Compulsive Reader

Compulsive Reader News
maggieball@compulsivereader.com
http://www.compulsivereader.com
Volume 27, Issue 1, 1 January 2025

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IN THIS ISSUE

New Reviews at Compulsive Reader
Literary News
Competition News
Sponsored By
Coming soon

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Hello readers. Happy new year! I hope you’re having a good break! Here is the latest batch of reviews and interviews:

An interview with Stephen Saletan

The Author of To the Midnight Sun: A Story of Revolution, Exile and Return talks about his new memoir and the processes around writing it, how he found the time, on finding his literary voice, about the character of his grandmother, identity, revolution, and lots more. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2024/12/23/an-interview-with-stephen-saletan/

A review of Identified Flying Objects by Michael Bartholomew-Biggs

While they can be termed as confessional, there’re no calculated calls for pity or sympathy in them, (unlike quite a few contemporary poems). Rather, most poems look at the broader socio-historic picture and compute personal reflections with a sense of objectivity where possible. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2024/12/21/a-review-of-identified-flying-objects-by-michael-bartholomew-biggs/

A review of In Silver Majesty by Donna Faulkner

Skeletons, dusty books and stale bodies exist seamlessly alongside a newborn swimming in safe waters, and the bending of dandelions that don’t break. All imprinted firmly in Faulkner’s words, they peel back the cover on her own aches and elations about this experience of being human. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2024/12/19/a-review-of-in-silver-majesty-by-donna-faulkner/

A review of Love Prodigal by Traci Brimhall

As is evident in her line about her mother telling her through her tears that she loves what her daughter’s done with her hair, Brimhall has a delightfully sly sense of humor. It’s on display in poems like “Admissions Essay” (“I could have been valedictorian if the metrics / were ardor and potential for transformation”), “Ode to Oxytocin at a Distance,” “I Would Do Anything for Love but I Won’t” (“cook lobster…

A review of The Natural World Somersaults by Shaine Melrose

Melrose has a strong and distinct voice which stands out, with a language that is fresh, with a unique perspective. Her poems often carry multiple layers of meaning. On the surface the poems recount childhood memories and family stories, but deep reading reveals themes of identity, gender issues, sexual politics, and existential questions. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2024/12/15/a-review-of-the-natural-world-somersaults-by-shaine-melrose/

A review of Seeing through the Smoke by Peter Grinspoon, MD

Writing in a conversational and engaging style, Peter couples solid science with personal anecdotes, and tempers cold hard facts with his informed opinions. Bibliographic endnotes document the text, yet scholarly research rarely impedes the flow of the narrative. While credentialed as an MD, Grinspoon is no stuffy pedantic academic. As an undergrad lit major and grad student in philosophy, this Medical Doctor taps into his creative inner writer. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2024/12/14/a-review-of-seeing-through-the-smoke-by-peter-grinspoon-md/

A review of Walking the Boundary by Damen O’Brien

A majority of the poems in Walking the Boundary are award winners, and if you follow these awards, as I do, the poems will be familiar. As the title suggests, these are poems about liminal spaces and edges between worlds, timeframes, states of being, genres, genders, parent and child, and between the human and any number of places, creatures, emotions, or landscapes. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2024/12/13/a-review-of-walking-the-boundary-by-damen-obrien/

Time-Traveling Poet: A Review of American Massif by Nicholas Regiacorte

At a time when the focus on identities has become so crucial, when advocacy and education on the state of the world are so vital, Regiacorte’s work is more consequential than ever. Both viscerally human and uncannily inhuman, American Massif is an illuminating and clever collection of poetry for the ages.

A review of Tremor by Sonya Voumard

Tremor has many elements of a quest narrative. She recounts the many stages of her search to reach an acceptance of her ‘movement disorder’ by enduring social embarrassments, often feeling professionally vulnerable and overcoming her fears of being judged by others. Miraculously, Voumard’s good humour, dignity and empathy for others never waver, which results in a moving and thought-provoking memoir.

A review of When the Night Comes Falling by Howard Blum

On one level, this is a sensationalistic book—in the acknowledgments, Blum exults in having gotten a screen deal—yet it is also a primer for penological, forensic, and judicial personnel seeking to refine their practices and steer clear of the pitfalls that drew out the efforts to nab a mass murderer, adding insult to injury for the victims’ families. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2024/12/03/a-review-of-when-the-night-comes-falling-by-howard-blum/

A review of The Burrow by Melanie Cheng

Cheng’s writing is so lovely, and her insights so acute, that even the slow chapters remain engaging. Her figurative language is especially striking. When Amy drifts into sleep, “better days flash, in orange hues, behind her lids.” Pauline reflects that, when one is young, “death [is] something to be teased and taunted, unseen and remote, like a hibernating animal.” Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2024/12/02/a-review-of-the-burrow-by-melanie-cheng/

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 categorised archives (currently at 3,452) which can be browsed or searched from the front page of the site.

