Novels and collections of short stories including work by Elizabeth Harrower, Charlotte Wood and Amanda Lohrey dominate the long list $50,000 annual Stella Prize which celebrates great books, fiction and non-fiction, by female Australian authors. The only non-fiction book to make the list is Small Acts of Disappearance : Essays on Hunger by Fiona Wright. The full long list is:
Richard Flanagan, Hannah Kent win in Indie Awards
Richard Flanagan’s moving The Road to the Deep North, about Australian soldiers on the Thai-Burma railway in World War 2, has been voted best fiction book by the independent booksellers of Australia. Hannah Kent’s superb, Burial Rites, won best debut novel in the Indie Awards. The other winners were Girt…
Find out who is on the longlist for the 2014 Stella Prize
Below is the longlist for the 2014 Stella List for Australian women authors which has just been announced. It’s great to see two of my favourite books of 2013, Burial Rites by Hannah Kent and The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane are included. Also great news for my colleague Helen…
Page-turners: recent happenings in the world of books
Donal Ryan has taken out the Guardian First Book Award 2013 with The Spinning Heart, a picture of rural life in post-crash Ireland. I haven’t read The Spinning Heart (which was long-listed for The Booker Prize) but I have read (and have reviewed here on Stillnotfussed) two of the other…
Who will make the Booker Long List 2013?
The hype that always surrounds the prestigious Booker Prize has already begun with the news that the Long List for 2013 will be announced on July 25th.
Last year’s list provided some treasurers. Apart from winner Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies, Tan Twan Eng’s The Garden of Evening Mists was probably my favorite read of the year and a book that everyone to whom I recommended it seems to have enjoyed too, Other memorable ones are Swimming Home by Deborah Levy, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce, The Lighthouse by Alison Moore and Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil.
It’s a big deal, for reputation and sales, to make it onto even the Long List of what is one of the world’s most prestigious literary competitions. So, who will make it into the spotlight in 2013? Apart from the judges, my guess is as good as any, so here are some possible contenders.
TransAtlantic by Colum McCann: McCann’s novel, is divided into a series of narratives
Byron Bay Writers’ Festival
You know you’ve got the makings of a good Writers’ Festival when you realise that you aren’t going to be able to fit in all the sessions you want to attend. Byron Bay Writers’ Festival is taking place in the specially erected ocean-side tent compound from Friday 2nd August to Sunday…