Compulsive Reader

Compulsive Reader News
maggieball@compulsivereader.com
http://www.compulsivereader.com
Volume 25, Issue 10, 1 Oct 2023

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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. Here is the latest batch of reviews and interviews:

A review of Serengotti by Eugen Bacon

Ch’anzu’s narrative arc drives the novel forward, as does a mystery that begins to unfold in the the strange confines of the dreamlike village. Through this story, Ch’anzu begins to explore hir own background, trauma and ghosts, that become part of the app being created, self-reflexively looping back to the creative unfolding that the reader is experiencing. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/09/30/a-review-of-serengotti-by-eugen-bacon/

You Can’t Quit Yourself: A review of I Quit Everything by Freda Love Smith

Near the middle of the book, Smith concludes her elimination experiment. Changing her habits has helped her regain her equilibrium, but the shift is not as drastic as she envisioned. Life looks the same as it did pre-pandemic but clearly something in her inner experience has changed. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/09/21/a-review-of-i-quit-everything/

A review of Talking Me Off the Roof by Laurie Kuntz

All in all, these poems are sensitive, moving, perceptive, and carefully crafted gems. Discouragement might lurk in the words, yet the balance is tilting toward hope. As expressed in the poem “A Close and Constant Rage,” the poet notes “my continuous rage colliding / with the natural world, … / surround me with a can-do moment of hope.” Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/09/19/a-review-of-talking-me-off-the-roof-by-laurie-kuntz/

An interview with Joanne Greenberg

She laughs when she talks about those who think she’s locked up somewhere “blowing square bubbles.” She went on to have a “normal” life, got married, raised a family, wrote twenty novels, worked as an anthropology professor at the Colorado School of Mines, volunteered as the first female EMT in her mountain community, tutored students in Hebrew, made jam and sewed clothes…and made trouble when necessary. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/09/17/an-interview-with-joanne-greenberg/

A review of The Elk in the Glade by Bruce E. Whitacre

Whitacre makes it clear from the start that this is family folklore handed down over generations at Thanksgiving dinners and Christmas celebrations and other family gatherings. Indeed, the second poem, “Jennie at Thanksgiving,” introduces us to the central figure, now a toothless old lady who is hard of hearing, her food “ground to mush” so that she’s able to eat. “She gums away fitfully.” Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/09/16/a-review-of-the-elk-in-the-glade-by-bruce-e-whitacre/

A review of Poor Richard’s Women: Deborah Read Franklin and the Other Women Behind the Founding Father by Nancy Rubin Stuart

This book will be of interest perhaps most to Franklin fans who will appreciate the spotlight shifting from him to the multiple women who play secondary characters in his biographies. It must be noted that Stuart does more than simply tell the stories of these players that usually otherwise merely populate the background of the US colonial and revolutionary drama; she offers several insightful and challenging reappraisals. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/09/15/a-review-of-poor-richards-women-deborah-read-franklin-and-the-other-women-behind-the-founding-father-by-nancy-rubin-stuart/

A review of She Doesn’t Seem Autistic by Esther Ottaway

Ottaway explores the way that women are often taught to mask emotions which can make diagnosis difficult. The book is also deeply personal, putting the reader directly into the experience and incorporating a welter of complex emotions, sensations, and perspectives that are powerful. Poetry is the right medium, embracing the complexity through rhythm, structure, imagery, and an engagement in the senses that creates immediacy. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/09/12/a-review-of-she-doesnt-seem-autistic-by-esther-ottaway/

An interview with Robert McKean

Robert McKean spoke via email with Caitlin Hamilton Summie about his latest novel, Mending What is Broken, published by University of W. Alabama/Livingston Press on August 20th. While also a writer, Summie is also McKean’s publicist. Their conversation focused on his new book but also included a few questions about craft, as McKean always writes about the same fictional place, across all his books. Each book, however, works as a stand-alone. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/09/11/an-interview-with-robert-mckean/

A review of Anamnesis by Denise O’Hagan

O’Hagan manages a delicate balance between immediacy and nostalgia with a light hand that feels natural, inviting the reader into the moment to share in the meaning making. There are layers of desire pervading the work, time and space condensing, folding into itself in sudden revelations that come into a quiet scene with the force of empathy. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/09/08/a-review-of-anamnesis-by-denise-ohagan-2/

