Man Booker Prize 2011 Long-list Announced

The longlist for the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction - the ‘Man Booker Dozen' - was announced today. It includes four first time novelists.

The chosen are;

Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending (Jonathan Cape - Random House)

Sebastian Barry On Canaan's Side (Faber)

Carol Birch Jamrach's Menagerie (Canongate Books)

Patrick deWitt The Sisters Brothers (Granta)

Esi Edugyan Half Blood Blues (Serpent's Tail - Profile)

Yvvette Edwards A Cupboard Full of Coats (Oneworld)

Alan Hollinghurst The Stranger's Child (Picador - Pan Macmillan)

Stephen Kelman Pigeon English (Bloomsbury)

Patrick McGuinness The Last Hundred Days (Seren Books)

A.D. Miller Snowdrops (Atlantic)

Alison Pick Far to Go (Headline Review)

Jane Rogers The Testament of Jessie Lamb (Sandstone Press)

D.J. Taylor Derby Day (Chatto & Windus - Random House)

The titles were chosen by a panel of five judges chaired by author and former Director-General of MI5, Dame Stella Rimington.

A total of one hundred thirty eight books were submitted, seven of which were called in by the judges, to be considered for the ‘Man Booker Dozen' long list. 

The four first time novelists on the list are Stephen Kelman, A.D. Miller, Yvvette Edwards and Patrick McGuinness. 

The list also includes three publishers new to the prize: Oneworld, Sandstone Press and Seren Books.

Picture Books Aren't in Trouble Just Because NYT Says So.

"The worry of the day is the The New York Times article that tells us that the picture book market is fading as parents push their kids into chapter books. Now the kidlit folks will all go crazy defending picture books and deriding parental pressure. 

But people, we are forgetting one important thing here. This is The New York Times. And in terms of children's and young adult literature, this is what they do. Some writer comes up with a topic in this field in which they know very little. They "research" that topic with a few interviews, an observation or two, and a quote from man on the street. Or in this case, parent in the bookstore.** 

They've done this with the topic of Young Adult literature being too dark. They've done this with summer reading lists being too light. They've done this with The Catcher in the Rye being useless for today's teens. And with Twilight as the defining book for our generation. Or profiling a family that blogs about children's books as being this amazingly unique concept..."

Read the rest at MotherReader

Read Banned Books

Banned Books Week 2010 is the twenty-ninth annual celebration of the freedom to read. This freedom, not only to choose what we read, but also to select from a full array of possibilities... be it books, magazines, newspapers, films, broadcasts, plays, performances, electronic publications, or exhibits, is firmly rooted in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press. 

Although we enjoy an increasing quantity and availability of information and reading material, we must remain vigilant to ensure that access to this material is preserved; would-be censors who continue to threaten the freedom to read come from all quarters and all political persuasions. 

Even if well intentioned, censors try to limit the freedom of others to choose what they read, see, or hear.

“If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the Government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.” 

- U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, in Texas v. Johnson