NEWS
News relating to public benefit, literary festivals and events from other organisations.
Shortlist announced for Leading Prize for Memoir
English PEN, the founding centre of the worldwide writers’ association, today announces the shortlist for the 2009 PEN/Ackerley Prize:
Julian Barnes - Nothing to be Frightened of (Cape)
Julia Blackburn - The Three of Us (Cape)
Susie Boyt - My Judy Garland Life (Virago)
Ferdinand Mount - Cold Cream (Bloomsbury)
Sathnam Sanghera - The Boy with the Topknot [originally published as If You Don’t Know Me By Now] (Penguin)
The PEN/Ackerley Prize is judged by Georgina Hammick, Francis King, Peter Parker (chair) and Colin Spencer.
The award is given to a literary autobiography of outstanding merit, written by an author of British
nationality and published in the United Kingdom in the previous year. Past winners include Alan Bennett,
Jenny Diski, Lorna Sage, Blake Morrison, Barry Humphries and Margaret Forster.
This year the prize money has doubled and the winner will receive a cheque for £2,000.
Peter Parker, Chair of the judges, said: ‘Out of the 46 titles we called in this year, we ended up
with a shortlist of five books that show just how strong and how wide-ranging autobiographical writing is
in Britain.’
Jonathan Heawood, Director of English PEN, said: ‘We’re proud to be associated with the PEN/Ackerley
Prize, which rewards one of the toughest literary tricks to pull off – authentic life-writing which is neither
mawkish nor miserable.’
The winner of the PEN/Ackerley Prize will be announced at a special event on Monday 13 July, when former
winners of the prize Diana Athill, Dan Jacobson and Miranda Seymour will discuss the state of autobiography,
its varied forms and the particular difficulties it presents for writers. Tickets for this event are available
from the English PEN website: www.englishpen.org/events or by calling 020 7713 0023.
Joe Randolph Ackerley (1896-1967) was an author and long-time literary editor of The Listener magazine. When Ackerley died, his sister Nancy endowed the JR Ackerley Prize in his memory.
English PEN is an association of writers whose 1,000 members include many of Britain’s most celebrated authors and literary professionals. PEN works in Britain and around the world to promote literature and its understanding; to campaign against the persecution and imprisonment of writers; and to promote friendly co-operation among writers.
Press tickets are available.
For further information please contact:
Jonathan Heawood, Director, English PEN
020 7713 0023 jonathan@englishpen.org
The Four Hundred
One of our members, Victoria Fishburn, has written a great article for the blog. http://edwardianpromenade.com/
Biographers' Club now officially a charity
The Biographers' Club has just been granted charitable status.
This is excellent news for the future development of the Club; it will mean that we can attract charitable grants and research grants, and fundraise to create endowments for our prizes, sponsor free events and worskshops.
The Club will also be eligible for Gift Aid (an extra 28p in the pound from the government on top of payments to the Club). This will enable us to extend the range of our activities and venues, and provide subsidies for students.
Achieving charitable status would not have happened without the hard work and negotiating skills of our secretary and treasurer, Susan Ronald; we are all extremely grateful to her.
Richard Holmes starts blog
Richard Holmes, author most recently of The Age of Wonder, joins the blogging world tomorrow (4 March) with
postings at the HarperCollins Authonomy site. He offers a "biography masterclass", with a reading list, a
survey of the genre, and advice, such as that: "nearly all biographical problems can be answered by finding
appropriate forms of narrative". The relevant page for the first, introductory piece, when it goes live,
will be here.
Members' Discount at Foyles'
Foyles has approved the Biographers' Club as a "special discount customer" and will offer a 10% discount to
any paid up member of the club who presents his/her card at the till.
New Updike Biography
Books editor of The New York Observer Adam Begley's UPDIKE, promising a revealing, in-depth portrait, unsparingly exploring the life and times of John Updike as well as the influence they had on his remarkable body of work, to Tim Duggan at Harper, for publication in 2011, by Georges Borchardt at Georges Borchardt (world English).
Fidel Castro and Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Angel Esteban and Stephanie Panichelli's FIDEL & GABO, chronicling the mysterious and controversial friendship between Fidel Castro and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, to Jessica Case and Claiborne Hancock at Pegasus, in a nice deal, for publication in September 2009, by Jonah Straus at Straus Literary (World English).
Reading the Rocks
To Will Sulkin at the Bodley Head, in a "significant deal" through Caradoc King at A P Watt, READING THE ROCKS (October 2011) by
Brenda Maddox. The book tells the story of the Geological Society (founded in 1807) and of its early members, including William
Buckland, Charles Lyall, Charles Darwin, the wealthy Scot Sir Roderick Murchison, the Swiss zoologist Louis Agassiz, and the French
naturalist Georges Cuvier. Sulkin says: "Like Jenny Uglow’s Lunar Men, (Reading the Rocks) will bring roaring back to life a
remarkable group of individuals who collectively transformed our understanding of the world." The Bodley Head has UK and
Commonwealth rights (exc Canada, with Europe exclusive). Maddox's previous book, Freud's Wizard, came from John Murray.
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