Australian Prime Minister’s Fiction Award Controversy, Accusations Against Turkish Novelists, and More

by
Staff
12.12.14

Every day Poets & Writers Magazine scans the headlines—from publishing reports to academic announcements to literary dispatches—for all the news that creative writers need to know. Here are today’s stories:

The results of Australia’s top literary prize, the Prime Minister’s Literary Award in Fiction, have sparked controversy mainly amongst the award’s judges. While judges originally chose Steven Carroll as the winner of the eighty-thousand-dollar prize for his novel A World of Other People, Prime Minister Tony Abbott overrode their decision and announced at Monday’s award ceremony that the prize would be split between Carroll’s novel and Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North, which won this year’s Man Booker prize. Flanagan then announced that he would donate his winnings to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. One of the judges, poet Les Murray, told the Australian that a “clear majority of us thought the Flanagan book was superficial, showy and pretentious and we disdained it." (NPR)

The Turkish government has accused major novelists Orhan Pamuk and Elif Shafak of being controlled by an “international literature lobby” that uses authors to attack the government. Jo Glanville, director of English PEN—an organization that aims to protect writers whose lives have been threatened by their governments—says that the current conspiracy against the novelists is a “desperate attempt to undermine their credibility and influence, by saying they are just mouthpieces, not independent intellectuals.” (Guardian)

From the Oxford Marginalia group to PEN/American Center’s “First Editions/Second Thoughts” auction, marginalia is having a moment. At Salon, Laura Miller examines all there is to gain from reading and writing notes in books. “Marginalia is a blow struck against the idea that reading is a one-way process, that readers simply open their minds and the great, unmediated thoughts of the author pour in.”

Meanwhile, poet Elisa Gabbert leads a discussion between several writers about their reading habits in volume three of the Believer’s How Writers Read series.

Dylan’s tour isn’t over yet… Dylan Thomas, that is. While this past year saw much celebration around the world for poet Dylan Thomas’s centennial, Wales will continue to celebrate his legacy with the newly marked Dylan Day, which will commemorate the poet with educational activities and celebrations. Dylan Day will take place every year on May 14, the date in 1953 when Thomas read from his play Under Milk Wood in New York City. (Bookseller)

The holidays are almost here, and you probably need a gift for the writer in your life, so head over to Electric Literature and browse a selection of literary gift ideas. What could be better than giving or receiving an illustrated print of Frank O’Hara’s poem “Having a Coke with You?”

There will come a day when you will be encouraged to read poetry during a work meeting, and that day will be January 13, 2015. The third annual Poetry at Work Day is a “day to notice the poetry that is present in our workspaces.” (Tweetspeak Poetry)

“The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.” Happy one-hundred-ninety-third birthday to Gustave Flaubert.