Newsletter: July 2007

There's been so much news this month that I'll admit I've had a job keeping on top of it all. It seems I've not so much had my finger on the pulse as my little toe. Anyway, here's a chance (for all of us) to catch up on all the literary goings-on of the last few hectic weeks...

June is a big book prize month, and there are certainly some writers sitting down to their laptops a lot richer in July than they were at the start of June. Not least the little known Norwegian novelist Per Petterson, whose book Out Stealing Horses won the world's richest (at 100,000 euros) book prize, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Meanwhile heavyweight Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe took the International Man Booker (£60,000), which is awarded every other year to 'a living author for a body of work that has contributed to an achievement in fiction on the world stage'.

On the UK stage, it was announced that Philip Pullman's hugely popular Northern Lights had triumphed over an impressive list of other award-winning titles to be dubbed the 'Carnegie of Carnegies'. The award has been set up to celebrate 70 years of the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals, which recognise the best in children's writing and illustration. Northern Lights first won a Carnegie in 1995, and beat off firm favourites like Tom's Mignight Garden and The Borrowers. The prize for best illustrated book from the same period was won by Shirley Hughes for Dogger. Staying with children's writing for a moment, the winner of the Red House Children's Book Award was revealed as Andy Stanton, for You're a Bad Man Mr Gum!, a darkly humorous novel for younger readers. The Red House award might not be as well known as the Carnegie, but it's the only national book award to be decided entirely by a children's vote. And while we're on the subject, it seems a good place to mention that fiction and poetry writer Michael Rosen (pictured right) has been appointed the new Children's Laureate. This is a post which aims to highlight and celebrate children's writing, and to inspire youngsters to write as well. Michael will hold the post for two years. He said: 'I hope that I'll be able to boost all children's reading for pleasure but also to give a special lift to the wonderful diverse world of poetry for children. I see my job as Children’s Laureate being an ambassador for fun with books'. Sounds like a good job to me.

Turning to non-fiction now, which sometimes doesn't get as much of the limelight as fiction does. The BBC FOUR Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction aims to redress this imbalance somewhat, and last month Imperial Life in the Emerald City, a startling account of life in Baghdad's Green Zone, was named the 2007 winner. Its author, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, received a cheque for £30,000. The judges described the book as 'up there with the greatest reportage of the last 50 years – as fine as Hershey on Hiroshima and Capote’s In Cold Blood.'

Chinua Achebe wasn't the only Nigerian writer to receive a big prize last month. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (right) beat five other contenders, including Booker winner Kiran Desai, for the £30,000 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction. Half of a Yellow Sun is her second novel (and is now also in the running for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize as well). Meanwhile, Canadian debut author Karen Connelly won the Orange Broadband Award for New Writers with her novel The Lizard Cage.

Not all of June's gongs were unanimous occasions for celebration however. When it was announced that Salman Rushdie had been knighted by the Queen, the UK literary establishment rallied round with praise, but the honour didn't please everyone, and the newly dubbed Sir Salman found himself once again the centre of controversy as consternation was expressed in Pakistan. The writer of Midnight's Children and The Satanic Verses declared himself 'thrilled and humbled to receive this great honour'.

Finally, I'll also just mention quickly that the latest Author Interview on EnCompass, published during June, is with novelist and short story writer Patricia Duncker, and that our new Readers' Quiz is on the (very loose) theme of animals. Give it a go!

Susan Tranter

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