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IMPAC Dublin Award Shortlist Coverage 06
A Sampling of Stories From Around the World
Canadian Entertainment at a Glance Resource News International
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Copyright 2006 Resource News International
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April 5, 2006 Wednesday
WHARTON MAKES IMPAC SHORT LIST
DUBLIN, Ireland - Edmonton-based author Thomas Wharton has made the short list for one of Europe's richest book prizes - the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
He was cited for The Logogryph, a collection of short stories about reading. Other books that made the short list:
-GraceLand by Nigerian writer Chris Abani.
-Maps for Lost Lovers by Nadeem Aslam, who was born in Pakistan and lives in London.
-Havoc, in Its Third Year by Ronan Bennett, who was raised in Ireland and lives in London.
-The Closed Circle by British writer Jonathan Coe.
-An Altered Light by Jens Christian Grondahl - translated from the Danish by Anne Born.
-The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra - translated from the French by John Cullen.
-Breaking the Tongue by Boston-based Malaysian author Vyvyane Loh.
-Don't Move by Margaret Mazzantini - translated from the Italian by John Cullen.
-The Master by Irish writer Colm Toibin.
The prize is worth $100,000 euros (about $150,000 Cdn), which is awarded to the author if the book is written in English. If the winning book is in English translation, the author receives 75,000 euros and the translator 25,000 euros.
The award, launched in 1996, is run by Dublin's public libraries and largely financed by a Connecticut-based management consultancy, Improved Management Productivity and Control.
The winner will be announced on June 14. (Canadian Press)
Strong chance of first Irish winner for literary award
The Irish Times
April 6, 2006 Thursday
Copyright 2006 The Irish Times
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BYLINE: Eileen Battersby, Literary Correspondent
The chances of the first home winner of the International Impac Dublin Literary Award look strong after the announcement of this year's diverse shortlist.
Included among the 10 contenders named yesterday in Dublin are two prominent Irish novels, a third book written in Italian by a Dubliner who now lives in Italy, as well as outstanding fiction from Denmark, Nigeria and Malaysia. A Pakistani based in London is the writer they all must beat.
As expected Colm Tóibín's The Master, a fictionalised version of the life of novelist Henry James, short listed for the 2004 Man Booker prize, and Ronan Bennett's powerful allegorical study of fear and mistrust, Havoc, in its Third Year which was longlisted for the same award, have both been selected. Tóibín should have won the 2004 Man Booker Prize; he will find this a tougher battle as Nadeem Aslam, Pakistani-born and London-based, will impress with Maps for Lost Lovers, a dramatic and courageous narrative about a Pakistani community in Britain, which was also longlisted for the2004 Man Booker prize.
The appearance of Dublin-born Margaret Mazzantini's confessional thriller Don't Move, written in Italian, in which a successful surgeon tells his story, is best described as a shock, as is the inclusion of Jonathan Coe's The Close Circle, a slickly satirical state-of-contemporary-England romp. No US writers feature. Neither Marilynne Robinson's magnificent Pulitzer Prize-winning Gilead, nor Chang-rae Lee's Aloft, with its echoes of Updike and Ford, made the shortlist.
Impac invariably alerts readers to outstanding foreign language work. This year's revelation is Danish writer Jens Christian Grondahl's third book, An Altered Light, translated by Anne Born. It is an intense study of one woman's life as it begins to unravel, and in its unraveling, multiple truths emerge. It should not win, but it is a major book which will now be read by a wide audience.
The same applies to Nigerian poet and novelist Chris Abani's pulsating Graceland and Malaysian Vyvyane Loh's debut Breaking the Tongue, which plots a young Chinese man's coming of age against the backdrop of the second World War. Both of these novels will gain hugely from being Impac shortlisted. They are important books, as is The Swallows of Kabul by Mohammed Moulessehoul. He is an Algerian army officer, using a female nom de plume, Yasmina Khadra, when telling the story of Afghanistan under Taliban terror. It is a vivid, shocking narrative but the theatrical prose and its cliched, forced lyricism tend to intrude.
The ghosts of Borges and the great WG Sebald hover over Canadian Thomas Wharton's ambitious curiosity of a book, The Logogryph - subtitled A Bibliography of Imaginary Books - in which the art and sheer enigma of reading are explored. It is an engaging, at times convoluted performance. But Tóibín's polished narrative must resume battle with Bennett and Aslam. Maps for Lost Lovers should win this prize.
The Guardian (London)
Copyright 2006 Guardian Newspapers Limited
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April 6, 2006 Thursday
Irish authors Colm Toibin (right) and Ronan Bennett have been short listed for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. With euros 100,000 (£70,193) prize money, the award is the world's largest literary prize for a single work of fiction. Toibin, from Enniscorthy, was nominated for The Master and Belfast-born Ronan Bennett for Havoc in its Third Year. The titles were among 10 short-listed from 132 nominated by 180 libraries from 43 countries. Others nominated include British author Jonathan Coe for The Closed Circle. The winner will be announced on June 14.