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LITERARY NEWS

In the news this month, winners have been selected for the 2024 Polari Book Prizes, the U.K. book prizes for emerging and established LGBTQ+ writers and run by Polari literary salon. The winners of the three Polari Prizes are Children’s & YA: The Fights That Make Us by Sarah Hagger-Holt, First Book: Bellies by Nicola Dinan, and Book Prize: The Gallopers by Jon Ransom

Myles McGuire won the 2024 Richell Prize for Emerging Writers, awarded in memory of Hachette Australia’s former CEO Matt Richell, who died in a surfing accident in 2014, for his manuscript Stroke. The award is sponsored by the publisher and the Richell family, in partnership with the Emerging Writers’ Festival and Simpsons Solicitors. The winner receives A$10,000, to be donated by Hachette Australia, along with a 12-month mentorship with one of the company’s publishers. Hachette Australia will work with the winning writer to develop their manuscript with the first option to consider the finished work and the shortlisted entries for publication.

Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century by Joya Chatterji has won the £50,000 2024 Wolfson History Prize, honoring “the best historical writing being produced in the U.K.” Judges called Shadows at Noon “a captivating history of modern South Asia, full of fascinating insights about the lives of its peoples. Written with verve and energy, this book beautifully blends the personal and the historical.”

Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon has won the 2024 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction. Chair of judges Peter Florence called the novel “a delightful mash of contemporary Irish comedy and classical Athenian tragedy. It’s a caper, a buddy story, and it had us all laughing and cheering Ferdia Lennon’s comic spirit.” Lennon receives a jeroboam of Bollinger Special Cuvée, a case of Bollinger La Grande Année, the complete set of the Everyman’s Library P.G. Wodehouse collection, and a pig named after his winning book.

The shortlist for the inaugural Australian Fiction Prize, presented by HarperCollins and the Australian, has been announced. The shortlisted manuscripts, chosen from almost 500 entries, are: ‘Blackswansong’ by Michael Burrows, ’In Her Own Words’ by Madeleine Cleary, ’Wild Heart by’ Katherine Johnson, ’Crossing the Creek’ by Judi Morison, ’The Wanting Dance’ by Joanna Morrison, ’Summer Animals’ by Madeleine Streater, and ’Say Something’ by Bronwyn Stuart. The prize offers the winner $20,000, plus a $15,000 advance and publication with HarperCollins.

Alice Pung has won the Alice Literary Award, presented by the Society of Women Writers in Australia. The award, in the form of a trophy, is presented biennially to an Australian woman who has made ‘a distinguished, long-term contribution to Australian literature’. This year, the Society of Women Writers Victoria nominated Pung for the award and the presentation was hosted by the Western Australian branch. The 2022 winner of the award was Jackie French.

Libro.fm has announced the winners of the inaugural Bookseller Choice Awards, the best audiobooks of the year, chosen by booksellers from around the world: Audiobook of the Year: James by Percival Everett, narrated by Dominic Hoffman (Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group), Best Audiobook for a Long Trip: The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop, narrated by Kelly Bishop (Simon & Schuster Audio), Read to Make You Fall in Love With Audiobooks: Funny Story by Emily Henry, narrated by Julia Whelan (Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group), Audiobook to Inspire a Better World: The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates, narrated by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group), and Best Under-the-Radar Audiobook: The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark, narrated by Lynnette R. Freeman (Recorded Books).

Eight shortlists have been unveiled for the Society of Authors’ Translation Prizes, honoring translations of prose, poetry, and nonfiction, spanning a range of genres. A prize fund of more than £30,000 will be shared among the winners at an awards ceremony February 12 in London. Check out the 41 shortlisted works across eight prizes here: https://societyofauthors.org/2024/12/02/announcing-the-translation-prizes-2024-shortlists/

Some 32 authors have been longlisted for the 2025 Joyce Carol Oates Prize, which honours “a mid-career author of fiction in the midst of a burgeoning career, a distinguished writer who has emerged and is still emerging,” and is sponsored by New Literary Project. The winner receives $50,000 and will have a week-long residency at the University of California, Berkeley. Finalists will be named in March, the winner in April. See the longlisted authors here: https://www.newliteraryproject.org/whats-new/joyce-carol-oates-prize-longlist-announced

A 16-title shortlist in four categories has been released for Nero Book Awards, which recognizes authors in the U.K. and Republic of Ireland and celebrates “the craft of great writing and the joy of reading, and point readers of all ages and interests in the direction of the most outstanding books and writers of the year.” Check out the complete shortlist here: https://nerobookawards.com/2024-shortlists-announced/ Category winners (fiction, nonfiction, debut fiction, and children’s) will be named January 14, and those selected as the overall winner–the Nero Gold Prize, Book of the Year–will be announced March 5. Each of the category winners receives £5,000, with the Book of the Year winner getting an additional £30,000.

Palestinian publisher Samir Mansour was awarded the International Publishers Association’s 2024 Prix Voltaire, which honours publishers–individuals, groups, or organisations–who have “typically published controversial works amid pressure, threats, intimidation or harassment, be it from governments, other authorities or private interests. Alternatively, they may be publishers with a distinguished record of upholding the values of freedom to publish and freedom of expression.” The awards took place at a ceremony during the IPA Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico. The IPA also announced a Prix Voltaire Special Award for murdered Ukrainian author Victoria Amelina. The Prix Voltaire has a prize of CHF 10,000.

