Booker Prize and Costa Awards judging panels announced

Aravind Adiga with his Man Booker Prize winning novel White Tiger

The organisers behind two of the biggest book awards have announced the judging panels for their 2009 awards. The Man Booker Prize and The Costa Book Awards are some of the most respected in the literary world and anyone asked to judge these awards must see it as a great honour.

The judging panel for The Man Booker prize has been announced with the powers that be opting for a more ‘serious’ line-up. Heading up the critics is Today Program (BBC Radio 4) presenter Jim Naughtie providing some serious journalist clout and is definitely a more suited judge than last year’s choice Michael Portillo.

The remaining seats on the judging panel will be filled by literary editor of The Sunday Telegraph Michael Prodger, the writer Lucasta Miller, who has written a critically acclaimed book on the Bronte’s. Every literature judging panel has to include the token celebrity personality and this year that great honour has fallen to Sue Perkins of Mel and Sue fame. Check out the full panel right here.

The Costa Book Award has announced its judging panel (already touched on by The Scribbler) leaning towards a more broadcasting friendly collective. The judges include world renowned reporter Michael Buerk and comedian/actor Alexander Armstrong. The panel is headed up by columnist and broadcaster Matthew Parris. To see the full line-up and biographies of the judges click here.

Watch last year’s Man Booker Prize winner Aravind Adiga talks about his award winning book White Tiger:

Discussion:
Are the personalities listed here qualified enough to decide which piece of writing should win over another? Who would you like to see on a book award judging panel?

Words: Seamus Swords

Potter spell continues to mesmerise

The Moonstone edition of the book was auctioned in December 2007 (Wikipedia)

Every aspiring writer wants to think their latest project will strike a chord with the majority and propel them to literary super-stardom (though writing for the audience is the killer of creativity – Ed).

Unfortunately that doesn’t always happen but for one author her fictional wand waving speccy protagonist has made her books almost as renouned as the complete works of Shakespeare.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard, by JK Rowling has become the fastest-selling book of the year.

Hitting shelves only three days ago it didn’t take long for copies to fly off again and straight into the carrier bags of a few hundred thousand satisfied customers.

The first in the author’s collection not to feature Harry Potter shifted 368,000 units last week compared to 73,000 copies of the Guinness Book of Records 2008, its closest rival.

Phil Stone of The Bookseller magazine told The Daily Telegraph: “None of the other big releases managed to get near the sales figure for Beedle the Bard.”

“I would be very surprised if it is not Christmas number one, but it’s not a dead cert.”

Nicknamed the ‘unofficial Potter farewell’ The Tales of Beedle the Bard, is a collection of five fairy tales which got a mention in the final wiz-boy book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Six super-rare-handmade-by-the-author-special-editions of the book were given away last year to people most closely connected to the Harry Potter series. A seventh was made and sold in auction to raise money for a children’s charity. Amazon bought the unique copy for almost £2M!

JK Rowling is interviewed about The Tales of Beedle the Bard below:

Discussion:
What is it that makes Rowling and Potter so darn popular? Is there anyone who comes close to her kind of fame? Are there any novel ideas rattling around in your head that could become supernova huge?

Words: Dean Samways

Classic literature on a Nintendo?

Is this the new book? The Nintendo DS

Books no longer need be read in the traditional stinging paper-cut inducing way.

We already have e-book readers to turn the electronic pages of our favourite book but now Nintendo are furthering the technological revolution reshaping the publishing industry.

The so-called ‘touch generation’ of Nintendo DS users are pioneering a new concept in videogaming, using the groundbreaking hardware to read classic literature.

A collection of popular novels will be released on 26 December. The DS release will be entitled 100 Classic Book Collection.

Developed in partnership with publishing heavyweight HarperCollins the collection will include classics like Jules Vern’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Around the World in Eighty Days as well as tales from legendary detective Sherlock Holmes.

The software also features a brief synopsis of each book and recommends reads based on what mood you are in.

