May the Best Book Win
With so many literary awards nowadays, following all of them can be overkill. I tend to trust the major four: the Booker Prize, Nobel Prize in Literature, National Book Award, and Pulitzer Prize. These are the most prestigious awards, and overall, I tend to enjoy the winner’s books/bodies of work the most. As award season is upon us, I’ll keep you all up to date on the happenings with each of these awards, so you can be sure to add them to your TBR.
The Booker Prize
Since my last blog post on the Booker Prize longlist, the shortlist has been announced.
Held by Anne Michaels
Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
Orbital by Samantha Harvey
James by Percival Everett
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood
I was a little surprised that Wandering Stars and My Friends didn’t make the list with all of the hype surrounding them. However, they made a good choice with James and The Safekeep, both books that I enjoyed not only for their unique stories but also for their rich writing. So far, I’ve read Held and Creation Lake and was not impressed at all. But hey, I’m not the judge! The winner will be announced on November 12, so stay tuned for that.
Nobel Prize in Literature
What is fun about this award is that it isn’t given to a single book; instead, it’s given to an author for their body of work. It can allow the reader to discover the author as a whole vs. one book. This award originated in 1901, making it the most prestigious award, in my opinion. The winner receives $1 million AND gets to say they have a Nobel Prize. Pretty impressive!
Unfortunately, there isn’t a list of authors that are narrowed down, so we’ll just have to wait until October 10th to know the winner. But it’s fun to speculate who might be up for this award. Since no countries are excluded from eligibility, that opens up so many authors. A few names that are buzzing around are Can Xue, Gerald Murnane, Mircea Cărtărescu, and Lyudmila Ulitskaya.
Can Xue
She is a Chinese author of hundreds of novels, novellas, and short stories. Her work is described as experimental and performative, and her most popular book is The Last Lover and I Live in the Slums.
She had a very troubled life growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution, where her parents, both employees at a newspaper, were sent away to the countryside, where they were forced to do manual labor, leaving her and her seven siblings on their own, eventually eating an old fur coat after they ran out of food. At the age of 30, with only an elementary education, she taught herself English and started her writing career.
There was a rumor that she was up for the prize last year, but Jon Fosse beat her out. Maybe this will be her year. If so, she will only be the second Chinese author to win (Mo Yan being the first). My bet is on her.
Gerald Murnane
He is an Australian author who writes novels, poetry, and essays. He is best known for his book The Plains and has gained recognition for his prose.
He had a relevantly calmer upbringing compared to Xue, growing up in a suburb in Melbourne and joining the seminary, only to leave after three and a half months, and eventually giving up his faith to become a stay-at-home dad/writer. He keeps claiming that he’s retiring from writing yet continues to publish books. This has happened four times. The man can’t stay away!
Mircea Cărtărescu
He is a Romanian author of novels and poetry, with this best-known novel being Solenoid (I’ve heard it’s terribly sad and depressing—adding it to my list). His work sprinkles in philosophy and magical realism and has been translated into more than 25 languages. Like Xue, he has also been rumored over the years to win the prize.
Lyudmila Ulitskaya
She is a Russian writer of novels and short stories. She’s recognized for her richly developed characters. Following in her parent’s footsteps, Ulitskaya got a degree in genetics and worked at the Institute of General Genetics until she was fired for reading and handing out uncensored literature. She then began writing, with her first novel off the bat becoming widely popular. Her writing has earned her many, many awards and has been translated into more than 25 languages. It is also widely banned in Russia.
My bet is on Can Xue.
National Book Award
What’s great about this award is that it recognizes fiction and nonfiction (and poetry, translated literature, and YA, but I won’t report on that—no disrespect to the other genres). It’s about time nonfiction got as much love as fiction, in my opinion. Only books published in the US are eligible, and only the publishers are allowed to submit the books. Over 470 books were submitted for this award, and the winner will be announced on November 20th.
Side note: When I was in fifth grade, I was in a book club at the school’s library where we’d try to read as many books from the YA’s National Book nomination list as we could. I still have a picture somewhere deep in storage of me and the four other kids (kind of a pathetic turnout, honestly) where we are wearing cut-out National Book Award mentals around our necks.
Fiction
Ghostroots by Pemi Aguda
Martyr! By Kaveh Akbar
James by Percival Everett
All Fours by Miranda July
My Friends by Hisham Matar
It’s crazy to see Martyr! on so many award lists this year. I definitely think I am the odd man out by not liking that one. Also, Penguin Random House is coming in hot, with their titles appearing in four of the five. Adding Ghostroots and All Four to my TBR.
Nonfiction
Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling by Jason De León
Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church by Eliza Griswold
Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia by Kate Manne
Knife: Meditations After and Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie
Whiskey Tender by Deborah Jackson Taffa
Penguin Random House taking three of the five nominations is also super impressive. I have heard nothing but great things about Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder. I might have to add that one to my list as well.
Pulitzer Prize
Like the National Book Award, the Pulitzer also recognizes many genres of books like fiction, U.S. history, biography, memoir/autobiography, poetry, drama, music, and nonfiction. To be eligible, the books need to have been published in the US.
Since these winners have already been announced on May 6th (super early in the year), I thought I would share the winners from the fiction and nonfiction categories and which books they were up against.
Fiction
Winner: Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips
Finalists: Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park
Wednesday’s Child by Yiyun Li
I tried to read Same Bed Different Dreams and couldn’t quite get into it. Night Watch was published last fall and garnered a lot of buzz. It’s about a mother and daughter that take refuge in an asylum post-Civil War in West Virginia. Sounds pretty interesting.
Nonfiction
Winner: A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy by Nathan Thrall
Finalists: Cobalt Red: How the Blood of Congo Powers Our Lives by Siddharth Kara
Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World by John Vaillant
A Day in the Life of Abed Salama was published last October and was named best book of the year by the New Yorker, Time, Financial Times, and The Economist. It’s been on my list since last year, along with the other two.
"Books allow us to view circumstances through the eyes of someone else. The cultivate empathy. They inspire action. They make us feel less alone, and expose us to an experience we couldn't imagine on our own. Books matter, and tonight helps remind us of that."- Cynthia Nixon
