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Compulsive Reader News
maggieball@compulsivereader.com
http://compulsivereader.com
Volume 23, Issue 10, 1 October 2021
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IN THIS ISSUE
New Reviews at Compulsive Reader
Literary News
Competition News
Coming soon
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Hello readers. Here is the latest (bumper!) batch of reviews and interviews:
An interview with Paulette Stout
The author of Love, Only Better talks about her book, about the climax, about why now is the right time for this book and these conversations, her characters, the importance of sexual gratification, and lots more. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/09/29/interview-with-paulette-stout/
A review of Admit This to No One by Leslie Pietrzyk
What really unifies this collection is all the characters who are in denial and/or honestly trying to suss out who they really are, how they fit into their bureaucracies, their families, the society in general, their authentic selves. It’s a very contemporary collection, too, with references to January 6 and a character named “The Dealmaker” who is plainly Donald Trump. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/09/28/a-review-of-admit-this-to-no-one-by-leslie-pietrzyk/
A review of A Net to Catch My Body in Its Weaving by Katie Farris
Farris both hides behind a mask and doesn’t. As any poetry creates a mask that both conceals and reveals, she gives readers poetic glimpses behind her mask with tight, lyrical lines. Farris controls the lens that we will look through to get to know her poetry and her personal medical journey. She gives readers an opportunity to see but not dwell upon the upheaval thrust on her life by interactions with medical staff, her husband, and the public. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/09/26/a-review-of-a-net-to-catch-my-body-in-its-weaving-by-katie-farris/
A review of The Bohemians by Jasmin Darznki
While it can be imprecise to learn history from a novel, The Bohemians describes a time and place and its characters so vividly that it surely enhances what one might learn from the straight historical texts. This is a fine, worthy book with its defined and canny captures of Lange, Lee, Dixon and others, and an engaging, rewarding read. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/09/23/a-review-of-the-bohemians-by-jasmin-darznki/
An Appreciation of Zora Neale Hurston and Their Eyes Were Watching God
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston, an appreciator of different kinds of language and literature, a modernist who remembered tradition, describes Janie Crawford’s stifling life and surprising growth with language that is, as needed, confiding, folksy, general, poetic, philosophical, or startlingly specific. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/09/20/an-appreciation-of-zora-neale-hurston-and-their-eyes-were-watching-god/
A review of Sparring Partners by Charles Rammelkamp
Sparring Partners is only as much about boxing as Moby-Dick is about whaling. Like any true work of art, it’s about life, its fleeting glory, its many sadnesses, its long decline, and finally its inevitable disappearance. In the end it’s about accepting that we all fall and break apart, and as such, it’s a terrific read, well worth your time. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/09/18/a-review-of-sparring-partners-by-charles-rammelkamp/
A review of Open Secrets: The Ultimate Guide to Marketing Your Book
Tupelo is the perfect press to release a book like this. Founded in 2001, their twenty years of knowledge shines through, as does a pragmatism that I’m afraid could be lost if one of the big five publishers attempted to publisher a similar book. It’s apparent that Tupelo has a history of what they refer to on their website’s call for submissions as “energetic publicity and promotion.” That energy is contained in the dense sixty-some pages of Open Secrets. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/09/17/a-review-of-open-secrets-the-ultimate-guide-to-marketing-your-book/
An interview with William Jack Sibley
The author of Here We Go Loop de Loop talks about his new book, his life, writing practice, favourite authors, tips for writers’ block, his ideal Hollywood cast, and more. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/09/15/an-interview-with-william-jack-sibley/
A review of A Cartography of Home by Hayden Saunier
Saunier’s skills as a poet are showcased throughout this collection, but she works deftly and quietly, never browbeating the reader. A first read allows a simple pleasure in the words; it is upon a second and third read that nuanced layers unfold. For example, “Dirt Smart” begins with the lines, “You have to eat a peck of dirt / before you die, my grandma said. / I worried. Do I have to?” The poem continues with a description of the grandmother’s hard scrabble childhood in the tobacco fields “dug deep with labor, slaughter / and someone’s finger weighting every scale, / the way most land accumulation’s won.” Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/09/08/a-review-of-roger-federer-the-master-by-christopher-clarey/
