2014 Literary Awards

[Myshkin]

Every year we seem to have a small discussion about the Booker, and not much discussion at all about the other major literary awards. So this year I've decided to start a catch-all thread for literary awards (save for the Nobel, which has its own thread here). It being May we've already missed some of the big ones, so I'll recap them:

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Recognizing fiction written by an American author and published during the previous calendar year.

Winner:

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Shortlist:

The Son by Philipp Meyer

The Woman Who Lost Her Soul by Bob Shacochis

PEN/Faulkner Award: Recognizing fiction written by an American author and published during the previous calendar year.

Winner:

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

Shortlist:

At Night We Walk in Circles by Daniel Alarcon

Percival Everett by Virgil Russell by Percival Everett

Fools by Joan Sibler

Search Party: Stories of Rescue by Valerie Trueblood

National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction: Recognizing fiction published in English, including in English translation, in the US during the previous calendar year.

Winner:

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Shortlist:

Someone by Alice McDermott

The Infatuations by Javier Marias

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

PEN/Hemingway Award: Recognizing a debut work of fiction written by an American author and published during the previous calendar year.

Winner:

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

Shortlist:

The Residue Years by Mitchell S. Jackson

The Old Priest by Anthony Wallace

I'm embarrassed to admit that I haven't read any of the books listed above, but I'd love to hear discussion of them.

[Myshkin]

The next major literary award to be handed out is The IMPAC Dublin Award, which recognizes fiction published in English, including English translation, two calendar years previous. The winner will be announced on June 12th. The Shortlist is:

The Detour by Gerbrand Bakker, (Dutch)

Questions of Travel by Michelle De Kretser (Sri Lankan / Australian)

Absolution by Patrick Flanery (American)

A Death in the Family by Karl Ove Knausgaard (Norwegian)

Three Strong Women by Marie NDiaye (French)

Traveller of the Century by Andrés Neuman (Argentinian)

The Light of Amsterdam by David Park (Northern Irish)

The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan (Irish)

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng (Malaysian)

The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Colombian)

Notably absent are Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (2012 Booker winner), and The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson (2013 Pulitzer winner).

[David Selig]

How prestigious is the PEN/Faulkner Award? I admit I don't know much about the mainstream literature awards, but I was happy to see We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves win tis one since it is the my favourite 2013 novel by some margin. Exceptional use of unreliable narrator, fantastic sense of humor, quite original plot plus Fowler is a master storyteller. Also good to see someone known as a SFF writer recognised by the mainstream.

[Larry.]

I'll add a few more, starting with the one already-awarded:

Folio Prize for Fiction - Winner announced March 10:

Red Doc by Anne Carson (Random House/Jonathan Cape) - Finalist for one of the Kitschie Awards.
Schroder by Amity Gaige (Faber & Faber)
Last Friends by Jane Gardam (Little, Brown)
Benediction by Kent Haruf (Picador)

The Flame Throwers by Rachel Kushner (Random House/Harvill Secker) - National Book Award finalist
- National Book Award finalist
A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride (Galley Beggar Press)
A Naked Singularity by Sergio De La Pava (Maclehose Editions)
Tenth of December by George Saunders (Bloomsbury) - Winner. Also National Book Award finalist.

Independent Foreign Fiction Prize - winner to be announced May 22:

Hiromi Kawakami, Strange Weather in Tokyo (published in the US as The Briefcase; Asian Prize finalist in 2013)

Hassan Blasim, The Iraqi Christ

Karl Ove Knausgård, A Man in Love

Birget Vanderbeke, The Mussel Feast

Yoko Ogawa, Revenge

Hubert Mingarelli, A Meal in Winter

Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction - winner to be announced June 4:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Americanah

Hannah Kent - Burial Rites

Jhumpa Lahiri - The Lowland

Audrey Magee - The Undertaking

Eimear McBride - A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing

Donna Tartt - The Goldfinch

Best Translated Book Awards - winners for Fiction and Poetry announced April 28:

Fiction:

László Krasznahorkai, Seiobo There Below - winner

Rodrigo Rey Rosa, The African Shore

Minae Mizumura, A True Novel

Poetry:

Elisa Biagini, The Guest in the Wood - winner

Claude Royet-Journoud, Four Elemental Bodies

Sohrab Sepehri, The Oasis of Now

And for those who read Italian and/or are curious enough about books that may or may not be translated into English in a few years...

