CATEGORIES

Siddon Rock by Australian author Glenda Guest (Vintage) was announced on Thursday 11 March as the winner of the South East Asia and Pacific region of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book.

The Adventures of Vela by Samoan author Albert Wendt (University of Hawaii Press) was the South East Asia and the Pacific regional winner of the CWP Best Book prize.

The two titles will now be in the running for the overall Commonwealth Writers Prize, along with the regional winners of the two categories from Africa, Caribbean and Canada and South Asia and Europe.

The two overall winners will be announced on 12 April in India.

Director of the Commonwealth Foundation Mark Collins said the level of entries this year had been ‘absolutely outstanding’.

Regional chair Anne Brewster said of Siddon Rock: ‘The fable-like quality of this story captures the laconic mannerisms of Australian rural life and gestures to the styles of the tall tale and bush yarn. In Siddon Rock we revisit the myth of the white child lost in the bush with chilling freshness. The novel achieves great narrative momentum and emotional power which concludes in modest but assured optimism.’

She said Wendt’s ‘epic verse novel’ The Adventures of Vela was ‘an exhilarating read. It follows the tumultuous journeys of the ancient human, Vela, as he chronicles the life of Nafanua, the Samoan goddess of war exiled since the colonial invasion of the Samoan islands. Wendt draws upon the immense resources and creative heritage of Samoan cultural memory and spirituality which he combines with a stinging critique of the various institutions of colonisation.’

You can see further information on the eight regional Best Book and Best First Book winners at http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com/.

Last year’s overall winner of the Best Book prize was Christos Tsiolkas for The Slap (A&U).

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/03/15215/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.

There’s pirate treasure to be found in Clive Cussler’s seventh book in the ‘Oregon Files’ saga The Silent Sea and an Italian tale of passion, love and magic in Belinda Alexandra’s Tuscan Rose, which were last week’s highest new entries and became this week’s ‘fastest movers’. These two have snuck ahead of Stieg Larsson’s ‘Millennium’ trilogy and accompanying film tie-in, to take the two top spots on the Bestseller charts. The Highest New Entries of this week include Glen McNamara’s story of police corruption in Dirty Work and Danielle Steel’s latest novel One Day at a Time–Weekly Book Newsletter. 

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/03/15182/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.

Golden Boy: Kim Hughes and the bad old days of Australian cricket (Christian Ryan, A&U) won Cricket Book of the Year at the British Sports Book Awards.

‘It’s almost as good as beating them on the field!,’ said Allen & Unwin chairman Patrick Gallagher of the win. ‘The judges admitted that it was “tantamount to treason” to reward an Australian cricket book in an Ashes year, but at the end of the day it was “simply too bloody good!”,’ Gallagher told the Weekly Book Newsletter. ‘Allen and Unwin’s UK manager Clare Drysdale told us that she started the evening as an unknown and somewhat lonely Aussie, but by the end of the function there was a queue of poms waiting to shake hands and congratulate her and the author. Now for the Ashes!’

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/03/15208/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.

The China Garden by Kristina Olsson (UQP) is the winner of this year’s Barbara Jefferis Award.

The award, administered by the Australian Society of Authors (ASA), is for ‘the best novel written by an Australian author that depicts women and girls in a positive way or otherwise empowers the status of women and girls in society’.

Judges Susan Martin, Gina Mercer and Elizabeth Webby said that ‘unusually for a story about relinquishment and adoption, this fine novel deals with the impact on the mother and her remaining child, rather than her lost one’.

‘It delicately unfolds the ways in which Angela has made a life as a painter in a small coastal community, and has helped, and been healed by, those around her. The title refers to Angela’s garden and its broken pieces of china. This evocative image suggests that beauty can be created from what is broken and apparently irretrievable, but also the danger and sharpness of buried secrets. Kristina Olsson traces different possibilities of mothering, in Angela’s mutually enriching friendship with a young man, Kieran, in Kieran’s relationship with his grandmother, Cress, and in Cress’s tentative friendship with Angela’s daughter. Without feeling the need to resolve every absence or mystery, Olsson gently suggests that it is always possible to make new things out of the past, however fractured or painful.’

Valued at $35,000, the Barbara Jefferis Award was established in 2007 by the ASA and made possible by a bequest from the film critic John Hinde, to commemorate his wife.

Last year’s winning title was The Spare Room by Helen Garner.