A review of Roger Federer, The Master by Christopher Clarey
What do disappointment, age, repeated injury, physical deterioration, last hopes, and the triumphs of rivals do to a sportsman and the narrative of his life? With so much unwritten, we can only ask, Why now? Why not wait until after the Big Three retire? Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/09/08/a-review-of-roger-federer-the-master-by-christopher-clarey/
A review of More Lies by Richard James Allen
There is always a degree of artifice in the process of creating a narrative. A story must be constructed, and the many and multiple perspectives of reality fixed into something linear and sensical, which is, in its way, antithetical to the reality of life. Allen plays with this notion, weaving together multiple narrative threads into a story that sets itself up as a noir thriller with an engaging tagline: a writer held hostage by a beautiful woman, forced to type on his typewriter as a decoy to an assassination. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/09/04/a-review-of-more-lies-by-richard-james-allen/
A review of A Review Failure Lyric by Kristina Marie Darling
In Failure Lyrics, she seems to resonate with the words of Browning’s failed lover who sighed to say, “Fail I alone in words and deeds/ Why, all men strive, but who succeeds?” Adamant defiance, compulsive self-acceptance, a foray into the world of failures much as a bastion dreaded by all, loved[!] by few, very few! How can one fall in love with failure? It may irk us to see the successful folks around but can anyone be complacent with failure, let alone come to terms with it considerably? Perhaps, therein lies the secret of Darling’s powerful, highly experimental verses. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/09/03/a-review-of-a-review-failure-lyric-by-kristina-marie-darling/
A review of A God at the Door by Tishani Doshi
With irony and compassion, Tishani Doshi takes on so many of the calamities of our modern world in this truly comprehensive collection. From the treatment of immigrants and women to the pandemic, climate change and political tyranny, she aims her words at the injustices and tragedies that sometimes seem to overwhelm us. But through her humor and wisdom she offers a tentative, fragile vision of a redemption available to all of us, an attitude we can all adopt. Read more: http://compulsivereader.com/2021/09/01/a-review-of-a-god-at-the-door-by-tishani-doshi/
All of the reviews and interviews listed above are available at The Compulsive Reader on the front page. Older reviews and interviews are kept indefinitely in our extensive (and growing) categorized archives (currently at 2,834), which can be browsed or searched from the front page of the site.
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LITERARY NEWS
In the literary news this month, D. Ann Williams has won the 2021 Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award, sponsored by Sisters in Crime to honor the memory of African-American crime fiction author Eleanor Taylor Bland. With a $2,000 grant to an emerging writer of color, the award supports Sisters’ vision that it should serve as “the voice for excellence and diversity in crime writing. In the spirit of Taylor Bland’s own books, the award supports writers creating characters that have been largely marginalized or excluded from crime fiction novels.”
The winners of the 2021 NSW Premier’s History Awards were announced by the State Library as part of the official launch of NSW History Week. Winner of the Australian History Prize ($15,000) was People of the River: Lost Worlds of Early Australia by Grace Karskens (Allen & Unwin), Winner of the General History Prize ($15,000) was The Wardian Case: How a Simple Box Moved Plants and Changed the World by Luke Keogh (The University of Chicago Press and Kew Publishing), The NSW Community and Regional History Prize ($15,000) went to: Landscapes of Our Hearts: Reconciling People and Environment by Matthew Colloff (Thames & Hudson Australia), The Young People’s History Prize ($15,000) went toL Tell Me Why for Young Adults by Archie Roach (Simon & Schuster Australia), and the Digital History Prize ($15,000) to FREEMAN by Laurence Billiet (General Strike and Matchbox Pictures), Senior Judge Dr Matthew Allen said: “This year’s winners of the NSW Premier’s History Awards are each outstanding works of history that deserve a wide audience. Once again, the Awards demonstrate the imagination, courage and empathy of contemporary historians and the importance of their work for our state and our nation.”