Premio Strega - winner to be announced June 11:

1. Non dirmi che hai paura (Feltrinelli) di Giuseppe Catozzella
Presentato da Giovanna Botteri e Roberto Saviano

2. Lisario o il piacere infinito delle donne (Mondadori) di Antonella Cilento
Presentato da Nadia Fusini e Giuseppe Montesano

3. Bella mia (Elliot) di Donatella Di Pietrantonio
Presentato da Antonio Debenedetti e Maria Ida Gaeta

4. unastoria (Coconino Press-Fandango) di Gipi
Presentato da Nicola Lagioia e Sandro Veronesi

5. Come fossi solo (Giunti) di Marco Magini
Presentato da Maria Rosa Cutrufelli e Piero Gelli

6. Nella casa di vetro (Gaffi) di Giuseppe Munforte
Presentato da Arnaldo Colasanti e Massimo Raffaeli

7. La vita in tempo di pace (Ponte alle Grazie) di Francesco Pecoraro
Presentato da Giuseppe Antonelli e Gabriele Pedullà

8. La terra del sacerdote (Neri Pozza) di Paolo Piccirillo
Presentato da Valeria Parrella e Romana Petri

9. Il desiderio di essere come tutti (Einaudi) di Francesco Piccolo
Presentato da Paolo Sorrentino e Domenico Starnone

10. Storia umana e inumana (Bompiani) di Giorgio Pressburger
Presentato da Gianfranco De Bosio e Sergio Givone

11. Ovunque, proteggici (nottetempo) di Elisa Ruotolo
Presentato da Marcello Fois e Dacia Maraini

12. Il padre infedele (Bompiani) di Antonio Scurati
Presentato da Umberto Eco e Walter Siti

And while there's no announced shortlist/runners' up, here is the winner of the 2014 Premio Alfaguara (Spanish), as several have been translated into English and one, the Neumann, is a current finalist for the IMPAC Dublin Prize:

Jorge Franco, El mundo de afuera

[Myshkin]

How prestigious is the PEN/Faulkner Award? I admit I don't know much about the mainstream literature awards, but I was happy to see We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves win tis one since it is the my favourite 2013 novel by some margin. Exceptional use of unreliable narrator, fantastic sense of humor, quite original plot plus Fowler is a master storyteller. Also good to see someone known as a SFF writer recognised by the mainstream.

I'd say it's probably the second most prestigious American only book award behind the Pulitzer. The National Book Award is better known, but also has a reputation for being more commercial. Speaking of the National Book Award, I was wondering where Larry was getting the shortlist from until I realized he was listing finalists for last year's prize.

[Suttree]

Thanks for starting this up.

Have read "The Goldfinch" and "The Old Priest". Both were excellent, look forward to diving into some of the others! Has anyone checked out "The Son"?

[Larry.]

I'd say it's probably the second most prestigious American only book award behind the Pulitzer. The National Book Award is better known, but also has a reputation for being more commercial. Speaking of the National Book Award, I was wondering where Larry was getting the shortlist from until I realized he was listing finalists for last year's prize.

I have a tag on my blog labeled "2014 awards," where I post longlists, shortlists, winners, etc. for various lit/genre awards. I was copy/pasting from those posts and thought I'd leave in my comments about how certain ones were 2013 National Book Award winners/finalists to show that some were nominated for multiple awards. Wished I had done that for each award, as it would have made for an easy crosslisting of nominees.

Forgot to blog about the LA Times Book Prize; might do that momentarily and then copy/paste it here.

On second thought, I'll just link to the shortlists and then note that Ruth Ozeki won for her novel A Tale for the Time Being and NoViolet Bulawayo won in First Fiction for We Need New Names. Both of these received Booker Prize consideration last year.

[Larry.]

Thanks for starting this up.

Have read "The Goldfinch" and "The Old Priest". Both were excellent, look forward to diving into some of the others! Has anyone checked out "The Son"?

I reviewed it favorably last year. It made #4 on my Top 25 2013 releases. Looking at that list, considering some were read after they were nominated for the National Book Awards or the Booker Prize, 18 out of 25 have made some fairly well-known lit prize longlist, shortlist, or even won an award or three. Pleasantly surprised by that.

[Myshkin]

On second thought, I'll just link to the shortlists and then note that Ruth Ozeki won for her novel A Tale for the Time Being and NoViolet Bulawayo won in First Fiction for We Need New Names. Both of these received Booker Prize consideration last year.

Both those books have been making the rounds. It's funny that 2014 is supposed to be the year that the Booker opens to Americans, but 3 of the 6 2013 Booker shortlisted authors are considered American by the American awards.

[Larry.]

Both those books have been making the rounds. It's funny that 2014 is supposed to be the year that the Booker opens to Americans, but 3 of the 6 2013 Booker shortlisted authors are considered American by the American awards.

Indeed. What's also interesting is that until very recently, non-citizens couldn't receive any of the National Book Award's 5 under 35 nominations. That was pointed out to me a few months ago by an Israeli writer, Shani Boianjiu, on Twitter. She was either the first or second non-citizen to be honored, I believe.

