The Nobel Prize in Literature 2015
The Nobel Prize honors an author “for outstanding contributions in the field of literature.” It is awarded annually. The past winners from the US include Sinclair Lewis, T. S. Elliot, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, and Toni Morrison to name a few; some heavy hitters in American Literature. The award is a big deal since only one author wins per year for a body of work.This year the away went to Svetlana Alexievich a Belarus author and journalist. She was born in the Ukraine and writes about life during and after the Soviet Union. She was awarded “for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.” What that means is that she writes many voices together at the same time in her novels and biographies. She mixes in reporting and interviews to create a collage of a wide range of voices. She is notable also for her criticism of political regimes in the former Soviet Union and in Belarus where she lives now. A very brave thing to do in a land torn by civil war and powerful regimes.
She has very good reviews on Amazon. Here are some of her works in English.
War’s Unwomanly Face
Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War
Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets
The Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize for fiction is awarded yearly to an American author writing about American life. Some past winners are many of the same from the Nobel Prize; Willa Cather, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, and Ernest Hemingway.This year the award goes to Anthony Doerr for All the Light We Cannot See.
The National Book Award
The mission of the NBA is to celebrate the best American Literature, expand its audience, and enhance the cultural value of great writing in America. Some notable past winners include William Carlos Williams, Norman Mailer, John Updike, William Faulkner, and Thomas Pynchon to name a few. This award goes to a book and is presented to the author. Many authors have won for numerous books.The 2015 winner for fiction is Adam Johnson for Fortune Smiles: Stories.
The Man-Booker Prize
The Man-Booker Prize while it remains relatively unknown in the US, is the major award an author can win next to the Nobel Prize. The award takes submissions from many countries and requires that the book me in English and published in the Commonwealth Nations, read former British colonies.All the awards are a big deal to win, but this one is a step above because it includes many more authors and countries. Some notable winners include Julian Barnes and J. M. Coetzee, two great authors.
The 2015 Man-Booker Prize winner is Marlon James for A Brief History of Seven Killings.
This book also won many other awards and was included in numerous best of the year book lists. Marlon James is the first Jamaican to win the prestigious award and the first on this side of the pond, I believe. The book looks fantastic. It is a fictional account of an attempt to take Bob Marley’s life. It has been described as complicated and difficult, so bring your A reading game.
Those are the winners for the 2015 book season. Have you read any of these books yet? Let us know on our Kindle Literature Facebook page. Don’t forget to like the page for future posts.
