Man Booker shortlist announced – Although I’m not a fan of the unfair amount of coverage it gets, I’m always interested to see what books make it on to the Man Booker shortlist every year. You may remember that the longlist announcement caused quite a kerfuffle when it was announced back in July, with people jumping up and down for all sorts of reasons (mainly because the selection was so left of centre, containing titles considered to be more random and eclectic than the more traditional choices of earlier years). Personally I loved the selection because the small guy i.e. the independent publisher was getting more of a look in for once.
Of course with this shortlist announcement comes a whole bunch of controversy. Why didn’t Sebastian Barry or Alan Hollinghurst make it through? Why are two debut novelists on the shortlist? Oh dear, here we go again. I like to steer well clear. If you want to get embroiled then get yourself and your boxing gloves along to the Man Booker website, for all of the details on this year’s shortlist.
Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist unveiled – Not to be outdone by its neighbours across the Atlantic, The Scotiabank Giller Prize (Canada’s most prestigious literary award), had an announcement of its own to make today too – a longlist announcement. Now this one interests me a whole lot more than The Man Booker does, not least because three of books in the sixteen title selection this year, are short story collections. It’s a fact which certainly tickled Joe Melia of the Bristol Short Story Prize earlier on Twitter too, when he bravely told the Man Booker, that they should take note (he wasn’t that brave though because he didn’t use the @ManBookerPrize Twitter handle 
). Seriously though, it’s a wide-ranging longlist, and it’s interesting to note that two of the books on this longlist – Patrick DeWitt with The Sisters Brothers and Esi Edugyan With Half-Blood Blues – have made it on to the shortlist for this year’s Man Booker Prize. Aren’t Canadian authors doing rather well just now? Anyway, head on over to the Scotiabank Giller Prize website for all of the details on today’s longlist announcement.
Shortlist revealed for this year’s Dundee International Book Prize – I thought I’d stick with the whole book award announcement thing today, because up here in Bonny Scotland (that’s where RobAroundBooks is based if you didn’t know already) the shortlists were also announced today for this year’s Dundee International Book Prize. Coming with a a publishing deal and a £10,000 cheque, the Dundee International Book Prize focuses solely on emerging novelists i.e. those writers who are so far unpublished. Therefore the shortlist contains ten novelists who you’ll most likely of never heard of. Don’t worry though, if you head on over to the Literary Dundee website, you can download and read extracts from the novels of all ten finalists. From this shortlist of ten, the list will be whittled down to three from which an eventual winner will be selected for publication by Glasgow-based Cargo Publishing. For further details, head on over to the Dundee International Book Prize website.
About Rob
Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another's skin, another's voice, another's soul" - 
says:
its bad when Giller longlist looks better than the book ,it looks a good list reflecting a strong vein of writers in Canada at moment ,plus a few more well known ones that missed booker ,all the best stu
Shows how good I’m at picking lists, I started reading Far to Go by Alison Pick yesterday and after 50 pages had it pegged for both the Booker shortlist and the Giller longlist. Further proof that it is all subjective.
says:
Of course it’s subjective Suzanne, so I don’t see why so many people start throwing their toys out of the pram when they see a shortlist they don’t approve of. I guess it’s just people being passionate about literature, which is no bad thing I suppose.
Happy reading with the rest of Pick’s novel, although it sounds like you’re really enjoying it anyway.
Warmest
Rob