A review of Diaspora3 by Andrew Geoffrey Kwabena Moss

Moss’ words are eloquent and have a deep ring of truth. I love how he utilises sophisticated words mixed with slang. Several of the poems engage with the suffering of First Nations people including the welfare abuse of children who were taken away from their families. Moss pulls no punches, and his words are hard-hitting and powerful. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/09/07/a-review-of-diaspora3-by-andrew-geoffrey-kwabena-moss/

A review of A Random Caller – Cancer Poetry by Heather Cameron

Cameron is very creative and is able to reveal a lot in the different ways she writes and sets the poems. For example in one poem she utilises pieces of dialogues which are obviously spoken at the time of the diagnosis. In this section there is also a very poignant poem titled “A Letter to my Body”. We sometimes see our body as a different entity and we question ‘it’, or get angry with ‘it’ thinking or saying “how can you do this to me?”. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/09/05/a-review-of-a-random-caller-cancer-poetry-by-heather-cameron/

A review of The Fearless Benjamin Lay by Marcus Rediker

Rediker is a professor, activist, and historian of the Atlantic slave trade. Writing in a contemporary and progressive way, he reveals this man’s courageous cry against the unfairness, brutal cruelty, and inexcusable ambivalence toward slave labor in all its forms. Lay is presented as an exemplar, and the author tells us how he was determined to devote “a study all its own” to Lay after discovering him in previous research. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/09/04/a-review-of-the-fearless-benjamin-lay-by-marcus-rediker/

A review of I walk Between the Raindrops by T.C. Boyle

Still hammering away at the keyboard at age 74, T.C. Boyle still maintains his place as America’s grand poobah of literary fiction, particularly displaying his mastery in the short story genre; and this most recent collection of 13 tightly crafted slices of life intermixed with occasional forays into his beloved magical realism prove that he is still at the top of his game. Read more: https://compulsivereader.com/2023/09/02/a-review-of-i-walk-between-the-raindrops-by-t-c-boyle/

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 3,207) 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, finalists for the $50,000, 10th annual 2023 Kirkus Prize have been selected. Three winners will be announced at the Kirkus Prize ceremony on October 11. The finalists for fiction include: Witness by Jamel Brinkley (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link (Random House), The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (Riverhead), The Bee Sting by Paul Murray (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), and Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward (Scribner). For the full list of all finalists visit: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/prize/

Rebekah Fieschi won the Kelpies Prize for Writing 2023, which aims to recognize and support new Scottish writing for children. In addition to the £500 cash award, the Edinburgh-based writer and filmmaker will receive nine months of mentoring with the Floris Books editorial team.

The shortlist has been announced for the $25,000 2023 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award, which honors a work of fiction that “speaks with an ‘American Voice’ about American experiences, much like Twain’s masterwork, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” The winner of the award, which is given by the Mark Twain House and Museum and sponsored by David Baldacci and Bank of America, will be announced in October. The shortlist includes Bliss Montage by Ling Ma, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, Mercy Street by Jennifer Haigh, Mother Country by Jacinda Townsend, Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Tally, The Hero of This Book by Elizabeth McCracken, The Kingdom of Sand by Andrew Holleran, The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, and Trust by Hernan Diaz.

The longlist has been announced for the C$100,000 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize, honouring “the best Canadian novel, graphic novel or short story collection published in English.” The winner will be announced on October 11. See the dozen titles on the longlist here: https://scotiabankgillerprize.ca/the-scotiabank-giller-prize-presents-its-2023-longlist/

The longlist has been chosen for the 2023 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. The shortlist will be announced October 8 and winner November 16. See the longlist here: https://www.thebailliegiffordprize.co.uk/books-and-authors#filter

The shortlist has been announced for the 2023 Wolfson History Prize, honoring the best historical writing, including “both readability for a general audience and excellence in writing and research.” The winner receives £50,000 and shortlisted authors receive £5,000 each. The winner will be announced November 13. The shortlist: African and Caribbean People in Britain: A History by Hakim Adi, The World the Plague Made: The Black Death and the Rise of Europe by James Belich, The Perils of Interpreting: The Extraordinary Lives of Two Translators between Qing China and the British Empire by Henrietta Harrison, Vagabonds: Life on the Streets of Nineteenth-Century London by Oskar Jensen, Resistance: The Underground War in Europe, 1939-45 by Halik Kochanski, Portable Magic: A History of Books and their Readers by Emma Smith.