The Philosopher Fish: Sturgeon, Caviar, and the Geography of Desire by Richard Adams Carey narrowly won the 2024 Bookseller/Diagram Prize for the Oddest Book Title of the Year with 27% of the public vote, just ahead of How to Dungeon Master Parenting (24%) and Speculum: Examining the Women’s Health Movement (22%). This was the closest Diagram race since the selection process for the 46-year-old prize went to an online public vote 25 years ago, the Bookseller reported, adding that “there will no doubt be some controversy this year,” since the book was first released in 2005, “but the new 2024 edition has enough fresh material that judges (well, your ol’ pal Horace after those Courvoisiers) deemed it suitable for inclusion.”

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon (Doubleday; Vintage paperback) has won the Nero Award, sponsored by the Wolfe Pack: the Official Nero Wolfe Literary Society, and honoring “the best American mystery written in the tradition of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe stories.” “Double Take” by T.M. Bradshaw (to be published in the July 2025 issue of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine) has won the Black Orchid Novella Award, sponsored by the Wolfe Pack and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine to celebrate the novella format popularized by Rex Stout. Black Orchid Novella honorable mentions were Peter Hoppock’s “Precipice,” Andrew Kass’s “Deadline,” Jenny Ramaley’s “Workplace Rules for a Fire-Breathing Dragon,” and Ella Rutledge’s “Murder at the Y.T.D.”

Mīkrūfūn kātim Sawt (Muted Microphone) by Mohammed Tarazi has won the 2024 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, sponsored by the American University in Cairo Press and honoring the best contemporary novel published in Arabic in the past two years. Lebanese novelist Tarazi receives a $5,000 cash prize and an English translation of the book that will be published by AUC Press’s fiction imprint, Hoopoe. The AUC Press has been the originating publisher of Naguib Mahfouz’s English-language editions for more than 30 years and has also been responsible for the licensing of some 600 foreign-language editions of the Nobel laureate’s works in more than 40 languages since he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988.

The longlist has been selected for the 2025 Gordon Burn Prize, recognising “exceptional writing which has an unconventional perspective, style or subject matter and often defies easy categorisation. It celebrates literary outliers and daring and experimental work that often speaks to broader societal issues.” The winning author receives £10,000 and the chance to undertake a writing retreat at Gordon Burn’s cottage in Berwickshire in England. The shortlist will be announced in January and a winner named March 6. The longlisted titles are: Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel, Prairie, Dresses, Art, Other by Danielle Dutton, The Strangers: Five Extraordinary Black Men and the Worlds That Made Them by Ekow Eshun
Ootlin by Jenni Fagan, Mrs. Jekyll by Emma Glass, I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning by Keiran Goddard, White Terror: A True Story of Murder, Bombings and Germany’s Far Right by Jacob Kushner, Poor Artists by Gabrielle de la Puente and Zarina Muhammad
Only Here, Only Now by Tom Newlands, The Lasting Harm: Witnessing the Trial of Ghislaine Maxwell by Lucia Osborne-Crowley, England Is Mine by Nicolas Padamsee, and The Horse by Willy Vlautin.

Alexis Wright won the 2024 Voss Literary Prize, which is judged by the Australian University Heads of English and honours the best novel from the previous year, for Praiseworthy. The book has also won the Miles Franklin Award, the Stella Prize, and the James Tait Black Prize.

George Szirtes has been awarded the 2024 King’s Gold Medal for Poetry, which was established by King George V in 1933 and is awarded annually for excellence in poetry to a recipient from the U.K. or a Commonwealth Realm. The Poetry Medal Committee recommended Szirtes “due to his deeply personal pieces of work, informed by his dual perspective, looking both east and west.”

Finally, Historical crime novelist Maureen Jennings, whose Detective Murdoch book series inspired the TV show Murdoch Mysteries, was named an officer of the Order of Canada by Governor General Mary Simon, Quill & Quire reported. Jennings was recognised for works that “explore important aspects of Canadian history, especially women’s roles during the Second World War.” Karen Levine, the author of Hana’s Suitcase, was named a member of the Order of Canada for her book as well as her four-decade-long career at CBC Radio Military historian Mark Zuehlke was also named a member of the Order of Canada, along with writers John Donald Longhurst, Joseph A. Schwarz, and Diane Sims.

Have a great month.

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COMPETITION NEWS

Congratulations to Rebecca King and Jen Paterson, who won the audiobook Hannah: The Soldier Diaries by Steve Wallis.

Congratulations also to Carol Brown, who won a copy of White World by Saad T. Farooqui.

Our new site giveaway this month is for a copy of Grit & Grace: The Transformation of a Ship & a Soul by By Deborah Rudell. To win, send me an email at maggieball@compulsivereader.com with the subject line “Grit & Grace” and your postal address in the body of the mail.

Good luck!

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