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Spain's culture minister, César Antonio Molina, announced last week that seventy-five-year-old Spanish novelist Juan Marsé has won the Cervantes Prize, the Spanish-speaking world’s highest literary honor. Considered by some to be on the level of the Nobel Prize, the award comes with a cash stipend of 125,000 euros ($160,000).
At a ceremony in London on Tuesday night, Rachel Johnson, the sister of the city's mayor, Boris Johnson, was awarded the sixteenth annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award for passages in her novel Shire Hell (Penguin, 2008). John Updike received a lifetime achievement award after being nominated for the prize four consecutive times.
Iowa City was recently named a City of Literature by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). With a population of less than seventy thousand people, Iowa City is the third city to receive the distinction, following Edinburgh, Scotland, and Melbourne, Australia.
Borders recently announced that nominees for the 2008 Original Voices Awards. The annual prizes recognize "fresh, compelling, and ambitious works from the new and emerging talents" published in the past year.
In the midst of an economic downturn and a crunched credit market, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt recently requested that its editors stop acquiring books.
Last Friday the Lannan Foundation announced that poet August Kleinzahler won this year’s $150,000 Literary Award. Lannan Fellowships, each worth $100,000, were also awarded to poets Katie Ford and Ilya Kaminsky and fiction writers Charles D’Ambrosio and Glenn Patterson.
As of December 31, Random House, the largest trade publisher in the United States, will freeze the pension plan funds of its current employees, and will eliminate the plan as a benefit for new hires.
Last night the National Book Foundation announced the winners of the 2008 National Book Awards at a ceremony in New York City.
Two states last week announced the appointments of new poets laureate. Marilyn Taylor was named Wisconsin’s poet laureate by Governor Jim Doyle. In California, the honor was given to Carol Muske-Dukes by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Each will serve as poet laureate for a two-year term.
Hudson Booksellers, operator of the ubiquitous Hudson News stands so familiar to travelers, recently announced their picks for the best books published in 2008.
A sizable collection of papers, photographs, and personal items of Ezra Pound was recently acquired by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Austin.
A recent study found that literature can be a useful tool in shaping the public's understanding of political and economic issues, perhaps having more of an impact than academic writing on the subjects.
The Burmese poet Saw Wai was sentenced on Monday to two years in prison for writing a love poem that contains a hidden criticism of the Burmese dictator General Than Shwe.
Nam Le was recently awarded the second biennial Dylan Thomas Prize for his debut short story collection, The Boat (Knopf).
United States Artists (USA) today announced the recipients of the third annual USA Fellowship grants. The nine literature fellows for 2008 are poets Forrest Gander, Laura Kasischke, Lê Thi Diem Thúy, Joy Harjo, A. Van Jordan, and Harryette Mullen, novelists Barry Hannah and Tayari Jones, and nonfiction writer Jeff Chang.
Penn State celebrates this week the one hundredth anniversary of Theodore Roethke's birth.
A president is not obligated to have a poet read at his inauguration, but Barack Obama's soaring rhetoric and eloquent speaking style that captivated millions during his long campaign has some wondering if he will invite a poet to read a little something next January.
Eleven prominent authors came together recently in signing a statement defending Milan Kundera against recent allegations that the Czech novelist was a police informant for the Communist regime in his youth.
During the long presidential campaign season that finally ends tomorrow, Americans have read extensively about Barack Obama and John McCain. But what do the candidates themselves read? Last week, they shared their favorite books with CBS News anchor Katie Couric.
Matt Weiland, who served for two years as deputy editor of the Paris Review, will step down today to return to book publishing, Publishers Weekly reported. Weiland will assume the position of senior editor at HarperCollins imprint Ecco on November 10.
The Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation announced yesterday the ten recipients of this year's Whiting Writers' Awards.
An out-of-court settlement was reached yesterday between Google, the Authors Guild, and the Association of American Publishers (AAP). In 2005 the Authors Guild and the AAP brought separate lawsuits against Google’s Library Search project, which provides online access to copyrighted material. The $125 million settlement provides compensation to authors and publishers for use of their works.
A Michigan man charmed a circuit court judge on Friday with a poetic defense, avoiding punishment for a probation violation.
The New York Public Library unveils today an exhibit of the library's archives from Yaddo, an arts colony located in upstate New York.