[Myshkin]

The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize winner has been announced: The Iraqi Christ by Hassan Blasim, a collection of short stories set in post-war Iraq. Blasim is the first Arab writer to win the prize, and The Iraqi Christ is the first short story collection to win the prize. The other finalists were:

Hiromi Kawakami, Strange Weather in Tokyo

Karl Ove Knausgård, A Man in Love

Birget Vanderbeke, The Mussel Feast

Yoko Ogawa, Revenge

Hubert Mingarelli, A Meal in Winter

[Eponine]

There are a number of books on these lists that I'd like to read but I found The Goldfinch to be rather vapid. The prose was a good mix between carefully crafted and entertaining, and even when there wasn't actually much happening, 100 pages felt like 20. Otherwise, either there wasn't a lot of examination or there was a failure to make clear what was being examined.

That is to say, if I hadn't been actively looking for more introspection, knowing when I read it that it was a Pulitzer nominee, I would have finished with the conclusion that the author was a somewhat shallow person. Mostly due to what seems like an unexamined assumption that of course the protagonist will not suffer real person consequences, because if he's not actually in the 1% himself, he moves in those circles. I wasn't looking for a morality tale about privilege, but it was disconcerting to feel like the author might have simply been oblivious.

[Schlimazl]

Formentor Prize this year went to Enrique Vila-Matas

Austrian State Prize for European Literature this year went to Ludmila Ulitskaya

Both prizes are awarded for the body of work rather than specific book.

[Diziet]

Should've included the Edgars.

[Myshkin]

Should've included the Edgars.

Feel free to add and discuss any award you want.

[Myshkin]

Chinese authour Yan Lianke wins the 2014 Franz Kafka Prize. The Kafka Prize recognizes an author whose works showcase "humanistic character and contribution to cultural, national, language and religious tolerance, its existential, timeless character, its generally human validity and its ability to hand over a testimony about our times." Previous winners include Philip Roth, Elfriede Jelinek, Harold Pinter, Haruki Murakami, and Amos Oz. Jelinek and Pinter both won the Kafka Prize in the same year that they were awarded the Nobel.

Eimear McBride's novel A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing wins the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, beating out some very stiff competition. The other shortlisted novels were:

Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Burial Rites - Hannah Kent

The Lowland - Jhumpa Lahiri

The Undertaking - Audrey Magee

The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt

[Schlimazl]

Georg Buchner Prize, arguably the most important award for German language works was won by poet Jurgen Becker.

The Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature, awarded to those “whose literary work represents an outstanding contribution to universal literature”, this year went to John Banville (who already has a respectable collection of some of the previously mentioned awards under his belt, Booker in 2005, Kafka Prize in 2011, Austrian State Prize last year).

The shortlist is not published, but the official website mentioned that there were "24 candidatures from Argentina, Cuba, Chile, China, Egypt, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mozambique, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay and Spain". Banville is of course Ireland, I would guess that Couto is the one from Mozambique and Galeano from Uruguay, perhaps Dacia Maraini for Italy and Mahfouz for Egypt.

Previous winners include Nobel Prize winners Llosa, Grass and Lessing, along with other notable names such as Carlos Fuentes, Claudio Magris, Arthur Miller, Amos Oz, Amin Maalouf, Margaret Atwood, Ismail Kadare and many others.

[Myshkin]

Brazilian poet Alberto da Costa e Silva wins the 2014 Camoes Prize, awarded to an author writing in Portuguese. Previous winners include Jorge Amado, Jose Saramago, Pepetela, Antonio Lobo Antunes, and Mia Couto.

German poet Jurgen Becker wins the 2014 Georg Buchner Prize, awarded to an author writing in German. Previous winners include Nobel Laureates Gunter Grass, Heinrich Boll, Elias Canetti, and Elfriede Jelinek.

[Myshkin]

The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Colombian) wins the 2014 IMPAC Dublin Award. Vásquez is the first South American author to win the prize, and only the second Spanish language author to win (Javier Marias for A Heart so White). The other finalists were:

The Detour by Gerbrand Bakker, (Dutch)

Questions of Travel by Michelle De Kretser (Sri Lankan / Australian)

Absolution by Patrick Flanery (American)

A Death in the Family by Karl Ove Knausgaard (Norwegian)

Three Strong Women by Marie NDiaye (French)

Traveller of the Century by Andrés Neuman (Argentinian)

The Light of Amsterdam by David Park (Northern Irish)

The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan (Irish)

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng (Malaysian)

[Deedles]

Of the IMPAC nominees I'd read The Garden of Evening Mists and The spinning heart, and loved both of them. I should really explore the list a bit more