Book Awards

If you saw all the books that pile up in my cubicle week after week, you'd realize why my wife was ecstatic to have found a book for me for Hanukkah that I neither had already nor really knew about, but was thrilled to get: Tennessee Williams's Notebooks, the gigantic and complete edition that came out a couple of years ago. I'm not sure there's any kind of book I like to get more than diaries or journals, especially a writer's: in part because I love to see the daily lives behind creative work, but in part because a diary, like a good reference book, can be squeezed into my already-fully-booked reading life in tiny, random bits. And so the Notebooks have taken a prominent place on the short stack of books in one of the rooms in my house where, ahem, a get a fair amount of short-term reading done, along with longterm favorites that I've been poking in and out of for years, like Cheever's Journals and Brian Eno's Year with Swollen Appendices.

I mention the Notebooks this evening because I just came across a note that still has me shaking my head. One of the beauties of this edition is that Margaret Bradham Thornton, the editor, has added voluminous, wonderfully informative notes (as well as photographs and facsimiles of letters, manuscripts, and diary pages) that appear on facing pages to the notebook entries and, far from overwhelming the main content, flesh it out in fascinating ways. I must say I hardly know anything about Williams, beyond what almost everybody does, and I've done my first poking around at the beginning, in 1936, when he was a college student in St. Louis. He was in his mid-20s, his education having been delayed for a few years after his father stopped paying his tuition and made him take a job as clerk at a shoe company, but he wrote indefatigably throughout--writing and rewriting stories, poems, and plays--despite only the most moderate of successes. Here's his short entry from March 20, 1936:

Friday Morning -- Better -- much better -- a bright cool windy day -- slept soundly -- feel like a patient old cow -- will finish dressing now and later try to finish my play --

And here's the beginning of the much longer note that links from the word "play":

Most likely, "Moony's Kid Don't Cry," an expanded version of "Hot Milk at Three in the Morning," which had received thirteenth place in the University of Missouri's 1932 Dramatic Prize Contest.

Thirteenth place? I'm not even sure where to begin with that. First of all--what contests even go all the way down to thirteenth? Not even Miss America goes past fourth-runner-up. And who would expect someone who finished #13 in an undergraduate play competition to end up becoming maybe the greatest American playwright? Probably nobody besides #13 himself. Certainly one proof of that writing-workshop truism that there's usually no way to tell who in a class, if anyone, is going to end up making a career out of their writing--it's often not the apparent talent on the page that gets you there, but the drive to stick with it.

I wonder how many people were even in that contest. Fourteen? Maybe more people were writing plays in 1932, but I remember when a friend in college won our drama prize one year I thought--okay, enviously perhaps--"That's pretty cool--but how many people wrote a whole play and entered that contest?" I have no idea, but it's worth noting that the runner-up in that year's competition is now writing the book for U2's Spider-Man musical. So the lesson is, I guess: stick with it, even if you don't finish first. Or even twelfth. --Tom

Last night, just after I had excerpted Michael Dirda's praise ("her easy-going prose and startling honesty are riveting") for Diana Athill's memoir of old age, Somewhere Towards the End, in Old Media Monday, I saw that she had just won the Costa prize for biography. And her win, at age 91, after a lengthy editorial career and a much-belated writing one, leads all the stories on the awards, which, to refresh your memory, used to be called the Whitbreads and are awarded in five categories, out of which a Book of the Year will be named on January 27. Here are the other category winners:

• Novel: The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (which had been a bridesmaid for the Booker)
• First Novel: The Outcast by Sadie Jones
• Poetry: The Broken World by Adam Foulds
• Children's: Just Henry by Michelle Magorian

Here's my earlier post about the nominees, including some further praise of my own for Athill. The Guardian article linked above is full of quotes that show how sportingly UK authors know how to respond to award chatter. Athill admitted she hoped for the prize "because I'm always terribly broke, and how wonderful it would be to get that lovely cheque," and Sadie Jones said about her debut, which has made award shortlists and bestseller lists like, "The book has had so much luck, I'm having all my jam at once." And Barry, when told his novel was the early bookies' favorite to capture the overall prize,  "God bless them," he said. "My dear old grandfather lost four fortunes backing favourites." --Tom

In this week's roundup, we get more gift-giving ideas, find a less sexist alternative to Dressy Bessie, and see some amazing wind-up books:

A million ways to give a book (estimated). Well, nearly a hundred ways, in any case. Mother Reader is reprising one of her great ideas and compiling 21 Ways to Give a Book, quite a few times over. Check out her lists for tips on how to make a bigger impact with a kids' book gift by pairing it with another themed gift or activity. Like, say, pairing Toy Boat with toy boats. (Found via Jen Robinson.)

A less sexist alternative to Dressy Bessie? We were just plugging the new blog Readertotz last week, and they've already helped me find a good cloth book to try out on our almost-2-year-old Silas. The author-illustrator in a short interview: “When I was a child, I had a cloth 'book' called 'Dressy Bessie.' Basically, it was a girl wearing clothing that you had to button, zipper, tie and snap. There were no words, and it was, in my mind, a little sexist. (Was there a 'Dressy Dan?')"

