The longlist for Canada’s 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize has been announced. Notable omissions: “Ilustrado by Montreal’s Miguel Syjuco, which won the Man Asian Literary Award before it was even published; Beatrice and Virgil, Yann Martel’s first novel since his breakthrough Life of Pi; and, most notably, Room by Emma Donoghue, which was recently shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.”
2010 Giller longlist announced
Lydia Kiesling in the Tournament of Books
This week, our own Lydia Kiesling took part in The Morning News Tournament of Books, where she adjudicated a showdown between Scott McClanahan’s Hill William and Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being. Who went on to the next round: the trans-Pacific odyssey, or the tale of West Virginia? (You could also read our own Edan Lepucki’s Tournament contribution from last year, or else read our own Nick Moran’s Year in Reading piece on Scott McClanahan.)
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Ann Patchett’s Byliner Original
Ann Patchett is the latest well-known writer with a Kindle Single. The Getaway Car is put out by Byliner, the recently launched champion of long-form journalism, which has recently published updates to Jon Krakauer’s expose of Greg Mortenson.
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One More New Release
Just in time for Mother’s Day: whiz-kid chef (and friend of The Millions) Barton Seaver has just published his first book, For Cod and Country: Simple, Delicious, Sustainable Cooking. Bon appetit, Mom!
Much Better Than Downton Abbey, I Promise.
When you woke up this morning, did you say to yourself, “I wish I could listen to a bunch of lectures from the University of Texas’ British Studies curriculum?” If so, you’re in luck.
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Year in Writing
“In order to overcome their creative challenges, the authors I interviewed didn’t need to write prettier sentences: They needed to become more disciplined, more generous, braver. Literature seems to require these qualities of us, somehow, both in writing and in reading.” Joe Fassler‘s “By Heart” series at The Atlantic provides us with another year’s worth of writing wisdom, including advice from Alexander Chee, Michael Chabon, Lydia Millet, et al. We also highly recommend the conversation between Chee, Emily Barton, and Whitney Terrell about the decade each of them took to see their novels realized in the world.