A longlist of 16 writers has been unveiled for the 2021 Richell Prize for Emerging Writers, awarded in memory of Hachette Australia’s former CEO Matt Richell, who died in a surfing accident in 2014. The shortlist will be released October 8 and a winner named November 4. The winner receives A$10,000 (about US$7,455), along with a 12-month mentorship with one of Hachette Australia’s publishers. Hachette Australia will work with the winning writer to develop their manuscript with first option to consider the finished work and shortlisted entries for publication. Check out the longlisted authors here: https://emergingwritersfestival.org.au/2021-richell-prize-for-emerging-writers-longlist/
Susanna Clarke has won the 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction with her second novel Piranesi. At an awards ceremony in Bedford Square Gardens, London – hosted by novelist and Women’s Prize Founder Director, Kate Mosse – the 2021 Chair of Judges, Bernardine Evaristo presented Susanna with the £30,000 prize, endowed by an anonymous donor, and the ‘Bessie’, a limited edition bronze figurine by Grizel Niven. You can watch the livestream announcement here: https://twitter.com/WomensPrize/status/1435664386471903236
Robbie Arnott won the A$10,000 (Age Book of the Year award for The Rain Heron, as the Australian prize made its return after a nine-year hiatus. For 2021, there is only a fiction prize but the intention is to add a nonfiction prize for 2022. The Age editor Gay Alcorn called The Rain Heron an “extremely well-deserved book to win… exceptionally original, I’ve never read anything like it. Hugely imaginative and lyrical, but also grounded in some deeper issues about the climate and what human beings do to [it, and] trying to redeem ourselves in some ways about what we’ve done to the world we’re living in.”
The 12-title longlist for the C$100,000 (about US$79,820) 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize, honoring “the very best in Canadian fiction,” including novels, short story collections and graphic novels, has been announced. The shortlist will be unveiled October 5 and a winner named November 8. Check out the long list here: https://scotiabankgillerprize.ca/the-scotiabank-giller-prize-presents-its-2021-longlist/
The six-title shortlist has been released for the 2021 Booker Prize for Fiction. Shortlisted authors each receive £2,500 (about $3,460) and a specially bound edition of their book. The winner, who gets a further £50,000 (about $69,200), will be announced on November 3 during during a prize ceremony at the BBC Radio Theatre in London. This year’s shortlisted titles are: No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood, The Promise by Damon Galgut, Bewilderment by Richard Powers, A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam, The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed, Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead. Chair of judges Maya Jasanoff, commented: “With so many ambitious and intelligent books before us, the judges engaged in rich discussions not only about the qualities of any given title, but often about the purpose of fiction itself. We are pleased to present a shortlist that delivers as wide a range of original stories as it does voices and styles.
The finalists for the 2021 Kirkus Prize have been announced. The winners in each of the three main categories win $50,000. Winners will be announced October 28. The finalists for fiction include: The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez, translated by Megan McDowell (Hogarth/Crown), The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (Harper), My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson (Holt), Bolla by Pajtim Statovci, translated by David Hackston (Pantheon), Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday), and Harrow by Joy Williams (Knopf). For the full list of titles visit: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/finalists-for-2021-kirkus-prize-are-revealed/
Bookish Emmys in major categories went to: The Queen’s Gambit, based on the novel by Walter Tevis: Outstanding limited or anthology series; Scott Frank (director for a limited or anthology series or movie), Halston, adapted from the book Simply Halston by Steven Gaines: Ewan McGregor (lead actor in a limited or anthology series or movie), and Hamilton, inspired by Ron Chernow’s biography Alexander Hamilton: Outstanding variety special (pre-recorded).
Patricia Smith is this year’s recipient of the $100,000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, which is presented to a living U.S. poet in “recognition of their outstanding lifetime achievement.” In addition, Susan Briante won the $7,500 Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism; and Bryan Byrdlong, Steven Espada Dawson, Noor Hindi, Natasha Rao and Simon Shieh were named 2021 Ruth Lilly & Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellows. The awards are sponsored and administered by the Poetry Foundation, which publishes Poetry magazine, and will be presented at a virtual awards ceremony October 21.
The Writers’ Trust of Canada has announced finalists for this year’s C$60,000 (about US$47,450) Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction, which honors works published in Canada that demonstrate “a distinctive voice, as well as a persuasive and compelling command of tone, narrative, style and technique.” Each finalist receives C$5,000 (about US$3,955). The winner will be named November 3 at the digital Writers’ Trust Awards. This year’s shortlisted titles are: NISHGA by Jordan Abel, On Foot to Canterbury: A Son’s Pilgrimage by Ken Haigh, Permanent Astonishment: A Memoir by Tomson Highway, Peyakow: Reclaiming Cree Dignity, A Memoir by Darrel J. McLeod, and Disorientation: Being Black in the World by Ian Williams.