Music-box books! The Children's Illustration blog pointed me towards these amazing creations on Etsy:

A very special Notes from the Horn Book. This month's edition of Notes from the Horn Book is especially worthwhile, with the presentation of "Fanfare," the Horn Book's picks for best books of the year, broken down for preschoolers, early grades, middle graders, teens, and nonfiction. You'll see a lot of books that we love and have blogged about here on Omnivoracious.

Adult novels reimagined as picture books. Whatever you think of this harsh assessment of the picture-book adaptation of Paul Auster's best-selling novel about American homelessness Timbuktu, the whole enterprise is a great idea (as pointed out by Gail Gauthier). The parting shot in the critique very much made me want to see the hypothetical books in question: "I think there's a place on a special shelf for this. It's wedged between the picture book adaptation of Sarte's No Exit and Beckett's picture book adaptation (96 pages!) of Waiting for Godot. Well out of reach of children."

Three quick links:

• American Voices on The Tales of Beedle the Bard (via Bookninja)
• 100 Scope Notes collects some of Mo Willems' NPR radio cartoons
• Audubon magazine reviews nature books for kids (via Original Content)

--Paul

In this edition of YA Wednesday, we remind you that books are among the most rewarding, entertaining, educational, practical, FUN, portable, (did I mention potentially life-altering?), and affordable gifts for the holidays. Here are just a few to consider...

Congrats to Morris Award shortlisters!
This week, YALSA announced the short list for their first ever Morris Award (full name: the William C. Morris YA Debut Award), which will honor one of these outstanding 2008 YA books by first-time authors:

A Curse Dark as Gold, by Elizabeth C. Bunce
Graceling, by Kristin Cashore
Absolute Brightness, by James Lecesne
Madapple, by Christina Meldrum
Me, the Missing, and the Dead, by Jenny Valentine

The winner will be announced in early 2009. (found via Tasha Saecker on Kids Lit)

The end of a monarchy...
As fans of Meg Cabot are well aware by now, the series that introduced so many girls to Princess Mia is ending on January 6, 2009 with the publication of Princess Diaries X: Forever Princess. Cabot has been posting updates about the big January 9 farewell party/benefit for the New York Public Library on her blog:

"The Switchblade Kittens will not only perform at the event–they’re putting out an actual CD of songs devoted entirely to the Princess Diaries series (and a few of my other books)!"

(Cuteness warning: when I opened the Switchblade Kittens' website, a very sparkly song called "Magic Cat" started blaring out of my computer.) Their Princess Diaries CD, "Rebel Princess," will be on sale at the event. And there will be tiaras designed by 25 celebrities. Tiaras!

Mia (wink) is also posting updates on her blog (with a little help from Meg) about Ransom My Heart, the romance novel Mia wrote (also with help from Meg) in Forever Princess. It's coming out on January 6, too.

Publisher's Weekly had a story about the series last week, with this bittersweet quote from Cabot:

“I keep thinking of things that would be great for her next story, and then I have to remind myself that there will be no next one. It has taken a lot of adjustment.”

Side note: Readergirlz is featuring Meg Cabot this month and one of her (non-PD) books, How to be Popular.

Guys who write about guys who...
The always insightful and outspoken Horn Book editor Roger Sutton (Read Roger) reviewed two YA novels in the New York Times last week. They are both realist fiction written by guys about guys, which is, apparently, a bit of an anomaly in the YA world.

On Paper Towns, by John Green:

"What’s a guy-writer to do? He can write for younger children, where the male audience is not yet lost, or he can write in a genre like science fiction or suspense, which hold on to a male readership in a way domestic fiction does not. He can write about girls, of course, although I’m having a hard time coming up with the name of any male author in the young adult genre who has done this with more than one-off success.

Or he can write about what boys find so fascinating about girls. John Green is the master of this."

On Black Rabbit Summer, by Kevin Brooks:

"...he knows how to keep a story going and gathering steam, and plain- speaking has a virtue of its own: “ ‘I’m a police officer,’ ” the narrator’s father says. “ ‘I believe in what I do.’ He looked at me. ‘And you’re my son, and I believe in you, too.’

Those are sentiments that get where the boys are, in case you girls are wondering."

Quick links...
Galley Cat posted photos of Melissa Walker and Mari Mancusi at Butter, "the restaurant on Gossip Girl," where the two celebrated their latest books, Violet in Private (Walker) and Gamer Girl (Mancusi), with games. You know, games: Connect Four, Hungry Hungry Hippos, etc.

On The Millions, Rachel Fershleiser, co-editor of Not Quite What I Was Planning (remember the six-word memoirs?) raved about Frank Portman's King Dork (which came out in paperback in February of this year):

"It's as funny and filthy and filled with the inhumanities of high school loserdom as everyone has said... But for me, the true brilliance lies in the complex questions of our antihero's dead father and the coded messages left behind in his library of classic books. King Dork is the only book I've ever read in which the mystery is never resolved, and I finished feeling completely satisfied anyway. For that near-impossible feat, this story is as sophisticated as it is scatological."

