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In the face of some serious competition from
other literary awards such as the Orange and
the Whitbread, the Man Booker, Britain's
premier literary prize, is now announcing
its long list two months before the awards.
According to the jury's chairman, Professor
John Carey, the long list for 2003 is
'strong and diverse' and features 23 works.
The list was chosen from 117 entries. But as
seen in the past, predicting the winner is
no easy task.
Front runners for the Booker include Martin
Amis' still to be published Yellow Dog
about a father who suffers a personality
transformation after being attacked. Other
favourites include J.M. Coetzee's
Elizabeth Costello. Coetzee has won the
award twice before. Margaret Atwood's
Oryx and Crake, Jonathan Raban's
Waxwings, and Caryl Phillips' A
Distant Shore also features high on the
list.
Close on their heels are Tim Parks (Judge
Savage), Shena Mackay (Heligoland),
Barbara Trapido (Frankie and Stankie),
and newcomer Monica Ali (Brick Lane).
The long list is also breaking away from the
glamour set as suggested by the presence on
the list of books published by independent
publishers such as Clare Morrall's
Astonishing Splashes of Colour and John
Murray's Jazz, etc.
The short list for the 2003 prize will be
announced on September 16 and the winner of
the £50,000 award will be announced on
October 14. Last year, Yann Martel won the
prize for his novel The Life of Pi.
Literary Madonna
We can safely predict that she isn't about
to win the Man Booker but the world does get
unlikelier everyday. After scandalizing the
world with her explicit antics controversial
star Madonna is doing the mundane by writing
a children's book. She's not alone, a long
list of celebrities has come out with
children's books. Will Smith, Jamie Lee
Curtis, Sarah Ferguson, Spike Lee, and L.L.
Cool J, amongst others have all written
books for youngsters.
Madonna's book titled The English Roses
is the first of six books and will be
published simultaneously in 100 countries
and 42 languages. The book will be released
on September 15 and the plot is a secret,
though it is known that it is based on the
mystical Jewish guide to the universe, the
kabbala, a sect Madonna is closely
associated with.
"I'm starting to read to my son," said the
44-year-old mother of two, "but I couldn't
believe how vapid and vacant and empty all
the stories were. There's, like, no lessons.
There's, like, no books about anything."
Joining her are 'Tonight Show' host Jay Leno
and actor Billy Crystal who are also writing
children's books. So what is it about this
children's book bandwagon?
''Celebrity children's book authors tend to
get adult-size advances, which can climb to
the five and six-figure range. They also
come with instant publicity,'' says Brenda
Bowen, executive vice president of the Simon
& Schuster division. Of course it is a good
way to pass time when things are slow.
Madonna has recently released a flop CD.
Anti-Semitism row
"We did not read the book carefully enough,"
was the excuse given by a spokesperson for
publishing house Suhrkamp Verlag. The German
publisher has stopped the printing of the
book, which was attacked for anti-Semitism
and for defending Palestinian attacks
against Israel.
The publisher said After the Terror
in which author and philosopher Ted
Honderich says Palestinians have a "moral
right to their terrorism", crossed the
boundary for legitimate discussion about
controversial subjects.
Publishers halted the printing when a letter
from a Holocaust researcher to a newspaper
urged the book's immediate withdrawal.
Understandably the author Canadian-born
Honderich, who incidentally has a Jewish
wife, was appalled and said the researcher's
accusations displayed "audacious stupidity".
The book is still being published in
English.
Warring Russians
Russian writers and the Russian government
are at loggerheads over a decision to remove
literary classics about the Soviet era from
the school syllabus. Thirteen distinguished
writers have sent an open letter to the
Minister for Education protesting plans to
drop several classic Russian works,
including Boris Pasternak's Dr Zhivago,
from the essential reading lists for 12 to
18-year-olds.The writers are resisting what
they see as attempts to anaesthetize the
nation's former glory. The dropped books
will become "recommended reading", that is
they will be taught at the teacher's
discretion.
A spokesperson for the protesters said that
two novels by Yuri Dombrovski - The
Curator of Antiquities and The Faculty of
Unnecessary Things - were among the
targeted novels and said that the move was
led by "pure bureaucrat psychology".
An A-to-Z guide
Greenwood Press has an A-to-Z Guide to
South Asian Novelists in English. Edited
by Jaina C. Sanga, the guide contains
critical assessments and biographical and
bibliographical data on 57 novelists from
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.
From Meena Alexander to Moyez G. Vassanji
the guide runs to over 300 pages and
features 57 writers, 55 of whom are still
alive.
The entries included in the guide are
comprehensive and include a biography, a
discussion of major works and themes, a
summary of the novelist's critical
reception, and primary and secondary
bibliographies.
