The Orwell Prize has today, Monday 28th November, finalised the judges for the 2012 Prize.
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, previously shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Books 2005 for her Just Law, completes the Book Prize panel alongside Miranda Carter (winner of the Orwell Prize 2002 for Anthony Blunt: His Lives) and Sameer Rahim (assistant books editor, Daily Telegraph).
Judging this year's Journalism Prize are Brian Cathcart (journalist, winner of the Orwell Prize for Books 2000 for The Case of Stephen Lawrence, professor of journalism at Kingston University) and Ian Hargreaves (former editor of The Independent, former director of BBC News and Current Affairs, professor of digital economy at Cardiff University).
The judges for the Orwell Prize for Blogs 2012 are Suzanne Moore (journalist, The Guardian and the Mail on Sunday) and Hopi Sen (blogger, previously shortlisted and longlisted for the Orwell Prize).
Entries for the Orwell Prize 2012 opened on Wednesday 9 November and will close on Wednesday 18 January 2012, for work published in 2011. Full entry details can be found on the Orwell Prize website. All entries must have a clear relationship with the UK or Ireland, and there is no charge at any point to enter any of the Prizes. For the first time, all three Prizes can be entered using an online entry form.
This year's longlists will be announced on 28 March 2012, with the shortlists being revealed on 25 April 2012. The winners of the Orwell Prizes 2012 will be announced at an awards ceremony at Church House, London, on 23 May 2012.
The Prizes are awarded to the work which comes closest to George Orwell's ambition 'to make political writing into an art'. Each winner receives £3000 and a plaque bearing Orwell's quote.
Submissions for the Orwell Prize 2012, for work published for the first time in 2011, are now OPEN. They will remain open until Wednesday 18 January 2012. Visit the website for full details.
Michael Crichton & Richard Preston Debut on the US Indie Bestseller List
By Maryann Yin on Galley Cat, November 29, 2011 2:23 PM
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We’ve collected the books debuting on Indiebound’s Indie Bestseller List for the week ending November 27, 2011–a sneak peek at the books everybody will be talking about next month.(Debuted at #10 in Children’s Interest) The Future of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler: “It’s 1996, and Josh and Emma have been neighbors their whole lives. They’ve been best friends almost as long – at least, up until last November, when Josh did something that changed everything. Things have been weird between them ever since, but when Josh’s family gets a free AOL CD in the mail,his mom makes him bring it over so that Emma can install it on her new computer. When they sign on, they’re automatically logged onto their Facebook pages. But Facebook hasn’t been invented yet. And they’re looking at themselves fifteen years in the future.” (November 2011)
(Debuted at #11 in Children’s Illustrated) Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma Wilson and illustrated by Jane Chapman: “Bear’s friends are determined to keep Bear awake for Christmas! So they wake Bear up and have him help them find a Christmas tree, bake cakes, hang up stockings, and sing Christmas songs. Bear stays up–by discovering that giving is one of the best Christmas presents!” (October 2008)
(Debuted at #14 in Hardcover Fiction) Micro by Michael Crichton & Richard Preston: ”An instant classic, Micro pits nature against technology in vintage Crichton fashion. Completed by visionary science writer Richard Preston, this boundary-pushing thriller melds scientific fact with pulse-pounding fiction to create yet another masterpiece of sophisticated, cutting-edge entertainment.” (November 2011)
KERMADEC - Nine Artists Explore the South Pacific
The Pew Environment Group and Unity Books
warmly invite you to the launch of
K E R M A D E C
Nine Artists Explore The South Pacific
with artists
Phil Dadson/ Bruce Foster/ Fiona Hall
Gregory O’Brien/ Jason O’Hara/ John Pule
John Reynolds/ Elizabeth Thomson/ Robin White
6pm Monday 12 December
Unity Books Wellington, 57 Willis Street
Sceptre snaps up war veteran's debut
28.11.11 | Benedicte Page - The Bookseller
Sceptre editorial director Drummond Moir has pre-empted an "intense and beautifully written" debut novel by a young American veteran of the war in Iraq, Kevin Powers.Moir pre-empted British and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) to The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers with a "significant" offer from Peter Straus at Rogers, Coleridge and White. Michael Pietsch of Little, Brown US will edit for concurrent publication in the summer and autumn of 2012.
