Man Booker International Prize shortlist

The finalists for the Man Booker International Prize was announced in Sydney this morning by chair of the judges Rick Gekoski. The prize, awarded every two years, is worth £60,000 (AUD $93,247.40) to the winner and recognises the winner for his or her achievement in fiction. Eligible authors have published fiction either originally in English or their work is generally available in translation in the English language. The authors come from eight countries, five are published in translation and there are four women on the list.

The thirteen authors on the list are:

• Wang Anyi (China)
• Juan Goytisolo (Spain)
• James Kelman (UK)
• John le Carré (UK)
• Amin Maalouf (Lebanon)
• David Malouf (Australia)
• Dacia Maraini (Italy)
• Rohinton Mistry (India/Canada)
• Philip Pullman (UK)
• Marilynne Robinson (USA)
• Philip Roth (USA)
• Su Tong (China)
• Anne Tyler (USA)

Click on the link for each author to read an author profile from The Guardian.

In announcing the finalists, Rick Gekoski said : `The 2011 List of Finalists honours thirteen great writers from around the world. It is, we think, diverse, fresh and thought-provoking, and serves to remind us anew of the importance of fiction in defining both ourselves and the world in which we live. Each of these writers is a delight, and any of them would make a worthy winner.‘

However, shortly after the finalists were announced John le Carre’s literary agents, Curtis Brown, issued the following statement on his behalf : “I am enormously flattered to be named as a finalist of 2011 Man Booker International Prize. However I do not compete for literary prizes and have therefore asked for my name to be withdrawn.”

Rick Gekoski’s response was : “John le Carré’s name will, of course, remain on the list. We are disappointed that he wants to withdraw from further consideration because we are great admirers of his work.”

The Man Booker International Prize winner will be announced at the Sydney Writers’ Festival on 18 May 2011 and then celebrated at an awards ceremony in London on 28 June 2011.
Past winners of the Man Booker International Prize are Alice Munro (2009), Chinua Achebe (2007) and Ismail Kadare (2005).

PM’s Literary Awards

Peter Garrett, Minister for the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts has announced the shortlist for the 2010 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards.

Mr Garrett said being shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards is a great achievement for authors that will bring further public recognition of their writing.

For the first time, Young Adult Fiction and Children’s Fiction categories have been added to the awards. Mr Garrett said, “this year we announce the inaugural Young Adult Fiction and Children’s Fiction awards. These two awards recognise the special talent that authors and illustrators of books for young audiences bring to the page. Importantly it is the quality of this storytelling through writing and illustration that engenders a life-long passion for reading”.

The Prime Minister’s Literary Awards provide a $100,000 prize for the winners of each of the categories:

Fiction shortlist
Summertime by J.M. Coetzee
The Book of Emmett by Deborah Forster
The Lake Woman by Alan Gould
Dog Boy by Eva Hornung
Ransom by David Malouf
Lovesong by Alex Miller
As the Earth turns Silver by Alison Wong

Read about the books, the authors and the judges comments for the Fiction shortlist here.

Non-Fiction shortlist
The Water Dreamers: The Remarkable History of Our Dry Continent by Michael Cathcart
Strange Places: A Memoir of Mental Illness by Will Elliott
The Colony: A History of Early Sydney by Grace Karskens
The Life and Death of Democracy by John Keane
The Blue Plateau: A Landscape Memoir by Mark Tredinnick
The Ghost at the Wedding by Shirley Walker

Read about the books, the authors and the judges comments for the Non-fiction shortlist here.

Young Adult Fiction shortlist
Stolen by Lucy Christopher
The Winds of Heaven by Judith Clarke
Confessions of a Liar, Thief and Failed Sex God by Bill Condon
The Museum of Mary Child by Cassandra Golds
Swerve by Phillip Gwynne
Jarvis 24 by David Metzenthen
Beatle meets Destiny by Gabrielle Williams

Read about the books, the authors and the judges comments for the Young Adult Fiction shortlist here.

Children’s Fiction shortlist
Cicada Summer by Kate Constable
The Terrible Plop written by Ursula Dubosarsky and illustrated by Andrew Joyner
Just Macbeth! written by Andy Griffiths and illustrated by Terry Denton
Mr Chicken goes to Paris by Leigh Hobbs
Running with the Horses by Alison Lester
Star Jumps by Lorraine Marwood
Mannie and the Long Brave Day written by Martine Murray and illustrated by Sally Rippin
Tensy Farlow and the Home for Mislaid Children by Jen Storer
Harry and Hopper written by Margaret Wild and illustrated by Freya Blackwood

Read about the books, the authors and the judges comments on the Children’s Fiction shortlist here.

Find out more about the shortlists here.

Aussie on Bad Sex shortlist

Nick Cave’s novel The Death of Bunny Munro has been named as a finalist in this year’s Bad Sex in Fiction Award. Now, as the Scottish wife of an Australian husband, I find it hard to imagine an Aussie male being bad at sex! (Note the British are over-represented – and people ask me why I emigrated!) However, that cover surely should win a bad taste award of some description?

The Literary Review’s Bad Sex in Fiction Award, fiction’s most notorious honour, was created by Auberon Waugh “with the aim of gently dissuading authors and publishers from including unconvincing, perfunctory, embarrassing, or redundant passages of a sexual nature in otherwise sound literary novels.” After 17 years I think it’s maybe been too gentle and the goal has not been realised. And perhaps that’s a good thing? The full shortlist of nominated works is as follows:

• A Dead Hand by Paul Theroux ~ USA
• The Death of Bunny Munro by Nick Cave ~ Australia :

“He slips his hands under her cotton vest and her body spasms and slackens and he cups her small, cold breasts in his hands and feels the hard pearls of her nipples, like tiny secrets, against the barked palms of his hands. He feels the gradual winding down of her dying heart and can see a bluish tinge blossoming on the skin of her skull through her thin, ironed hair. “‘Oh, my dear Avril,’ he says. “He puts his hands under her knees and manoeuvres her carefully so that her bottom rests on the edge of the settee. He slips his fingers underneath the worn elastic of her panties that are strung across the points of her hips, slips them to her ankles and softly draws apart her knees and feels again a watery ardour in his eyes as he negotiates a button and a zipper. It is exactly as he imagined it – the hair, the lips, the hole – and he slips his hands under her wasted buttocks and enters her like a fucking pile driver.”

• The Humbling by Philip Roth ~ USA (On order)
• The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell ~ USA
• Rhyming Life and Death by Amos Oz ~ Israel
• The Infinities by John Banville ~ Ireland
• The Rescue Man by Anthony Quinn ~ GB
• Love Begins in Winter by Simon Van Booy ~ GB (On order)
• The Naked Name of Love by Sanjida O’Connell ~ GB
• Ten Storey Love Song by Richard Milward ~ GB

You can read all the extracts in this Guardian article, The Bad Sex Factor.

The winner of the Literary Review’s Bad Sex in Fiction Award will be announced in London on 30 November.