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Joan Didion reviews Maggie Shipstead’s Astonish Me; looking ahead to the Los Angeles Festival of Books; British libraries branch out to attract visitors; and other news.
The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, formerly the Orange Prize, has announced the shortlist for its 2014 award. Now in its nineteenth year, the £30,000 (approximately $50,000) London-based prize is given to a woman writer from any country for a novel written in English and published in the previous year.
The finalists are Nigerian American author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for Americanah (Knopf), Australian author Hannah Kent for Burial Rites (Picador), British American author Jhumpa Lahiri for The Lowland (Bloomsbury), Irish author Audrey Magee for The Undertaking (Atlantic Books), Irish author Eimear McBride for A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing (Faber & Faber), and American author Donna Tartt for The Goldfinch (Little, Brown).
This year’s shortlisted books were selected from a longlist of twenty. The shortlist boasts one previous Orange Prize winner, one previously shortlisted author, and three debut novelists.
The judges for the 2014 prize are Helen Fraser, the chief executive of the Girls’ Day School Trust; Mary Beard, a professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge; writer Denise Mina; Times columnist, author, and screenwriter Caitlin Moran; and Sophie Raworth, a BBC broadcaster and journalist.
“We are very excited by the books we have chosen for the shortlist,” said Helen Fraser, the chair of judges, in yesterday's announcement. “Each one is original and extraordinary in its own way—each offers something different and exciting and illuminating.” The winner will be announced at a ceremony in London on June 4.
Established in 1996 to celebrate and promote fiction by women throughout the world, the Women’s Prize for Fiction was renamed and took on new sponsorship last year after a longtime partnership with telecommunications company Orange. The prize is anonymously endowed, and is the UK’s only annual book award for fiction written by women. Any woman writing in English, regardless of nationality, country of residence, age, or subject matter, is eligible.
American author A. M. Homes won the 2013 Prize for her novel May We Be Forgiven. In the video below from the Guardian, British author Jeanette Winterson interviews Homes about her winning book.
Frank O’Hara wrote Lunch Poems while sitting in Times Square during his lunch hour. This week, take time during your lunch hour to pause and reflect on what’s going on around you. Write down a description of the space you’re in, the details of your lunch ritual, the conversation you’re overhearing or participating in, or any other such observation.
"Art begins with a lie." Artist Ellen Gallagher explores the combination of words and image through movement in Anne Waldman's poem "The Lie."
T. C. Boyle ends contract with Viking Penguin; Gabriel García Márquez hospitalized; the London Book Fair gets underway; and other news.
Polly Courtney, the author of six novels who self-published her latest, Feral Youth (2013), after being frustrated by the "chick-lit" covers assigned to her by HarperCollins, offers the first in her series of how-to videos on self-publishing.
Kazuo Ishiguro’s first new novel in ten years; remembering Peter Matthiessen, Brendan Behan, and Marina Keegan; what Percy Bysshe Shelley ate; and other news.
A game show winner turned bookseller; literary apps using cartography; the history behind Wes Anderson’s muse; and other news.
Happy birthday to Maya Angelou, who turns eighty-six today. In this clip, the poet, author, and civil-rights activist open up about her childhood as part of an episode of Oprah Presents Master Class, which originally aired in January 2011.
Children are often reminded not to talk to strangers, and for good reason. As we get older, communication with strangers isn’t as dangerous, but it can still be uncomfortable. This week, think about a conversation you have had with a stranger in an awkward situation. Who started it? Did you feel safe? After talking, did you feel like you knew this person any better? Did you ever see this person again, and if not, would you want to?
