October prizes

October is the month for giving out prizes. First there was Doris Lessingawarded the Nobel Prize for "that epicist of the female experience, who with skepticism, fire andvisionary power has subjected a divided civilization toscrutiny." Not bad for someone who did not finish high school (but read a lot).

Then there was the Man Booker, won by Anne Enright's The Gathering, few people's favourite book judging by sales of a little over 3000 copies (compared to over 100,000 copies to date of Ian McEwan's). And, after reading the reviews (an exhilarating bleakness?), it looks like sales are not likely to pick up even after the prize. A movie perhaps? A very non-Booker year, if ever there was one.

Meanwhile, Milan Kundera has won the Czech Republic's State Award for Literature for the first domestic publication of his novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Why is that news? Because Kundera, though born in Czechoslovakia in 1929, moved to France in 1975 and has been a French citizen since 1981. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, the 1984 novel was first published in the Czech Republic only last year, and it topped the best-seller list for weeks. Anyway, Kundera wrote a letter to Culture Minister Vaclav Jehlicka expressing thanks for the award, which includes a US$15,700 prize. Kundera did not attend the awards ceremony due to unspecified health problems. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071022/ap_en_ot/books_kundera

And in NewYork, a goat farmer, a boxing fan and an Iranian-born novelist havewon Whiting Writers' Awards, prizes worth $50,000 each, for 'emerging writers of exceptional talent and promise.' The Whiting awards were established in 1985 by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation ‘dedicated to the support of the humanities and of creative writing. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071024/ap_en_ot/books_whiting_awards

Judges and critics decided the winners of all the prizes above. Here is one decided by public vote: Nora Roberts won book of the year at the third annual Quill Awards. "Romance rocks," Roberts was reported to have told the crowd after accepting her award, which was voted online by the public, for her romance/thriller novel Angels Fall. Whatever. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071023/en_nm/arts_books_quill_dc