Disappointment Over the Pulitzer’s Non-Award for Fiction

Bestselling author – and bookstore owner – Ann Patchett is displeased with the Pulitzer Prize board’s refusal to announce earlier this week a winner of its annual prize for fiction. Read Patchett’ss New York Times op ed.

And National Public Radio’s coverage of the non-award – including a conversation with one of the disappointed fiction judges –  is here.

Found via Early Word

Roth Wins Booker Prize

Philip Roth has been awarded the latest Booker Prize, and is the first U.S. writer to be given this literary award.

Roth’s prodigious output of novels over the past 50 years are available in local libraries, including his 2010 novel entitled Nemesis.

Found via Shelf Awareness

Chernow Wins American History Book Prize

Earlier this month author Ron Chernow was awarded the latest American History Book Prize for his 2010 biography Washington: A Life. Chernow had previously written well-received biographies of Alexander Hamilton, J.P Morgan, and John D. Rockefeller.

Copies of the book are available in most Atlanta public libraries.

Found via the New York Times

Writers Among This Year’s National Arts, Humanities Medalists

Twenty Americans were recognized last week by President Obama as the latest recipients of the National Medal of Arts or the National Humanities Medal.

Among the recipients were several well-known U.S. writers, including  Jacques Barzun, Wendell Berry, Donald Hall, Harper Lee, Joyce Carol Oates, and Philip Roth.

The complete list of recipients is available via the White House press release; the President’s remarks about each medalists at the awards ceremony are here; Wikipedia provides links here and here to entries about each of this year’s (and previous years’)  medalists and their books.

Books by all these writers are, of course, available in Atlanta’s libraries.

Found via The Reader’s Almanac

National Books Award Winners Announced

The National Book Foundation’s website has the names of the winners and the finalists in all three categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people’s literature.

These titles are available from all local public libraries.

National Book Award Winners Announced

Details on the winners and finalists are at the National Book Foundation’s website.

Found at Biblio

Herta Muller Awarded Nobel Prize for Literature

Romanian author Herta Muller was awarded this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature.

The Internet is abuzz with commentary on the announcement, such as the article at Time Magazine’s website.

The Atlanta-Fulton Public Library owns four of Muller’s books in English translation.

Found via Bookdwarf; video via Peter Scott’s Library Blog

Frazier Wins Thurber Prize – Again

Humorist Ian Frazier has won the Thurber Prize for the second time –  the first author to be so honored.

The Atlanta-Fulton Public Library owns a dozen books by Frazier:

• Lamentations of the Father (2008)
• Gone to New York: Aventures in the City  (2005)
• The Fish’s Eye: Essays about Angling and the Otdoors (2001)
• On the Rez (2000)
• Coyote v. Acme  (1996)
• Great Plains  (1989)
• Nobody Better, Better than Nobody  (1987)
• Dating Your Mom (1986)

Found at The Book Bench

Dating your mom  (1986)

Booker Prize Announced

The 2009 Booker Prize, which comes with an $80,000 award, was announced yesterday in London.

The winner is Hilary Mantel, for her book Wolf Hall, set in the court of Henry VIII.

The Atlanta-Fulton Public Library doesn’t yet own a copy of the winning novel, but does own nine of Mantel’s previous novels.

Booker Prize Nominees Announced

The United Kingdom’s most well-known prize for fiction is the Man Booker Prize. This year’s  prize’s initial nominees – to be narrowed down to a shorter list before the winner is announced - were announced earlier this week. The list of nominees can be found all over the Internet, including at Early Word. Similar information is available at the Man Booker Prize website.