The 2023 NSW Premier’s History Awards were announced at a ceremony at the State Library of NSW on Thursday 7 September as part of NSW History Week. Sharing $85,000 in prize money the 2023 winners are: Australian History Prize ($15,000) Elizabeth and John: The Macarthurs of Elizabeth Farm by Alan Atkinson (NewSouth). General History Prize ($15,000) Under Empire: Muslim Lives and Loyalties Across the Indian Ocean World, 1775–1945 by Michael Francis Laffan (Columbia University Press). NSW Community and Regional History Prize ($15,000) He Belonged to Wagga: The Great War, the AIF and returned soldiers in an Australian country town by Ian Hodges (Australian Scholarly Publishing). Young People’s History Prize ($15,000) The Goodbye Year by Emily Gale (Text Publishing). Digital History Prize ($15,000) The Australian Wars, Episode 1 by Rachel Perkins, Darren Dale, Jacob Hickey and Don Watson (Blackfella Films) and The Anzac Memorial Trustees Military History Prize ($10,000) Soldiers and Aliens: Men in the Australian Army’s employment companies during World War II by June Factor (Melbourne University Publishing).

Winners of the 2022 Ned Kelly Awards, sponsored by the Australian Crime Writers Association and celebrating the best in Australian crime writing, have been named. This year’s winners are: Crime fiction: Exiles by Jane Harper, Debut crime fiction: Wake by Shelley Burr, True crime: Betrayed by Sandi Logan, and International crime fiction: The Lemon Man by Keith Bruton. ACWA chair Karina Kilmore said: “It’s a tough gig writing a book and it’s never been more important than now to ensure that we continue to support and celebrate Australian authors as the specter of artificial intelligence threatens the future of human creativity.”

Sisters in Crime announced the winners of the 2023 Davitt Awards, recognizing the best crime and mystery books by Australian women, are: Adult novel: All That’s Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien, YA novel: Seven Days by Fleur Ferris, Children’s novel: The Sugarcane Kids and the Red-bottomed Boat by Charlie Archbold, Nonfiction book: Out of the Ashes by Megan Norris, Debut book: Dirt Town by Hayley Scrivenor, and Readers’ Choice: The Unbelieved by Vikki Petraitis.

Kimiko Hahn is this year’s recipient of the $100,000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, which is sponsored by the Poetry Foundation and presented to a living U.S. poet for their outstanding lifetime achievement. Hahn, along with the winners of the $7,500 Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism and the inaugural $10,000 Pegasus Award for Service in Poetry, will be honoured in October at the Pegasus Awards ceremony in Chicago.

The Pegasus Award for Service in Poetry, given in recognition of commitment and extraordinary work in poetry and the literary arts through administration, advocacy, education, publishing, or service, goes to Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady, founders of Cave Canem, established in 1996 to remedy the underrepresentation and isolation of African American poets in the literary landscape. Douglas Kearney will receive the Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism, recognizing an outstanding book-length work of criticism published in the U.S. in the prior calendar year, for Optic Subwoof. The other finalists were Auden and the Muse of History by Susannah Young-ah Gottlieb, My Trade is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing by Carl Phillips, and Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne by Katherine Rundell.

Finalists in the categories of fiction and nonfiction have been selected for the 2023 Dayton Literary Peace Prizes, sponsored by the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation and honouring authors whose work advances peace. Winners, who each receive $10,000, will be announced October 10. The finalists are, for Fiction: Anthem by Noah Hawley, The Immortal King Rao by Vauhini Vara, Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta by James Hannaham, The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton, Horse by Geraldine Brooks, and Mecca by Susan Straight, Fir Nonfiction: American Midnight by Adam Hochschild, Asian American Histories of the United States by Catherine Ceniza Choy, His Name is George Floyd by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa, Ma and Me by Putsata Reang, The Treeline by Ben Rawlence, and Zarifa by Zarifa Ghafari with Hannah Lucinda Smith. In addition, the Foundation is giving Sandra Cisneros the Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award in honour of her “groundbreaking contributions to peace.”

At the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival, Squeaky Clean by Callum McSorley won the McIlvanney Prize Scottish Crime Book of the Year, and The Maiden by Kate Foster won the Bloody Scotland Scottish Crime Debut of the Year. Organizers said Sqeaky Clean “features DI Ally McCoist the least popular detective in the Glasgow police who has been demoted. It’s a contemporary thriller packed with black humour and hints of Breaking Bad. Like Tim in the book, Callum McSorley worked at a carwash to make money while he was a student which has informed some of the colourful characters.”