The novel is about a young soldier in Iraq. "Combining heartbreaking characters, profound insight, addictive levels of tension, a masterful use of language and a timely indictment of the corrosive experience of war on both soldiers and their families, The Yellow Birds is unforgettable," Moir said. He promised the novel would do for the Iraq conflict "what All Quiet on the Western Front and A Farewell to Arms did for the First World War, and Catch-22 did for the Second", calling it one of the "defining novels of our
generation".
Powers was born in Virginia and joined the army at 17, serving a year as a machine gunner in Mosul and Tal Afar, Iraq. After an honourable discharge, he later graduated with a bachelor's degree in English from Virginia Commonwealth University. He is currently a Michener Fellow in Poetry at the University of Texas at Austin and also facilitates a poetry group for veterans in the Austin area.
Author Colm Tóibín has praised The Yellow Birds, saying is is "written with an intensity which is deeply compelling". Novelist Chris Cleave said: "Reading The Yellow Birds, I became certain that I was in the presence of a text that will win plaudits, become a classic, and hold future narratives of the war to a higher standard."
RCW has taken pre-emptive offers from Bonniers in Sweden, Gyldendal in Norway, Companhia das Letras in Brazil, Shanghai 99 in China and Modan in Israel. Dutch rights have gone to Prometheus, German rights to Fischer Verlag, and Italian rights to Einaudi. There are ongoing auctions in France and Denmark.
Saluting a Serial Seducer and His Steamy Tell-All
Emmanuel Ngyen Ngoc/Bibliotheque Nationale de France
The exhibition “Casanova — The Passion for Freedom” at the the National Library of France.
By ELAINE SCIOLINO - The New York Times, Published: November 28, 2011se
Giacomo Girolamo Casanova was a gambler, swindler, diplomat, lawyer, soldier, alchemist, violinist, traveler, pleasure seeker and serial seducer.
A portrait of Casanova at 62.
Emmanuel Ngyen Ngoc/Bibliotheque Nationale de France - A page from the original manuscript of Casanova's memoirs, "The Story of My Life." More Photos »
He was also a prolific writer who documented his adventures and love affairs in a steamy memoir that is one of the literary treasures of the 18th century.
Born in Venice, he considered France his adopted country but was forced to flee Paris in 1760 after seducing the wives and daughters of important subjects of King Louis XV and cheating them out of their money.
Now Casanova is back in France, celebrated by the French state. The original manuscript of his memoirs, “The Story of My Life,” and other writings of his are on display for the first time at the National Library of France in the exhibition “Casanova — The Passion for Freedom.” He is even being called a feminist.
The story of how more than 3,700 pages of Casanova’s papers ended up in one of France’s most prestigious and proper institutions is one that Casanova himself would have loved.
He wrote the memoirs in the last years of his life. Just before his death at 73 in Bohemia in 1798, he bequeathed his papers to his nephew. In 1821 Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus, one of Germany’s most prominent publishers, acquired them from the nephew’s descendants. It was assumed in literary circles that the documents had been destroyed in the bombing of Dresden in World War II. But they were carried on a bike and hidden in a bank vault in Leipzig. An American military truck drove them to safety in Wiesbaden.
A complete version was published for the first time in French in 1960, but except for a few scholars with access to the original manuscript, it was forgotten.
Full story at The New York Times.
Born in Venice, he considered France his adopted country but was forced to flee Paris in 1760 after seducing the wives and daughters of important subjects of King Louis XV and cheating them out of their money.
Now Casanova is back in France, celebrated by the French state. The original manuscript of his memoirs, “The Story of My Life,” and other writings of his are on display for the first time at the National Library of France in the exhibition “Casanova — The Passion for Freedom.” He is even being called a feminist.
The story of how more than 3,700 pages of Casanova’s papers ended up in one of France’s most prestigious and proper institutions is one that Casanova himself would have loved.
He wrote the memoirs in the last years of his life. Just before his death at 73 in Bohemia in 1798, he bequeathed his papers to his nephew. In 1821 Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus, one of Germany’s most prominent publishers, acquired them from the nephew’s descendants. It was assumed in literary circles that the documents had been destroyed in the bombing of Dresden in World War II. But they were carried on a bike and hidden in a bank vault in Leipzig. An American military truck drove them to safety in Wiesbaden.
A complete version was published for the first time in French in 1960, but except for a few scholars with access to the original manuscript, it was forgotten.
Full story at The New York Times.
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