Impac prize shortlist is unveiled
BBC News
April 5, 2006
Irish-born authors Margaret Mazzantini, Colm Toibin and Ronan Bennett have been nominated for the world's richest literary prize, the Impac Award.
Their works are among 10 books shortlisted for the 100,000 euro (£70,000) prize.
Other nominees include Samuel Johnson Prize winner Jonathan Coe, Nadeem Aslam Chris Abani, and Danish writer Jens Christian Grondahl.
Yasmina Khadra, Vyvyane Loh and Thomas Wharton make up the shortlist.
Previous winners
The International Impac Dublin Literary Award (Impac), now in its 11thyear, is open to novels written in any language by authors of any nationality, provided the book has been published in or translated into English.
Toibin is this year's favourite with his Booker prize-nominated book The Master, while Coe is nominated for The Closed Circle.
Last year's prize was won by US writer Edward P Jones for The Known World.
Other previous winners include This Blinding Absence of Light by Tahar Ben Jelloun, My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk, and Atomised by Michel Houellebecq.
The announcement of the 2006 winner will be made in Dublin on 14 June.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/entertainment/4880846.stm
Canadian Thomas Wharton
shortlisted for Impac lit prize
Canadian author Thomas Wharton has been shortlisted for the Impac Dublin Literary Award, the world's richest prize for a single work of fiction.
The Edmonton-based Wharton, who writes and teaches creative writing at the University of Alberta, is nominated for Logogryph: A Bibliography of Imaginary Books.
The book, Wharton's third work of fiction, is a collection of short stories about reading. It won an Alberta Book Award in 2005.
Wharton faces stiff competition for the international literary honour, which carries a cash prize of 100,000 euros.
His challengers include British writer Jonathan Coe, nominated for The Closed Circle, and Irish writer and journalist Colm Toibin, nominated for The Master.
Rounding out the short list of 10 authors is:
Chris Abani for Graceland
Nadeem Aslam for Maps for Lost Lovers
Ronan Bennett for Havoc, In Its Third Year
Jens Christian Grondahl for An Altered Light (translated by Anne Born)
Yasmina Khadra for The Swallows of Kabul (translated by John Cullen)
Vyvyane Loh for Breaking the Tongue
Margaret Mazzantini for Don't Move (translated by John Cullen)
This year's long list of 132 Impac semi-finalists included a record 11 Canadian authors, including Miriam Toews for A Complicated Kindness and Wayson Choy for All that Matters.
Libraries from more than 100 cities around the world put forward titles for the Impac award. They are then read and voted upon by a jury.
Since the prize was established in 1996, one Canadian has won: Alistair McLeod in 2001 for his novel No Great Mischief.
This year's winner of the Impac Dublin Literary Award will be announced June 14.
Copyright ©2006 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - All Rights Reserved
Shortlist for International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award announced
Copyright 2006 Deutsche Presse-Agentur
April 5, 2006, Wednesday
The ten novels shortlisted for the 2006 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, one of Europe's richest, were announced Wednesday.
The books shortlisted are: Graceland by Chris Abani; Maps for Lost Lovers by Nadeem Aslam; Havoc, In Its Third Year by Ronan Bennett; The Closed Circle by Jonathan Coe; An Altered Light by Jens Christian Grondahl (translatedfromDanish); The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra (translated from French); Breaking the Tongue by Vyvyane Loh; Don't Move by Margaret Mazzantini (translated from Italian); The Master by Colm Toibin and The Logogryph by Thomas Wharton.
The long list announced last November contained 132 novels. The winner will be announced on June 14 in Dublin.
The award is the largest and most international prize of its kind. It involves libraries from all corners of the globe and is open to books written in any language.
This year's nominations for the 100,000 euros (132,000 dollars) prize were made by 180 library systems from 124 cities in 43 countries.
The award is a partnership between Dublin City Council, the Municipal Government of Dublin City and IMPAC, a productivity improvement company operating in more than 50 countries. Last year's winner was Edward P. Jones for "The Known World."
Alistair MacLeod
LITERARY AWARD ANNOUNCED:
Copyright 2006 Windsor Star, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publication Inc.
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Windsor Star (Ontario)
April 8, 2006 Saturday
Photo: Nick Brancaccio, Windsor Star;
Windsor novelist Alistair MacLeod shares a MacLeod tartan scarf with Carolyne Rourke, president of the Windsor Endowment for the Arts (WEA), at a press conference to announce the Alistair MacLeod Award for Literary Achievement. The biannual award, to be given at Bookfest Windsor in November, will go to a writer from Windsor and Essex County, and comes with a $1,000 cash prize. Nomination deadline for 2006 is Aug. 18.
NOTE:
Alistair McLeod won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2001 for his novel No Great Mischief