Alexis Wright has won the inaugural Creative Australia Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature. The award is one of eight ‘which recognise the contribution of outstanding artists to their art forms and to the cultural life of the nation.’ ‘Alexis [Wright] is an author of ground-breaking works across a number of literary genres,’ Creative Australia writes. ‘She is a highly decorated and awarded author who writes extraordinarily important work that sits in your consciousness. Her novels interpret the past, present, and future tense and challenge the readers’ comprehension. She has changed how we think about the meaning of storytelling and time.’

The Writers’ Trust of Canada unveiled finalists for this year’s C$75,000 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction, which honours 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. The winner will be named November 21. This year’s shortlisted titles are: My Road from Damascus: A Memoir by Jamal Saeed, translated by Catherine Cobham, Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe, Unbroken: My Fight for Survival, Hope, and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls by Angela Sterritt, Ordinary Wonder Tales: Essays by Emily Urquhart, and Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast by John Vailla.

The Academy of American Poets announced the 2023 winners of its annual poetry prizes. This year’s recipients are: Afaa Michael Weaver, who won the $100,000 Wallace Stevens Award, which recognises “outstanding and proven mastery in the art of poetry.” Bluest Nude by Ama Codjoe (Milkweed Press) won the $25,000 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, awarded to “the most outstanding book of poetry published in the United States in the previous year.” Watchnight by Cyrée Jarelle Johnson (Nightboat Books, 2024) won the $5,000 James Laughlin Award, given to “recognize and support a second book of poetry forthcoming in the next calendar year.” Ojo en Celo/Eye in Heat by Margarita Pintado Burgos, translated by Alejandra Quintana Arocho, won the Ambroggio Prize for a book-length poetry manuscript originally written in Spanish and with an English translation. The winners receive $1,000 and publication by the University of Arizona Press. Stephanie McCarter’s translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Penguin Classics) won the $1,000 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award, which recognizes a “published translation of poetry from any language into English that demonstrates literary excellence.” Moira Egan’s translation of Letters of Black Fire by Italian poet Giorgiomaria Cornelio won the $25,000 Raiziss/de Palchi Book Prize for “the outstanding translation into English of a significant work of modern Italian poetry.” Major Jackson received the Academy of American Poets Fellowship, which recognises “distinguished poetic achievement,” and includes a $25,000 stipend as well as a residency at the Eliot House in Gloucester, Mass, and Edgar Morales won the $1,000 Aliki Perroti & Seth Frank Most Promising Young Poet Award.

Finally, The shortlist has been released for the $75,000 Cundill History Prize, administered by McGill University and recognising the book that most “embodies historical scholarship, originality, literary quality and broad appeal.” The finalists will be named in mid-October, and the winner announced November 8 during the Cundill History Prize Festival. Two runners-up receive $10,000 each. The shortlisted titles are: The Huxleys: An Intimate History of Evolution by Alison Bashford (University of Chicago Press), Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China’s Cultural Revolution by Tania Branigan (W.W. Norton), The Declassification Engine: What History Reveals About America’s Top Secrets by Matthew Connelly (Pantheon), The Perfection of Nature: Animals, Breeding, and Race in the Renaissance by Mackenzie Cooley (University of Chicago Press), Queens of a Fallen World:, The Lost Women of Augustine’s Confessions by Kate Cooper (Basic Books), Dust on the Throne: The Search for Buddhism in India by Douglas Ober (Navayana), Charged: A History of Batteries and Lessons for a Clean Energy Future by James Morton Turner (University of Washington Press), The Madman in the White House: Sigmund Freud, Ambassador Bullit, and the Lost Psychobiography of Woodrow Wilson by Patrick Weil (Harvard University Press).

Have a great month!

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COMPETITION NEWS

Congratulations to Anna Xu who won a copy of The Wings of Poppy Pendleton by Melanie Dobson.

Congratulations also to Sharon Berger who won a copy of These Things Happen by Michael Eon.

Our new giveaways this month are for copies of:

The Broken Hummingbird by Anne Marie Jackson

Send In The Tort Lawyer$-A Legal Farce by TC Morisson

5 digital audiobooks of 5 digital audiobooks of “Are You a N****r or a Doctor?: A Memoir by Otto E. Stallworth Jr.

To win any or all of these books, just send me an email at maggieball@compulsivereader.com with the subject line “giveaway” and in the body of the email let me know the books you would like to win and your postal address.

Good luck!

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