It has been well documented that more books will be available via the DS’ Wi-Fi function. The initial package will set you back the modest fee of £20.

100 Classic Book Collection available on the Nintendo DS on 26 December

Discussion:
The Nintendo Wii has managed to redefine gaming for many users but the question still remains will the 100 classic books collection redefine reading DS users across the globe?

Words: Seamus Swords & Dean Samways

…and the Guardian first book award goes to…

Alex Ross, winner of this years Guardian first book award (Guardian)

The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross was named this year’s Guardian first book at a ceremony in central London last night.

The overwhelmingly in-depth history of 20th century music, embracing classical through to contemporary, was the undisputed winner of the £10 000 first prize.

Chair of the judging panel, Guardian literary editor Claire Armitstead, said: “In some quarters this book has been seen as not having a popular appeal. Our prize – which, uniquely, relies on readers’ groups in the early stages of judging – proves that, on the contrary, there is a huge appetite among readers for clear, serious but accessible books.”

Another judge said: “Where Ross lifts his book above the ‘expert’ and impressive to the ‘good read’ category is in the way he wears his learning lightly, never clutches for false or contrived ways of explaining music, and never dumbs down in order to explain.”

Waterstone’s reading groups up and down the country also helped with the judging process. One member said: “Every time I felt overwhelmed by the technicalities, along came a sublime metaphor or simile that would light up the prose.”

The Guardian’s website describes Ross’ book as ‘a lifetime’s enthusiasm and learning distilled into a rich narrative of musical history, setting the works of Mahler, Schoenberg, John Cage and the rest into their cultural and political contexts – but also giving a vivid sense of what the music he describes actually sounds and feels like’.

It goes on to say: “Of all the artforms, modern and contemporary classical music is often seen as the most rebarbative. Ross brushes aside the mythology of 20th-century music’s “inaccessibility” as he charts its meandering histories. Along the way, fascinating connections are made: hip-hop has more in common with Janacek than you might think; Arnold Schoenberg and George Gershwin were tennis partners; Gershwin, in turn, was an ardent fan of Alban Berg and kept an autographed photo of the composer of Lulu in his apartment. If there is an overarching idea to the book, it is perhaps contained in Berg’s pronouncement to Gershwin: “Mr Gershwin, music is music”.”

The current music critic of The New Yorker Ross, 40, was born in Washington DC. He was an enthusiastic teenage musician but it wasn’t until studied English and history at Harvard when he became interested in journalism and became a student broadcaster. Ross began writing music criticism after university and was appointed to his current role at The New Yorker in 1996. He also has a blog which he uses to great effect in transmitting his work around the globe.

The media reception of for The Rest is Noise has been phenomenal. The New York Review of Books said: “by far the liveliest and smartest popular introduction yet written to a century of diverse music”. The Economist noted: “No other critic writing in English can so effectively explain why you like a piece, or beguile you to reconsider it, or prompt you to hurry online and buy a recording.”

Former Observer music writer Nicholas Kenyon said: “At a time when people are still talking about 20th-century music as if it were a problem, here is a lucid and entertaining book about what I regard as some of the greatest music ever written. It’s a wonderful way to advance the cause of 20th-century music to an ordinary, intelligent general reader. It’s the ideal mix of enthusiasm and information.”

The judging panel for this year’s Guardian first book award was made up of novelist Roddy Doyle; broadcaster and novelist Francine Stock; poet Daljit Nagra; the historian David Kynaston; novelist Kate Mosse and Guardian deputy editor, Katharine Viner. Stuart Broom of Waterstones‘ spoke as the representative of the retailer’s reading groups.

The other books shortlisted for the award were Mohammed Hanif‘s A Case of Exploding Mangoes; Ross Raisin‘s God’s Own Country; Steve Toltz‘s A Fraction of the Whole (also put forward for the Man Booker prize) and Owen Matthews’s Stalin’s Children.

