The Lousypoet

Who won the Hugo for Best Novel with the Graveyard Book. If you haven’t read it, go do it… Now!

I couldn’t help but laugh. As I wrote the other day, Neil Gaiman’s book, The Graveyard Book, just won the Newbery award, one of the most prestigious awards given for children’s literature. Gaiman’s twitter response was classic, as was his post on his blog. And then comes the news that The Graveyard Book is being turned into a feature film with Neil Jordan (In The Company of Wolves, Interview with the Vampire) doing the adaptation and directing. This could bode quite well for the film! And then we have the theatrical release of Coraline, which looks simply amazing!

And speaking of Coraline, here’s a great little trailer featuring the god writer himself, apparently in his front sitting room and library.

Ahh, to have even a fraction of this man’s talent….

I just received the following announcement in my email! Congratulations Mr. Gaiman, it is well deserved.

January 26, 2009

The Graveyard Book has won the prestigious 2009 Newbery Medal!

A delicious mix of murder, fantasy, humor and human longing, the tale of Nobody Owens is told in magical, haunting prose. A child marked for death by an ancient league of assassins escapes into an abandoned graveyard, where he is reared and protected by its spirit denizens.

The book, published September 30, 2008, was an instant New York Times #1 bestseller, and continues to be counted on many national and regional bestseller lists.

“A child named Nobody, an assassin, a graveyard and the dead are the perfect combination in this deliciously creepy tale, which is sometimes humorous, sometimes haunting and sometimes surprising,” said Newbery Committee Chair Rose V. Trevi&ntildeo.

The Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.

The winners of the National Book Award in the United States have been announced. They are,

Young People’s Literature

Judy Blundell
What I Saw and How I Lied
(Scholastic)

Poetry

Mark Doty
Fire to Fire: New and Collected Poems
(HarperCollins)

Nonfiction

Annette Gordon-Reed
The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
(W.W. Norton & Company)

Fiction

Peter Matthiessen
Shadow Country
(Modern Library)

This year marks the 72nd presentation of the Governor General’s Literary Awards, Canada’s oldest and most prestigious awards for English- and French-language Canadian literature.

The Canada Council funds, administers and promotes the awards. The value of each award is $25,000 and each winner will also receive a specially-bound copy of the winning book bound by Montreal bookbinder Lise Dubois. The publisher of each winning book will receive $3,000 to support promotional activities. Non?winning finalists will each receive $1,000 in recognition of their selection as finalists, bringing the total value of the awards to approximately $450,000.

Winners

Fiction

Nino Ricci, Toronto,
The Origin of Species.
(Doubleday Canada)

Marie-Claire Blais, Westmount, Quebec,
Naissance de Rebecca à l’ère des tourments.
(Les Éditions du Boréal)

Poetry

Jacob Scheier, Toronto,
More to Keep Us Warm.
(ECW Press)

Michel Pleau, Quebec City,
La lenteur du monde.
(Les Éditions David)

Drama

Catherine Banks, Halifax,
Bone Cage.
(Playwrights Canada Press)

Jennifer Tremblay, Sorel, Quebec,
La liste.
(Les Éditions de la Bagnole)

Non-Fiction

Christie Blatchford, Toronto,
Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army.
(Doubleday Canada)

Pierre Ouellet, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec,
Hors-temps: poétique de la posthistoire.
(VLB éditeur)

Children’s Literature – Text

John Ibbitson, Washington (D.C.), formerly of Ottawa and Toronto,
The Landing.
(Kids Can Press)

Sylvie Desrosiers, Longueuil, Quebec,
Les trois lieues.
(Les éditions de la courte échelle)

Children’s Literature – Illustration

Stéphane Jorisch, Montreal, http://lousypoet.com/wp-admin/post-new.php
lousypoet.com › Create New Post — WordPress
The Owl and the Pussycat, text by Edward Lear.
(Kids Can Press)

Janice Nadeau, Montreal,
Ma meilleure amie, text by Gilles Tibo.
(Québec Amérique)

Translation

Lazer Lederhendler, Montreal,
Nikolski.
(Knopf Canada)

Claire Chabalier, Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot, Quebec, and
Louise Chabalier, Mascouche, Quebec, Tracey en mille morceaux
(Les éditions Les Allusifs)

For more information on the Governor General Award, visit their website.
Canada Council for the Arts – Governor General Literary Awards

The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews!

Days after being dumped by her boyfriend Marc in Paris, Hattie hears her sister Min has been checked into a psychiatric hospital, and finds herself flying back to Winnipeg to take care of Thebes and Logan, her niece and nephew. Not knowing what else to do, she loads the kids, a cooler, and a pile of CDs into their van and they set out on a road trip in search of the children’s long-lost father, Cherkis.

Knopf Canada | Hardcover, 288 pages | 978-0-307-39749-2 | September 2, 2008 | $32.00

Established in 1997, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize recognizes Canadian writers of exceptional talent for the year’s best novel or short-story collection.

