Feb 23 2008
Novelist Zadie Smith, who has received a number of awards including the Whitbread First Novel award for White Teeth and the Orange Prize for Fiction for On Beauty, has caused a stir in the blogosphere and the mainstream media with a blistering attack on literary prizes. Writing in the Willesden Herald's blog she says that most literary prizes are "only nominally" about literature and are "really about brand consolidation for beer companies, phone companies, coffee companies and even frozen food companies." Her comments were written in the context of the Willesden Herald's judges decision to cancel their annual award (after short-listing the top 10 stories) because the general standard of submissions was not considered high enough to award the prize. Says Smith, "Just because this prize has the words Willesden and Zadie hovering by it, does not mean that I or the other judges want to read hundreds of jolly stories of multicultural life on the streets of north London."
The Flower Sisters
by Michelle Collins Anderson
From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention.
Daughters of Shandong
by Eve J. Chung
Eve J. Chung's debut novel recounts a family's flight to Taiwan during China's Communist revolution.
Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd rather have been talking
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
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