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The sixth Poets & Writers Live event was held at the Pacific Northwest College of Art's Mediatheque theater on October 17, 2015. The editors of many of the area's most exciting presses and literary magazines joined the editors of Poets & Writers Magazine to explore the art of writing and the business of independent publishing.
Amazon and Penguin Random House reach agreement; Istanbul bookstore becomes oasis for Arabic readers; Joshua Cohen on writing a novel in the Internet age; and other news.
This animated trailer for Rebecca Dinerstein's debut novel, The Sunlit Night (Bloomsbury, 2015), was created by Jonty de Klerk. Read more about Dinerstein in “First Fiction 2015" in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, and catch her tour in the Reading Tour Manager.
“Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don’t plan it. Don’t wait for it. Just let it happen.” These words of wisdom from Special Agent Dale Cooper, a character in David Lynch’s television series Twin Peaks, are extremely important to remember—especially when you feel overwhelmed by responsibilities. Write about your pleasures, guilty or otherwise, and how they enhance your life. If you treat yourself to the same thing every day, like a morning Starbucks latte, does it still feel special? Or has it become more of a habit? Maybe you need to expand your definition of the word present. Sometimes moments of peaceful solitude, like taking a walk to the park during your lunch break or soaking in a hot bath before bed, can be just enough.
The Dublin City Council announced today that British author Jim Crace has won the 2015 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Crace, who won for his novel Harvest (Doubleday, 2013), will receive €100,000 (approximately $113,000). The annual award, which is one of the world’s largest prizes for a single book, is given for a novel written in English and published in the previous year.
Now in its twentieth year, the IMPAC award only accepts nominations from libraries. Crace’s novel was chosen from 142 titles that were nominated by libraries in 114 cities in thirty-nine countries. The Swiss library Universitätsbibliothek Bern and the Tallahasee, Florida–based LeRoy Collins Leon County Public Library both nominated Crace’s novel. Valentine Cunningham, Christine Dwyer Hickey, Daniel Hahn, Kate Pullinger, Jordi Soler, and Eugene R. Sullivan judged.
“It has been an overwhelming surprise and a delight to discover that my latest book has won the IMPAC Dublin award,” said Crace. “Harvest proved to be a generous novel in the writing. Readers and critics were more than generous in their responses. And now, thanks to the further generosity of a whole wide-world network of book-loving strangers, Harvest has struck lucky again—it will be included in the distinguished and twenty-year-long list of fiction honored by this truly international and discriminating award. No writer could hope for more than that.”
The shortlisted novels for the prize were Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; Lulu Norman’s translation from the French of Mahi Binebine’s Horses of God; The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan; Burial Rites by Hannah Kent; Sue Branford’s translation from the Portuguese of Bernardo Kucinski’s K; Geoffrey Strachan’s translation from the French of Andreï Makine’s Brief Loves That Live Forever; TransAtlantic by Colum McCann; Someone by Alice McDermott; and Sparta by Roxana Robinson.
Previous winners of the prize include Juan Gabriel Vásquez for The Sound of Things Falling, Colum McCann for Let the Great World Spin, Per Petterson for Out Stealing Horses, Colm Tóibín for The Master, and Edward P. Jones for The Known World.
Photo: Jim Crace. Credit: Matt Writtle.
Melville House sends Torture Report to presidential candidates; Amazon changes royalty terms for Kindle authors; exiled Uzbekistani writer’s new story; and other news.
For more than fifty years, the Paris Review has conducted interviews with some of the world's most notable writers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama. This first volume collects sixteen interviews which are full of insight about the writing lives of authors such as Elizabeth Bishop, Ernest Hemingway, and Rebecca West.
"I give my thanks to Franz Kafka whose novel Das Schloss [The Castle] I read when I was twelve years old… I believe my fate was sealed." Hungarian fiction writer László Krasznahorkai gives his acceptance speech for the 2015 Man Booker International Prize last month.
You know that weird notion that sometimes surfaces when you meet new people—that feeling that you already know them, but can’t remember why or how? Write a scene for a story about two people who both experience the same déjà vu upon meeting, with a plot driven by their need to figure out how they know each other. Use this opportunity to add an element of magical realism to your story. Perhaps they were married in a past life, or maybe they met in a dream. Once they solve the puzzle, how does this impact their lives going forward? Do they even believe the answer, or do they agree it’s too far-fetched?
Our annual Literary Agents Issue features a roundtable discussion with four young agents on what they look for in a pitch; advice on how to impress a literary agent; interviews with the summer’s best debut novelists; a profile of best-selling author Judy Blume; Jennifer Day of the Chicago Tribune talks about book reviews; a Q&A with Los Angeles poet laureate Luis J. Rodriguez; writing prompts and exercises; and much more.