The China Garden has also been shortlisted in this year’s Australian Publishers Association Book Design Awards in the ‘best designed literary fiction book’ category.

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/03/15214/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.

The titles longlisted for this year’s Miles Franklin Literary Award have been announced.

The longlisted titles are:

    * Lovesong (Alex Miller, A&U)
    * The Bath Fugues (Brian Castro, Giramondo Publishing)
    * Jasper Jones (Craig Silvey, A&U)
    * Sons of the Rumour (David Foster, Picador)
    * The Book of Emmett (Deborah Forster, Vintage)
    * Siddon Rock (Glenda Guest, Vintage)
    * Boy on a Wire (Jon Doust, Fremantle Press)
    * Figurehead (Patrick Allington, Black Inc.)
    * Parrot and Olivier in America (Peter Carey, Hamish Hamilton)
    * Truth (Peter Temple, Text Publishing)
    * Butterfly (Sonya Hartnett, Penguin)
    * The People’s Train (Thomas Keneally, Knopf).

This year’s judging panel was made up of Morag Fraser, Richard Neville, Gillian Whitlock, Lesley McKay and Murray Waldren. Said Fraser: ‘It is exciting to discover new voices, and even more so when they are as accomplished and challenging as the debut authors on this year’s Miles Franklin longlist. The newcomers stand alongside some of the great names of Australian literature, writers who have helped define Australian culture and deepen our understanding of ourselves. For range and diversity, this is an outstanding Miles Franklin list.’

Deborah Foster, Glenda Guest and Patrick Allington have all been nominated for debut novels; Alex Miller, Thomas Keneally, Peter Carey and David Foster have all previously won the award.

The award shortlist will be announced in April, with the winner to be awarded at a presentation dinner on 22 June. 

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/03/15206/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.

Being awarded an honorary degree by a British university last year prompted Australian author Kathy Lette to explore her family history. Lette reflects on her convict past in Men: A User’s Guide (Bantam). Natasha Solomon’s Mr Rosenblum’s List: Or Friendly Guidance for the Aspiring Englishman (Sceptre) nabbed four mentions for itself this week, Ian McEwan’s Solar (Jonathan Cape) found itself mentioned in Media Extra three times and Don DeLillo’s Point Omega (Picador) won a spot on our Most Mentioned chart for the second week in a row. Local author Melina Marchetta is doing quite well with the release of her book The Piper’s Son (Viking) as well. Let’s see if this new book resonates with young people as much as her previous books have–Media Extra.

Most mentioned in the Media this week

1 Mr Rosenblum’s List: Or Friendly Guidance for the Aspiring Englishman, by Natasha Solomon
2 Men: A User’s Guide, by Kathy Lette
3 Piper’s Son, The by Melina Marchetta
4 Point Omega, by Don DeLillo
5 Martin Westley Takes a Walk, by Andrew Humphreys

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/03/15165/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.

Stieg Larsson continues to dominate the Bestseller charts with his three ‘Millennium’ trilogy books nabbing the top three spots. Belinda Alexandra’s Tuscan Rose comes in at number one in the Highest New Entries chart followed by The Silent Sea by Clive Cussler. Dear John by Nicholas Sparks moves the fastest in the Fastest Movers chart this week, thanks to the release of the movie of the same name–Weekly Book Newsletter.

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/03/15114/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.

The 82nd Academy Awards honoured many films adapted from books, in the annual ceremony presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Monday.

The Oscar for best adapted screenplay went to the film Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (a self-explanatory film title) for Geoffrey Fletcher’s adaptation of Push (Sapphire, Vintage). The film is about Claireece Precious Jones, a pregnant, black, illiterate, 16-year-old girl in high school, who has been abused by her parents. Precious escapes her traumatic existence through imagination and fantasy, finds inspiration to read from her new English teacher, and moves out of home.

Other nominations for best adapted screenplay were: An Education from Lynn Barber’s novel of the same name (Penguin); In the Loop, based on The Thick of It (Armando Iannucci, Hodder); Up in the Air based on Walter Kirn’s novel of the same name (John Murray); and also District 9 an adaptation of the film Alive in Joburg by Neill Blomkamp.

Sandra Bullock won best actress for The Blind Side, a sports-drama film based on the book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game (Michael Lewis, W W Norton). Helen Mirren was also nominated for best actress for her part as Sofya Tolstoy in The Last Station, a German biographical film, based on novel of the same name (Jay Parini, Text).