Previous winners of the prize have most notably included Stuart: A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters (2005) and Zadie Smith‘s White Teeth (2000).

See Ales Ross talk about The Rest is Noise in an interview below:

Words: Dean Samways

Books of 2008 – The Scribbler Readers’ Poll

Is Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk your book of the year?

As the 2008 slowly eases through its final chilly days and colder nights we wanted to ask you the question that has been on our lips since starting this humble blog.

What have been your books of 2008? As you hopefully saw earlier today, The Guardian has asked public figures but now we are asking you, the Great British fiction fan.

This year has been a healthy one for releases of great fiction but which have particularly enchanted you? Have there been any that have prompted moments of deep thought, a revelation, a tear, a smile, a giggle, a spell of nausea or, more interestingly, a great deal of self-reflection?

We’ve listed 2008’s most notable new novels (disclaimer: it’s not necessarily what we’ve enjoyed) to provide you with some inspiration. It’s out hope that this feature will generate lots of debate and discussion not only about the books of the year but also what makes a good piece of fiction. Uses the comments box accordingly.

So, come on then, what will it be?

The year in literature:

• The Painter of Battles by Arturo Perez-Reverte
• The Delivery Man by Joe McGinniss Jr.
• The Expeditions by Karl Iagnemma
• Beautiful Children by Charles Bock
• How the Dead Dream by Lydia Millet
• Song Yet Sung by James McBride
• The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff
• The Invention of Everything Else by Samantha Hunt
• Feuchtgebiete by Charlotte Roche
• Lush Life by Richard Price
• Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult
• Our Story Begins by Tobias Wolff
• The Sorrows of an American by Siri Hustvedt
• Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
• All the Sad Young Literary Men by Keith Gessen
• Deaf Sentence by David Lodge
• Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk
• The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie
• My Sister, My Love by Joyce Carol Oates
• Home by Marilynne Robinson
• American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
• Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley
• Indignation by Philip Roth
• The Believers by Zoë Heller
• Le violoncelliste sourd by Francis Malka
• Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link
• The Widows of Eastwick by John Updike
• Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga
• A Mercy by Toni Morrison
• Ralph Ellison‘s posthumously published manuscript Three Days Before the Shooting, edited by John F. Callahan

Watch Chuck Palahniuk interview the protagonist of his book Snuff, porn priestess Cassie Wright below:

Discussion:
Come on then? What was your favourite book of 2008 and why? Why that book and not another? We want a full blown discussion going on.

Words: Dean Samways

Guardian and Observer clean up at music journalism awards

Radiohead's Thom Yorke on the cover of OMM which won best editor last night

Newspapers The Guardian and The Observer stole the show at last night’s 2008 Record Of The Day Awards for Music Journalism and PR (phew) when they walked away with five gongs. The Word was named magazine of the year.

Caspar Llewellyn-Smith, editor of Observer Music Monthly bagged the editor of the year award for the second consecutive year. The Guardian was celebrated for it’s music content winning best music coverage in a national newspaper and best podcast. The Guardian’s Alexis Petridis was named record reviews writer of the year and The Observer’s Kitty Empire won the 2008 live reviews writer award.

Other winners included Dog Day Press (best independent PR company) and Polydor (best in-house PR department).

The highlight of the eveing came when legendary British music journalism Jon Savage was honoured when he received the outstanding contribution to music journalism award.

Representing the artdesks up and down the country was Pennie Smith who picked up the outstanding contribution to music photography award.

MBC PR co-founder Barbara Charone won the outstanding contribution to music PR awards and

The awards took place at Conway Hall, London.