US poet Jacobsen dies
US poet Josephine Jacobsen, who was once the
poet laureate of the US died at the age of
94. Jacobsen had been writing for more than
80 years and was nominated for the National
Book Award at a rather late age in life - 88
years. In 1971 she was made poetry
consultant to the Library of Congress. The
position was renamed the poet laureate.
Her poems regularly appeared in The New
Yorker and her work dealt with family
life and life's problems but critics said it
had an underlying sense of optimism.
Alice Quinn, poetry editor of The New Yorker
said, "Her use of vernacular speech was
exceptional, and her dramatic sense keen. A
cherishing of the world was ever present,
along with a deep sense of reckoning with
death as a supreme fact."
In 1932, Ms Jacobsen married businessman
Eric. "She never tried to be a poet," said
her son, Erlend Jacobsen, "It was natural to
her. She simply was. It was not assumed."
The Queen Mother's biography
After intensive bidding between publishers
it was decided that Penguin would pay
William Shawcross an advance of about £1m
for his official biography of the Queen
Mother. The publishers were able to make the
offer after a newspaper group bought the
serialization rights.
Shawcross, an old Etonian former journalist
who is a close friend of Camilla Parker
Bowles, was handpicked by the queen as the
official biographer of her late mother. The
author will have unhindered access to his
subject's personal letters and diaries and
other items in the royal archives.
The book, which is expected to be a
bestseller, is set for release in 2006.
While the advance amount for the Queen
Mother's biography is rather large, it isn't
the largest. Lady Thatcher was paid £3.5m
for her memoirs almost ten years ago.
Bookcrossing?
First there was the message in a bottle now
there is bookcrossing. Started by Urbis,
Manchester's museum of the city,
bookcrossing is the newest craze. Books were
left in taxis, on buses, in pubs and cafes
and on park benches and they carried
messages such as: "Look inside", "Read me",
or "Take me home" so that people know they
are part of the event.
All kinds of books, from thrillers to
cookbooks, were left as part of bookcrossing.
The phenomenon began in April 2001 in
America where almost half a million books
were "released" and there are more than
146,000 members worldwide. The books have a
unique identity number, which is registered
on the website (www.bookcrossing.com).
The finder can register on the site and
track a book's journey and he or she can
also leave an online review. The founder of
bookcrossing, Ron Hornbaker, calls it "the
karma of literature" designed to "make the
whole world a library".
Enterprising vicar
Rev Graham Taylor, 43, vicar of Cloughton,
North Yorkshire, sold his motorcycle to
self-publish his first book in Britain. He
has just sold the US rights to it for
$500,000.
Taylor won the deal for his novel
Shadowmancer, a tale of Christianity and
black magic set in the 17th century. His
advance is bigger than what J.K. Rowling got
for her first Harry Potter book seven years
ago.
But Taylor, who earns £16,000 a year and is
married with three children, said that he
would continue working for the church until
retirement. He had sold his motorbike for
£3,500 to finance the publication of his
novel. He then convinced a chain bookstore
to carry the novel, where it sold well.
Shadowmancer published by Faber in the
UK, has been bought by the US publisher
Penguin Putnam, ten months after the author
was advised by a consultant that no
professional publisher would touch the story
because it was written "in the language of a
Victorian novel".
The Faber paperback has sold 20,000 copies
in a month and UK bookshops have ordered
80,000 copies. The story is seventh in the
children's fiction bestseller list.
Bradford loses lawsuit
Bestselling author Barbara Taylor Bradford
lost a lawsuit in India's supreme court to
stop the broadcast of an Indian soap opera
whose plot she claimed was lifted from her
books. Bradford accused Bombay-based Sahara
Television of plagiarising her work for its
soap "Karisma, The Miracles of Destiny".
She said that the TV soap opera, which is
India's most expensive ever, drew its lot
from three of her novels, especially A
Woman of Substance.
Speaking after the ruling, Bradford said:
"This judgment will further embolden
infringers to violate intellectual property
rights in India, especially by the Bollywood
community." She added that Bollywood
"continuously duplicates bestselling films
and books". Meanwhile Sahara TV said the
soap was based on a story by a leading
scriptwriter. The plot is based on the life
of a woman who rises from poverty to head an
international corporation.
World's largest poetry prize
One of Canada's most celebrated poets,
Margaret Avison, won the Griffin Prize,
which at $40,000 is one of the world's most
lucrative prizes for poetry. Her poem,
"Concrete and wild carrot" brought her
glory. Speaking on the occasion 85-year-old
Avison said, "This is ridiculous. I do
appreciate the occasion but what makes you
write a poem is very remote from this kind
of honour." In the past Avison had won the
Governor General's Award twice and also has
three honorary doctorates and is a Member of
the Order of Canada.
The international winner of the prize was
Irish poet Muldoon who also received
$40,000. Muldoon won for his latest book My
Sand and Gravel.
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