Jeff Bridges won an Oscar for best actor for his part in Crazy Heart a musical-drama film, based on the 1987 novel Crazy Heart (Consair) by Thomas Cobb. Morgan Freeman missed out on best actor, nominated for playing Nelson Mandela in Invictus, based on the book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation (John Carlin, Atlantic Books). Colin Firth also missed out, nominated for his part in A Single Man, based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Isherwood (Vintage).

The Oscar for best foreign language film went to El secreto de sus ojos (The Secret In Their Eyes) an Argentine crime film, based on Eduardo Sacheri’s novel La pregunta de sus ojos (The Question In Their Eyes, Galerna).

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/03/15131/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.

The finalists in the 2010 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards have been announced:

Picture book

    * Cowshed Christmas (Gavin Bishop & Joy Cowley, Random House NZ)
    * Old Hu-Hu (Kyle Mewburn & Rachel Driscoll, Scholastic NZ)
    * Piggity-Wiggity Jiggity Jig Goes to Dad’s Cafe (Diana Neild & Philip Webb, Scholastic NZ)
    * The Wonky Donkey (Craig Smith & Katz Cowley, Scholastic NZ)
    * The Word Witch (Margaret Mahy & David Elliot, ed Tessa Duder, HarperCollins)

Nonfiction

    * Ben & Mark: Boys of the High Country (Christine Fernyhough & John Bougen, Random House NZ)
    * Dear Alison (ed Simon Pollard, Penguin NZ)
    * E3 Call Home (Janet Hunt, Random House NZ)
    * Rangitoto (Maria Gill & Heather Arnold, Puffin Books)
    * Willie Apiata, VC: The Reluctant Hero (Paul Little & John Lockyer, Puffin Books)

Junior nonfiction

    * Cry of the Taniwha (Des Hunt, HarperCollins Publishers)
    * Friends: Snake and Lizard (Joy Cowley & Gavin Bishop, Gecko Press)
    * The Loblolly Boy (James Norcliffe, Longacre Press)
    * My Story: The Mine’s Afire! (Susan Battye & Thelma Eakin
      Scholastic NZ)
    * Sting (Raymond Huber, Walker Books)

YA fiction

    * Banquo’s Son (T K Roxborogh, Penguin NZ)
    * The Beginner’s Guide to Living (Lia Hills, Text Publishing)
    * Blood of the Lamb: The Crossing (Mandy Hager, Random House NZ)
    * Brainjack (Brian Falkner, Walker Books)
    * End of the Alphabet (Fleur Beale, Random House NZ).

The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in Auckland on 19 May.

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/03/15123/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.

The Australian Horror Writers Association (AHWA) has announced the 13 finalists for the 2010 Australian Shadows Award.

The award, ‘the highest honour for horror, dark fantasy, and paranormal fiction in Australia and New Zealand’, has this year expanded from a single category to include long fiction, edited publication (anthologies and magazines) and short fiction.

The finalists are:

Long fiction:

    * A Book of Endings (Deborah Biancotti, Twelfth Planet Press)
    * Red Queen (H M Brown, Penguin)
    * ‘Wives’ (Paul Haines, X6, Coeur de Lion Publishing)
    * The Dead Path (Stephen M Irwin, Hachette Australia)
    * Slights (Kaaron Warren, Angry Robot)

Edited publication:

    * Grants Pass (ed Jennifer Brozek & Amanda Pillar, Morrigan Books)
    * Festive Fear (ed Stephen Clark, Tasmaniac Publications)
    * Aurealis #42 (ed Stuart Mayne, Chimaera Publications)

Short fiction:

    * ‘Six Suicides’ (Deborah Biancotti, A Book of Endings)
    * ‘The Emancipated Dance’ (Felicity Dowker, Midnight Echo #2)
    * ‘Busking’ (Jason Fischer, Midnight Echo #3)
    * ‘The Message’ (Andrew J. McKiernan, Midnight Echo #2)
    * ‘The Gaze Dogs of Nine Waterfalls’ (Kaaron Warren, Exotic Gothic 3).

The winners will be determined by guest judges Bill Congreve (editor of the Year’s Best Australian SF & Fantasy series), James Doig (editor of Australian Gothic), and Martin Livings (author of Carnies) and will be announced on 5 April. See www.australianhorror.com.

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/03/15119/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.