country. During his presidency, Czechoslovakia joined NATO and the European Union, [...]
Friday, November 18, 2011
The 62nd annual National Book Awards were presented in New York City Wednesday evening. Jesmyn Ward received the fiction award for her Hurricane Katrina novel Salvage the Bones. “As the storm approaches, the Batiste family’s story takes on the resonance of one of the Greek myths.” Stephen Greenblatt won the nonfiction prize for The Swerve: [...]
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
English writer Julian Barnes was announced yesterday as winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize for The Sense of an Ending. The annual award is given for the best full-length novel written by a citizen of the British Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. Barnes had made the shortlist three previous times, but this is [...]
Thursday, October 13, 2011
The National Book Foundation today announced 21 finalists for its 2011 National Book Awards, including the following: Fiction Andrew Krivak, The Sojourn Téa Obreht, The Tiger’s Wife Julie Otsuka, The Buddha in the Attic Edith Pearlman, Binocular Vision Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones Nonfiction Deborah Baker, The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism Mary Gabriel, Love [...]
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Poet Tomas Tranströmer of Sweden was announced today as recipient of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature. The Swedish Academy awarded Tranströmer the prize “because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality.” This year marks the first time since 1996 that the award has gone to poetry. Tranströmer’s work is [...]
Monday, September 12, 2011
Michael Hart, the man credited with inventing the eBook, died last week in Urbana, Illinois at the age of 64. In 1971, Hart, an undergraduate at the University of Illinois, was given time on a mainframe computer. He used part of it to type in the Declaration of Independence, and posted a notice letting users [...]
Monday, August 15, 2011
The Dayton Literary Peace Prize committee has announced its 2011 nominees. 67 fiction and nonfiction works have been nominated for helping lead readers to a better understanding of other cultures, peoples, religions, and political points of view. The honors will be awarded in November. Barbara Kingsolver will be the recipient of the Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished [...]
Thursday, August 11, 2011
The Librarian of Congress yesterday announced Philip Levine as U.S. Poet Laureate for 2011-2012. Levine is the author of 20 poetry collections (as well as nonfiction), and among other honors, has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Librarian of Congress James Billington describes Levine is [...]
Monday, June 20, 2011
The program for this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival was announced last week. The festival’s theme is “Revolution in the 21st Century.” Fiction writers including Hisham Matar, Kamila Shamsie, Gao Xingjian, and Ahdaf Soueif will speak about their works. Writers of nonfiction, including Dava Sobel, Peter Ackroyd, and Melvyn Bragg will be on hand to [...]
Monday, June 13, 2011
Serbian American writer (and USC grad) Téa Obreht last week was awarded the Orange Prize for Fiction for her novel The Tiger’s Wife. At 25, she is the youngest winner of the U.K. prize awarded annually for the best writing by a woman in the English language. Obreht beat out the favorite, Emma Donoghue’s Room. [...]
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
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