The full list of the 2008 Record of the Day Award winners is as follows:

• Live Reviews Writer of the Year: Kitty Empire – The Observer
• Best PR campaign for a breakthrough UK Act: Tony Linkin at Coalition PR for Glasvegas
• Best PR campaign for an established UK Act: Lewis Jamieson at Hall Or Nothing PR for Elbow
• Record Reviews Writer of the Year: Alexis Petridis – The Guardian
• Best Music Coverage in a Newspaper: The Guardian
• Business and Technology Writer of the Year: Ben Cardew – Music Week
• Best PR campaign for an established non-UK Act: James Hopkins at Columbia Records for Kings of Leon
• Best PR Campaign for a Breakthrough Non-UK Act: Ash Collins at Toast PR for MGMT
• Best Podcast: Guardian Music Weekly
• Best Editor: Caspar Llewellyn Smith – Observer Music Monthly
• Best Independent PR Company: Dog Day Press
• Best Independent PR individual: Nathan Beazer at Dog Day Press
• Best Digital Publication: NME.COM
• Best in-house PR person: Andy Prevezer at Warner Bros Records
• Best In-House PR department: Polydor Records
• Artist and Music Features – Writer of The Year: Simon Cosyns and Jacqui Swift – The Sun, Something for the Weekend
• Breaking Music Writer: Paul Lester
• Magazine of the Year: The Word
• Best Blog: 20 Jazz Funk Greats
• Best Online PR: Scruffy Bird
• Outstanding contribution to music journalism: Jon Savage
• Outstanding contribution to PR: Barbara Charone – MBC PR
• Outstanding contribution to music photography: Pennie Smith

That classic image of The Clash's Paul Simonon captured by Pennie Smith

If you’re into your music journalism you’ll know who this guy is below (he’s the legendary Beatnik muso Lester Bangs for any of you who don’t):

Discussion:
Are you thinking of a career in music journalism? Are you already writing music pieces? Want you share them? Leave a comment with your experience in the music journalism world here (the editor is a freelancer for Drowned in Sound when it suits him so he’ll be keen to chat on the subject)

Words: Dean Samways

Costa Book Awards shortlist announced

Some of the nominees in the running for the Costa Book Awards 2008 (picture by The Guardian)

The shortlist for the 2008 Costa Book Awards has been announced. The prestigious award attracted 616 entries this year, which have been narrowed down to four books in five categories.

Judges on this year’s panels (three judges per category) include author Lisa Jewell, actress and writer Pauline McLynn, journalist, writer and broadcaster Michael Burke, poet and broadcaster Roger McGough CBE; and writer Victoria Hislop. The final judging panel will be announced in mid-December.

The winner of each category will be announced on the 6 January 2009 with the overall winner of the 2008 Costa Book Award announced on 27 January at a lavish awards ceremony in London.

The shortlisted books are:

Costa First Novel Award:

• The Behaviour of Moths by Poppy Adams
• The Outcast by Sadie Jones
• Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
• Inside the Whale by Jennie Rooney

Costa Children’s Book Award:

• Ostrich Boys by Keith Gray
• The Carbon Diaries by Saci Lloyd
• Just Henry by Michelle Magorian
• Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine

Costa Biography Award:

• Somewhere Towards the End by Diana Athill
• Bloomsbury Ballerina by Judith Mackrell
• If You Don’t Know Me By Now: A Memoir of Love, Secrets and Lies in Wolverhampton by Sathnam Sanghera
• Chagall by Jackie Wullschlager

Costa Novel Award:

• The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
• The Other Hand by Chris Cleave
• A Partisan’s Daughter by Louis de Bernieres
• Trauma by Patrick McGrath

Costa Poetry Award:

• For All We Know by Ciaran Carson
• The Broken Word by Adam Foulds
• Sunday at the Skin Launderette by Kathryn Simmonds
• Salvation Jane by Greta Stoddart

Have a look at the award video for the winner of last year’s accolade, A.L. Kennedy, by clicking below:

Discussion:
So what do you think of the shortlists?  Are there any omissions you’re particularly surprised about? Has anyone read any of the listed books? What did you think?

Words: Seamus Swords

National Novel Writing Month – Are you up for the challenge?