Bookends reviewed the inventive graphic Western, Rapunzel's Revenge.

Old Hag (Lizzie Skurnick) interviewed Kelly Link (Pretty Monsters, one of three Amazon Best of 2008 books in this post) last Saturday at the Indie & Small Press Book Fair in NYC. Many announced it, but no one wrote about it. Did they? Anyone? New Yorkers? Were you there? We need details!--Heidi

Three Percent, the website arm of Chad Post's seemingly one-man literary-translation crusade at the University of Rochester (see Heidi's Omni interview with him about his publishing arm, Open Letter, last month), has announced this year's 25-book longlist for their Best Translated Book of 2008 award:

• The Book of Chameleons by Jose Eduardo Agulasa (Angola), translated by Daniel Hahn
• What Can I Do When Everything's On Fire by Antonio Lobo Antunes (Portugal), translated by Gregory Rabassa
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (France), translated by Alison Anderson
• Tranquility by Attila Bartis (Hungary), translated by Imre Goldstein
• 2666 by Roberto Bolaño (Chile/Mexico/Spain), translated by Natasha Wimmer
• Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolaño (Chile/Mexico/Spain), translated by Chris Andrews
• Voice Over by Céline Curiol (France), translated by Sam Richard
• The Waitress Was New by Dominique Fabre (France), translated by Jordan Stump
• The Taker and Other Stories by Rubem Fonseca (Brazil), translated by Clifford Landers
• The Darkroom of Damocles by Willem Frederik Hermans (Holland), translated by Ina Rilke
• Homage to Czerny: Studies in Virtuoso Technique by Gert Jonke (Austria), translated by Jean Snook
• Metropole by Ferenc Karinthy (Hungary), translated by George Szirtes
• Detective Story by Imre Kertesz (Hungary), translated by Tim Wilkinson
• Yalo by Elias Khoury (Lebanon), translated from by Peter Theroux
• The Great Weaver from Kashmir by Halldór Laxness (Iceland), translated by Philip Roughton
• I'd Like by Amanda Michalopoulou (Greece), translated by Karen Emmerich
• The Enormity of the Tragedy by Quim Monzo (Spain), translated by Peter Bush
• Senselessness by Horacio Castellanos Moya (Honduras), translated by Katherine Silver
• The Lemoine Affair by Marcel Proust (France), translated by Charlotte Mandell
• Death with Interruptions by José Saramago (Portugal), translated by Margaret Jull Costa
• Unforgiving Years by Victor Serge (Russia/France), translated by Richard Greeman
• Camera by Jean-Philippe Toussaint (France), translated by Matthew Smith
• Khirbet Khizeh by S. Yizhar (Israel), translated from by Nicholas de Lange and Yaacob Dweck
• Bonsai by Alejandro Zambra (Chile), translated by Carolina De Robertis
• The Post-Office Girl by Stefan Zweig (Austria), translated by Joel Rotenberg

Which ones look good to me? I wishlisted Voice Over and Homage to Czerny (mainly because the PW reviews made them sound so good), and I already had Senselessness, Tranquility, and the two NYRB books, Unforgiving Years and The Post-Office Girl, high on my (endless) to-read pile. And I've read both Bolaños (and made them both Best of the Month picks). Michael Orthofer, proprietor of the Literary Saloon (whose advocacy of translated lit really makes it a two-man crusade), is one of the other judges, and he has a far better rundown than I could give, including reviews of 13 of the books. He also points out some geographical omissions, especially the surprising absence of anything from Asia, in a year when a remarkable number of novels from China (Beijing Coma, Wolf Totem, etc.) got pretty prominent review coverage. He loves 2666 even more than I do and amusingly comments on its prospects for winning the award: "(are there any doubts about which book will emerge top of the heap ? I mean, I can't commit my vote yet, since I haven't read all the titles and I'll have to revisit some I read a while back, but come on ...)."

Read more in Chad Post's Q&A on the award with the LA Times's Jacket Copy. They'll announce 10 finalists on January 27, and the winner on February 19. --Tom

I didn't get to the National Book Awards ceremony, but GalleyCat did, and they brought their camera and their chutzpah, and managed to score video interviews with two of the four winners. And they asked a good question of each: what are you working on next? (And got good answers in both cases.)

Nonfiction winner Annette Gordon-Reed (see our own interview with her), who says she has two projects planned (which sound like they should keep her busy for the next decade at least): a followup to The Hemingses of Monticello that stays with the family through the 19th century, and then a biography of Jefferson himself:

And poetry winner Mark Doty, who plans to follow Fire by Fire with a nonfiction book about Walt Whitman--not a biography and not a critical analysis, but about Doty's relationship to Whitman. Sounds like two favorites of mine, Nicholson Baker's U and I and Geoff Dyer's Out of Sheer Rage--in other words, very promising:

--Tom