Edited by author 10-28-2005 11:16 AM
Joseph Boyden wins inaugural Aboriginal Prize

Go, Boyden.

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Why are lit awards so important?

Because it's the only time we get out of the house.


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National Book Award finalists

Announced down south.

Poetry:
John Ashbery, Where Shall I Wander
Frank Bidart, Star Dust: Poems
Brendan Galvin, Habitat: New and Selected Poems, 1965-2005
W.S. Merwin, Migration: New and Selected Poems
Vern Rutsala, The Moment’s Equation

Fiction:
E.L. Doctorow, The March
Mary Gaitskill, Veronica
Christopher Sorrentino, Trance
Rene Steinke, Holy Skirts
William T. Vollmann, Europe Central

You know, the Ashbery was good, even late career good, but it didn't rev me up this time.


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Speaking of JK

She topped the Quills last night. It's so great to see an under-appreciated author like her getting some attention finally. And wee Stevie King, too. It's about time. (Of course, as far as actually quills go, both of them write with feathers from the Ivory Billed Woodpecker dipped in ink made from the yolk of California Condor eggs and the blood of teenaged Florida virgins.)


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Orange Day

Andrea Levy, seen here... never mind, I can't even go there... Andrea Levy has won the Orangest Orange.


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The Logogryph is - in my 'umble - Wharton's best book to date. A real underrated gem that hasn't gotten the attention it deserves. And because it's published by Gaspereau, it's an adorable fetish object, too. Run out & buy one; make a starving writer & a starving publisher happy.

I adored Camilla Gibb's "Sweetness in the Belly." Does anyone know the 'cut off' date for Giller submissions -I'm wondering WHY a few novels were not even on the list & think it may be the pub. dat (or politics!)

2005 Sunburst Awards
Sure, everyone's excited about all the wild and crazy Giller shortlist. But the 2005 Sunburst Award shortlist is pretty damn fine too. The winner will be announced this Wednesday.

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Edited by author 09-21-2005 10:57 AM
Honourables

Mailer and Ferlinghetti to receive honourable National Book awards.

The National Book Awards will celebrate two senior literary rebels this fall, giving honorary awards to "Naked and the Dead" author Norman Mailer and to San Francisco-based Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Sounds about right.

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I think there's probably room here for "Idiots" as a topic header.

''There were snobs and cynics when Oprah Winfrey had her book club, yet Oprah did more for American literature than Edmund Wilson or Alfred Kazin," said Alan Cheuse, book reviewer for National Public Radio.

Apparently, and I did not know this beforehand, Alan Cheuse is an idiot.

Funny to see them compared to the Oscars when their system sounds more like the Grammys (Grammies?).

And the Quills go...

In the eye of every literary author, small press, and thinking reader...


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Short story's Booker prize?
I feel ... dirty.

Linklater said: "The novel is a capacious old whore: everyone has a go at her, but she rarely emits so much as a groan for their efforts.
"The short story, on the other hand, is a nimble goddess: she selects her suitors fastidiously and sings like a dove when they succeed.

"The British literary bordello is heaving with flabby novels; it's time to give back some love to the story."

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Harold Bloom.