National Novel Writing Month - Turn that ambition into a reality

Throughout the year there are numerous literary workshops, festivals, and awards peppered all over the globe. The month of November though represents possibly the greatest single initiatory commitment for any writer, novice or pro.

Saturday marked the opening day of National Novel Writing Month. The event, organised The Office of Letters and Light based in Oakland, California, is intended to inspire, and almost squeeze results out of participants, who take up the challenge of penning an entire novel (175 pages or 50 000 words) in 30 days.

Though labelled as a ‘national’ event there are in fact different regions wherefrom the sponsored participants keep the official website up-to-date with where there are in their projects.

Nanowrimo.org also delivers regular advice from professional authors (including Philip Pullman) and feature articles on the budding novelists taking part.

When The Scribbler discovered this writing programme we naturally started to question just how successful this kind of strict work schedule could be. However, we were immediately put into our place when we saw the list of past writers who have been published as a direct result of National Novel Writing Month.

To celebrate the writing month of November The Scribbler will graciously jump on the bandwagon.

In an effort to get you, the reader, thinking like an author and writing what might be your first piece of non-fiction, The Scribbler is going to provide you with the first of many writing schools.

Keep coming back and checking out the ‘Fiction / Writing School’ pages for the most contemporary writing to tool you up so only the best, most thrilling, edgy work coming popping off the pencil. Efforts are also being made to get some tips from some top writers in the industry.

Thinking caps on. Next time we want you to come back with at least three ideas for a story, maybe even a novel. The challenge starts here.

To get this party started we have embedded some advice for aspiring authors from the writer of Child 44, Tom Rob Smith. The book, Smith’s first, was published this year and earned immediate recognition by winning the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award for best thriller of the year from the Crime Writer’s Association. Click below to find out what he’s got to say for himself:

Discussion:
How many of you would consider taking part in National Novel Writing Month? What kind of advice would you be looking for from The Scribbler? Use the comments box below to reply…

Words: Dean Samways

Guardian First Book Award shortlist announced

The Guardian First Book Award

The shortlist for the Guardian’s First Book Award has been published with an extremely varied bunch of first time authors making the short list.

The award which has a £10 000 cash prize is seen in many literary circles as being unique, not only because it recognises first time writers but also the lengths it goes to to involve reading groups all over the country.

Taking in fiction, non-fiction and poetryu the books range from a 20th century history of music, a memoir of a soviet era romance and a dark story of obsession and violence based in Yorkshire. Others making up the shortlist include a political novel set in Pakistan and a carnivalesque Australian saga.

The shortlist was determined by Waterstones reading groups up-and-down the country who helped narrow down the selection from ten books to just five.

Chairwoman of the award and Guardian Literary Editor Claire Armitstead commended the shortlist saying “these are sophisticated books that require a big investment from the reader – an investment for which they are richly rewarded,” she also commended the books for there “generic inventiveness” and “defiance of easy marketing packagability.”

Previous winners of the award have included Zadie Smith for her novel White Teeth (2003) and Dinaw Mengestu for the Children of The Revolution (2007).

Here’s the five books in contention for this year’s prize:

• The Rest Is Noise – Alex Ross
• Stalin’s Children – Owen Matthews
• God’s Own Country – Ross Raisin
• A Fraction Of The Whole – Steve Toltz
• A Case Of Exploding Mangoes – Mohammed Hanif

The Scribbler will announce the winner of The Guardian Book Award before anyone else right here…although probably not before The Guardian.

Have a look at Ross Raisin’s interview with Olive TV below where he talks about his book Out Backward and answers questions from fans:

If you have the patience to watch Alex Ross talks about his shortlisted book The Rest Is Noise the amazing Google video feature is below:

Doubleday presents a reading of Steve Toltz’s A Fraction Of The Whole set to moving pictures:

Discussion:
Has anyone read any of the shortlisted books? If so, what’s your opinion of them? Does it deserve this accolade?

Words: Seamus Swords