Friday, March 12, 2010

Commonwealth Writers' Prize + Man Asian rules changed

Commonealth Writers Prize: shortlist for regional winners has been announced. I'm happy for Albert Wendt in the South East Asia and Pacific region. He's a Samoan writers who also works and writes in New Zealand. I read a couple of hi short stories and they were really good. When I have time, I will browse the web looking for plots and interesting books...

Africa
The shortlisted writers for Africa's Best Book are:
Trespass by Dawn Garisch (South Africa)
The Double Crown by Marié Heese (South Africa)

The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria)
Eyo by Abidemi Sanusi (Nigeria)
Tsamma Season by Rosemund Handler (South Africa)
Refuge by Andrew Brown (South Africa)
Kings of the Water by Mark Behr (South Africa)

The shortlisted writers for Africa's Best First Book are:
I Do Not Come to You by Chance by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani (Nigeria)
The Shape of Him by Gill Schierhout (South Africa)
The Shadow of a Smile by Kachi Ozumba (Nigeria)
Come Sunday by Isla Morley (South Africa)
Sleepers Wake by Alistair Morgan (South Africa)
Jelly Dog Days by Erica Emdon (South Africa)
Harmattan Rain by Aysha Harunna Attah (Ghana)

Caribbean and Canada
The shortlisted writers or the Caribbean and Canada Best Book are:
The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels (Canada)
February by Lisa Moore (Canada)
Euphoria by Connie Gault (Canada)
Goya's Dog by Damian Tarnopolsky (Canada)
Galore by Michael Crummey (Canada)
The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon (Canada)

The shortlisted writers for the Caribbean and Canada Best First Book are:
Under this Unbroken Sky by Shandi Mitchell (Canada)
Daniel O'Thunder by Ian Weir (Canada)
The Island Quintet: Five Stories by Raymond Ramcharitar (Trinidad)
Diary of Interrupted Days by Dragan Todorovic (Canada)
The Briss by Michael Tregebov (Canada)
Amphibian by Carla Gunn (Canada)


South Asia and Europe
The shortlisted writers for South Asia and Europe Best Book are:
Solo by Rana Dasgupta (Britain)
For Pepper and Christ: A Novel by Keki Daruwalla (India)
The Beijing of Possibilities by Jonathan Tel (Britain)
Heartland by Anthony Catwright (Britain)
Another Gulmohar Tree by Aamer Hussein (Pakistan)
The Immortals by Amit Chaudhuri (India)

The shortlisted writers for South Asia and Europe Best First Book are:
The Hungry Ghosts by Anne Berry (Britain)
Arzee the Dwarf by Chandrahas Choudhury (India)
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin (Pakistan)
Among Thieves by Mez Packer (Britain)
An Equal Stillness by Francesca Kay (Britain)
Tail of the Blue Bird by Nii Parkes (Britain)


South East Asia and Pacific
The shortlisted writers for South East Asia and Pacific Best Book are:
Summertime by J.M Coetzee (Australia)
A Good Land by Nada Awar Jarrar (Australia)
The Adventures of Vela by Albert Wendt (Samoa)
Singularity by Charlotte Grimshaw (New Zealand)
The People's Train by Thomas Keneally (Australia)
Parrot and Oliver in America by Peter Carey (Australia)

The shortlisted writers for South East Asia and Pacific Best First Book are:
The Ice Age by Kirsten Reed (Australia)
After the fire, a still small voice by Evie Wyld (Australia)
Look Who's Morphing by Tom Cho (Australia)
Document Z by Andrew Croome (Australia)
Come Inside by Glenys Osborne (Australia)
Siddon Rock by Glenda Guest (Australia)


Do yo remember the Man Asian Literary Prize? I wrote about it a few times. It’s supposed to help English-speaking readers to discovers Asian literature, promoting books unpublished in English, which means that they might have written in another language, let’s say Chinese or Thai.
Great thing, except that now the rules have changed. A blogger friend from Malaysia, Sharon of Bibliobibuli, wrote about it with more details. Well, to sum it up now the prize is opened only to novels first published in English in 2010… so forget about those countries whose literature you wanted to get your hands to. No more Vietnam or Myanmar, Sharon says.

2 comments:

  1. you are always on the spot. i wish I would get more time to access such information. I am happy for Ayesha Harruna Attah author of Harmattan Rain. I attended a book reading she organised and that sparked my review of books on my blog. I also had my copy of her copy autographed. I loved it. there are few published Ghanaian authors. I wish there would be more, but the industry is difficult to penetrate. publishers would only want to publish text books and not literary books because of the returns. Hmmm...one day!

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  2. Thanks Nana. Lately I have a lot of free time, so I try to keep up to date. I also wish that more literary novels from Ghana were published... and that they were available here in Italy! The situation in Italy is a little bit better, but still I think that some editors choose really bad books to promote and the real jewels are left out. I don't know Ayesha Harruna Attah, but if I know it's always a great thing to go to readings because you get to know what kind of person the author is. Not to mention signed copies! :-)

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