Patrick McGuinness wins Wales Book of the Year 2012

Patrick McGuinness is named overall winner of the Wales Book of the Year Award 2012, after winning the Fiction category for his novel, The Last Hundred Days (Seren). This is the first year categories have been introduced to the prize. The other category winners are Richard Gwyn, who took the prize for Creative Non-Fiction with his memoir, The Vagabond’s Breakfast (Alcemi), and Gwyneth Lewis who won the Roland Mathias Poetry Award for her collection, Sparrow Tree (Bloodaxe Books). 

The category winners recieved £2,000 each and an additional £6,000 was awarded to the overall winner in both Welsh and English. 

The announcements were made at a ceremony held by Literature Wales at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff on Thursday 12 July. The winners were presented with their cheques by Leighton Andrews, Minister for Skills and Education and Chair of the Arts Council of Wales, Professor Dai Smith. Patrick McGuinness is already a renowned poet and this, his debut novel, has achieved world-wide recognition, having reached both the Costa First Novel Award Short List and The Man Booker Prize Long List in 2011.

The English-language judges for 2012 were Dr Spencer Jordan (Chair), Dr Sam Adams and Trezza Azzopardi. Spencer Jordan, said of Patrick McGuinness’ novel: “In a world turned upside by the Arab Spring and economic cataclysm, can there be a more apposite or important book than The Last Hundred Days? I doubt it. Set against the backdrop of Ceaucescu's crumbling regime, the book explores the very human cost when society itself begins to self destruct.” 

Fiction Category Winner and overall winner:
Patrick McGuinness, The Last Hundred Days (Seren)
 

Creative Non-Fiction Category Winner:
Richard Gwyn, The Vagabond's Breakfast (Alcemi)

The Roland Mathias Poetry Award Winner:
Gwyneth Lewis, Sparrow Tree (Bloodaxe Books)

 

It proved to be a successful year for poetry as Philip Gross was named the public’s favourite, winning Media Wales’ People’s Choice Award for his poetry collection, Deep Field (Bloodaxe Books).    

“Each of the three category winners are writers at the very top of their game,” said Spencer Jordan. “Writing is never more compelling or braver than when it comes from the heart, and that's what these three books do. In their own small way, each is a manifesto for the human soul in the twenty first century”.

“It has been fantastic to be able to reward a greater range of writers this year following the introduction of the categories, and it’s great to see poetry, a genre which has been sidelined in the past, step into the limelight,” said Lleucu Siencyn, Chief Executive of Literature Wales. “I’d also like to congratulate all the authors who reached the Short List, which is no mean feat in itself. The strength of the Short List manifests the flourishing publishing industry that exists in Wales today, defiant in light of the current economic climate.”

The main Welsh-language winner this year was also the winner of the Fiction category; International Fellow of the Hay Festival Jon Gower. His novel, Y Storïwr (Gwasg Gomer) fittingly follows a young man who has an exceptional talent for storytelling.

Allan James won the Welsh-language Creative Non-Fiction Category for his study of the scholar and poet, John Morris-Jones, (University of Wales Press) and poet Karen Owen topped the Welsh Poetry category. Karen celebrated a double win as she also won the Welsh Language People’s Prize sponsored by Golwg360.

Keep an eye out for pictures from the ceremony on to the Wales Book of the Year website soon. 

www.walesbookoftheyear.org

Source: press release from Literature Wales

Costa’s New Short Story Prize

The new Award is for a single, previously unpublished short story of up to 4,000 words by an author aged 18 years or over and written in English. The author’s primary residence must have been the UK or Ireland for the past three years.

Entry opens on Monday 16^th July 2012 and closes at 4pm on Friday 7^th September 2012.  Entries must be submitted online via a dedicated page at www.costabookawards.com.  Entrants need not have been previously published but publishers and agents may submit entries on behalf of authors.

All entries will be judged anonymously – in other words, without the identity of the author being available to the judges.

A panel of five judges will select a shortlist of six entries which will be revealed in November. The public will then be invited to vote online for their favourite story from the six finalists. 

The winner will be announced at the Costa Book Awards ceremony on 29^th January 2013 and will receive £3,500; two runners-up will each receive £750.

The judges for the 2012 Costa Short Story Award are:

Richard Beard: Director of the National Academy of Writing

Fanny Blake: Novelist and Journalist; Books Editor of Woman & Home

Gary Kemp: Songwriter and guitarist for Spandau Ballet; Actor and Writer

Victoria Hislop: Writer

Simon Trewin: Agent, William Morris Endeavor

Enter online via a dedicated page at www.costabookawards.com.