The shortlist for the €25,000 (about $29,300) German Book Prize, Börsenblatt reported, is: Der zweite Jakob by Norbert Gstrein (Hanser), Vati by Monika Helfer (Hanser), Eurotrash by Christian Kracht (Kiepenheuer & Witsch), Zandschower Klinken by Thomas Kunst (Suhrkamp), Identitti by Mithu Sanyal (Hanser), and Blaue Frau by Antje Rávik Strubel (S. Fischer). The winner will be announced at a ceremony on October 18 on the eve of the Frankfurt Book Fair.
The four shortlisted essay for the $15,000 Writer’s Prize 2021 have been published in Meanjin – to read the essays visit https://meanjin.com.au/blog/melbourne-prize-for-literature-read-the-writers-prize-essays/. The finalist essays are by: Vivian Blaxell, Eloise Victoria Grills, David Sornig, and Ouyang Yu. The Writer’s Prize 2021 is supported by its sole patron, The Robert Salzer Foundation.
The eight shortlisted books for the 2021 Cundill History Prize has been announced. The history prize, administered by McGill University, comes with a $75,000 prize for the winner and $10,000 prizes each to the two runners-up. The 2021 finalists will be announced on October 20 and the winner will be announced as part of the Cundill History Prize Festival on December 2. The shortlist is as follows: The Loss of Hindustan: The Invention of India by Manan Ahmed Asif (Harvard University Press), Survivors: Children’s Lives After the Holocaust by Rebecca Clifford (Yale University Press), The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World by Marie Favereau (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press), Underground Asia: Global Revolutionaries and the Assault on Empire by Tim Harper (Allen Lane), Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All by Martha Jones (Basic Books), Blood on the River: A Chronicle of Mutiny and Freedom on the Wild Coast by Marjoleine Kars (The New Press), An Infinite History: The Story of a Family in France over Three Centuries by Emma Rothschild (Princeton University Press), and White Freedom: The Racial History of an Idea by Tyler Stovall (Princeton University Press).
Finally, phew, The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay has won the 2021 (about $2,760) Arthur C. Clarke Award for best science fiction book of the year. The book is McKay’s debut novel and previously won the Victorian Prize for Literature in Australia.
Have a great month!
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COMPETITION NEWS
Congratulations to Zoltan R. Almasi who won a copy of Here We Go Loop de Loop by William Jack Sibley.
Congratulations to Erica Hughes who won a copy of Meeting Each Other Alive: New Translations from the Letters between Manuela Sáenz and Simón Bolívar, and from their Letters about each other translated by Katharine Margot Toohey.
Congratulations to Sabine Blanche who won a copy of Love, Only Better by Paulette Stout.
Our new site giveaway is for a copy of Deadheading and Other Stories by by Beth Gilstrap. To win send me an email at maggieball@compulsivereader.com with the subject line: “Deadheading” and your postal address in the body of the email.
We also have a copy of What If We Were Somewhere Else by Wendy J Fox to give away. To win send me an email at maggieball@compulsivereader.com with the subject line “Somewhere Else” and your postal address in the body of the email.
We also have a copy of The Encanto (La Fog) by Arthur Swan to give away. To win send me an email at maggieball@compulsivereader.com with the subject line “The Encanto” and your postal address in the body of the email.
Good luck, everyone!
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COMING SOON
We will shortly be featuring reviews of Trigger Warning by Maria Takolander, Free Rose Light by Mary J O’Connor, Beyond That Hill I Gather by Jeffrey Kingman, We’re Doomed! A Humorous Exploration of Humanity’s War Against Life by Scott Erickson and lots more reviews and interviews.
Drop by The Compulsive Reader talks (see the widget on right-hand side of the site) to listen to our latest episode which features an anniversary replay of James Bradley’s Climactic Artbreaker conversation on the climate with Beth Spencer (it’s even more relevant than it was when it first aired!). You can listen to the latest episode directly from the site widget or go to show directly here: https://anchor.fm/compulsivereader/episodes/James-Bradley–Author-of-Clade—on-climate-fiction-e184mju
You can also subscribe to the show via iTunes and get updates automatically, straight to your favourite listening device. Find us under podcasts by searching for Compulsive Reader Talks. Then just click subscribe. Thank you!
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(c) 2021 Magdalena Ball. Nothing in this newsletter may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher, however, reprint rights are readily available. Please feel free to forward this newsletter in its entirety.
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