This year’s finalists were;

Rivka Galchen
Atmospheric Disturbances
HarperCollins

Rawi Hage
Cockroach
House of Anansi Press

Lee Henderson
The Man Game
Viking Canada

Patrick Lane
Red Dog, Red Dog
McClelland & Stewart

You can view winners from previous years and more information about the award at http://www.writerstrust.com/index.html

Was sent an email today reminding me that we were fast approaching the United States’ National Book Awards Week. This is a huge event that highlights so much of the literary world. Instead of trying to go into everything that is here, I’m going to give you some links of interest that you can go ahead and check out.

5 Under 35

The National Books Awards each year features 5 authors under the age of 35. This is done to help highlight the younger generation of authors that may be new, or up and coming. You can check out the 5 that have been selected for this year by following the link. Also be sure to check next to the links for each of the books. There is a link to an interview with the author of each book that was done exclusively for the National Book Foundation.

The National Book Foundations 5 Under 35

Complete List of Finalists

For a complete list of the finalists in all categories (Fiction, Non-Fiction, Poetry, Young People’s Literature) click the link below.

Complete List of All Finalists for the 2008 National Book Awards

Winners of the National Book Awards will be announced the evening of Wednesday November 19, 2008.

You can visit The National Book Foundation’s webpage for more information on the events and awards.

I discussed in a previous article, the Giller Prize. It was awarded last night to Ontario native Joseph Boyden for his novel Through Black Spruce. This was his second novel.

It was the first time in four years that the “Guess the Giller” poll of public libraries, bookstores, Scotiabank branches, literary festivals and post-secondary institutions failed to correctly predict the eventual winner.

Here’s the description of the book from Amazon.com

Will Bird is a legendary Cree bush pilot, now lying in a coma in a hospital in his hometown of Moose Factory, Ontario. His niece Annie Bird, beautiful and self-reliant, has returned from her own perilous journey to sit beside his bed. Broken in different ways, the two take silent communion in their unspoken kinship, and the story that unfolds is rife with heartbreak, fierce love, ancient blood feuds, mysterious disappearances, fires, plane crashes, murders, and the bonds that hold a family, and a people, together. As Will and Annie reveal their secrets—the tragic betrayal that cost Will his family, Annie’s desperate search for her missing sister, the famous model Suzanne—a remarkable saga of resilience and destiny takes shape. From the dangerous bush country of upper Canada to the drug-fueled glamour of the Manhattan club scene, Joseph Boyden tracks his characters with a keen eye for the telling detail and a rare empathy for the empty places concealed within the heart. Sure to appeal to readers of Louise Erdrich and Jim Harrison, Through Black Spruce establishes Boyden as a writer of startling originality and uncommon power.

Sticking with the Canadian Literature contests, the deadline for submissions for the annual Griffin Poetry prize is December 31, 2008.

The Griffin awards one prize of $50,000 to a Canadian Poet, and another $50,000 to another poet from the international community. The shortlist is announced in March or April of each year with the winners being announced in May or June.

The judges for the 2009 Griffin prize were announced at the end of September. They are;

Saskia Hamilton is the author of two books of poetry, As for Dream (2001) and Divide These (2005). She is also the editor of The Letters of Robert Lowell (2005) and a co-editor of Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell (2008). The recipient of a Bunting Fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Saskia Hamilton teaches at Barnard College, Columbia University, and lives in New York City.

Dennis O’Driscoll was born in Thurles, County Tipperary, Ireland. His eight books of poetry include Weather Permitting (1999), which was shortlisted for the Irish Times Poetry Prize; Exemplary Damages (2002), and New and Selected Poems (2004). His latest collection of poems, Reality Check (2007), was shortlisted for the Irish Times / Poetry Now Prize in 2008. A selection of his essays and reviews, Troubled Thoughts, Majestic Dreams was published in 2001. He is the editor of The Bloodaxe Book of Poetry Quotations (2006) and its American counterpart, Quote Poet Unquote (2008). He has received a Lannan Literary Award (1999), the E.M. Forster Award (2005) and the O’Shaughnessy Award for Poetry (2006). O’Driscoll’s new book, Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney, is scheduled for publication in November 2008.

Michael Redhill is a novelist, poet, and playwright, as well as the publisher and one of the editors of Brick. His most recent novel, Consolation, was longlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize, won the Toronto Book Award, and was the Toronto Public Library’s inaugural One Book One City choice in 2008. His 2005 play, Goodness, won the Carol Tambor Prize in 2006 for the best play at the Edinburgh Fringe and has since played in New York, Vancouver, and Girona, and will open later in 2008 in Barcelona and Helsinki. Michael Redhill currently lives in the south of France with his partner and their two sons.

Submissions for the Griffin are only accepted from publishers. You can find out all the details by visiting The Griffin Prize website.