‘My Brother Simple’ By Marie-Aude Murail - Teen Book Review

Published by Bloomsbury on 2nd August 2012
RRP £6.99 (paperback)
ISBN 978408814710
Reviewed by Lynsey Evans

‘Simple’ is Kleber’s older brother, but he has a mental age of a 3-year-old at 22. Their mother is dead and their father put ‘Simple’ in an institution, but Kleber, who’s only 17, can’t bear to see his brother there and removes him from Malcroix.

They move to Paris so Kleber can finish his final year at college. They finally find a flatshare with other students. Here ‘Simple’ unknowingly changes all their lives and they his. His innocence on how he views them and the world has a massive impact on them all from Kleber maturing, finding love and discovering a beautiful unconditional love for his brother despite the challenges he faces as his carer. Enzo – the ‘cool’ housemate ends up finding a true friend in ‘Simple’. And ‘Simple’ he is happy, he’s out of the institution, he’s making friends and getting up to mischief with Mister Babbit.

Unlikely friendships, self-reflection, conflict and love all test the characters. It’s a heart-warming tale that tackles prejudice and stigma head-on. In a world where political correctness and ignorance build barriers where we should be knocking them down, ‘My Brother Simple’ is like a stick of dynamite, blowing a huge hole in said barriers and letting the wind of change pass through. It’s a book every secondary school-aged child should be exposed to.

Highly recommended for readers aged 12+

‘Nefertiti in the Flak Tower’ By Clive James - new poetry collection

Published by Picador Poetry
RRP £14.99 (hardback)
ISBN 9781447207009

Clive James’ power as a poet has increased year by year, and there has been no stronger evidence for this than Nefertiti in the Flak Tower.

Here, his polymathic learning and technical virtuosity are worn more lightly than ever; the effect is merely to produce a deep sense of trust into which the reader gratefully sinks, knowing they are in the presence of a master. The most obvious token of that mastery is the book’s breathtaking range of theme: there are moving elegies, a meditation on the later Yeats, a Hollywood Iliad, odes to rare orchids, wartime typewriters and sharks – as well as a poem on the fate of Queen Nefertiti in Nazi Germany. But despite the dizzying variety, James’ poetic intention becomes increasingly clear: what marks this new collection out is his intensified concentration on the individual poem as self-contained universe. Poetry is a practice he compares (in ‘Numismatics’) to striking new coin; and Nefertiti in the Flak Tower is a treasure-chest of one-off marvels, with each poem a twin-sided, perfect human balance of the unashamedly joyous and the deadly serious, ‘whose play of light pays tribute to the dark’.

‘James is a highly literary poet, even when he is at his most straightforward and direct’ – John Goss, Sunday Telegraph

‘A poet of powerful argument and emotional force’ – Rachel Campbell-Johnson, The Times

Poetry Kit Summer Competition 2012

Poetry Kit's competition this year is for poems on the theme of "the natural world" (this can be broadly interpreted). There are no style or length restrictions but it should be stressed that a short poem is just as likely to be selected as a longer one.

1st prize is £100.

ONLINE ENTRY ONLY
Entry is by email to comp@poetrykit.org after an appropriate fee is paid by Paypal to the account of info@poetrykit.org and all entries must be received before midnight 30th September 2012. Entries received after this time will be discarded.

First prize is £100 and the winning poem plus those sellected for special commendation will be published at the Poetry Kit website:

Entry fees are as follows;
1 poem    £3.50
3 Poems  £8.00
5 poems  £10

Competition Judge; Lesley Burt
Lesley Burt retired from a career in social work and social work education in 2009. She has been writing poetry for the last 12 years, had many poems published online, as well as magazines and anthologies, including: Tears in the Fence, Poetry Nottingham, The Interpreter’s House, Roundyhouse, and Dorset Voices, and in the recent Robin Hood Book, edited by Alan Morrison. She has been placed in several competitions, including 3rd place in the Bedford Open 2011, 2nd place in the Alan Sillitoe Open 2012 and 1st prize in Christchurch Writers’ Poetry Competition 2009 & 2010.  Lesley runs a poetry group that aims to encourage the writing and enjoyment of poetry in her local community. One of her sessions developed into a chapter included in: Teaching Creative Writing, edited by Elaine Walker, published in 2012 by the Professional and Higher Partnership.

Competition Rules

Poems, which must be in English, can be on any subject and presented in any form or style .
There are no restrictions on content.
All poem must be the unpublished work of the person entering them into the competition.
The actual given name of the entrant must be given, even if the poem is to be published under a pen name.
Poems should not have any indication within them to allow for the identification of the poet.
There is no length or content restrictions and a short poem is just as likely to win as a longer one.
Poems must be entered by email to comps@poetrykit.org after the appropriate fee is paid through PAY PAL in Pound Sterling (GB Pounds).
Please attach all entered poems in one attachment using a standard Poems will not be accepted by post.
We cannot accept alterations to the poem once it has been submitted.
Poems cannot be withdrawn from the judging process once they have been entered.
Although copyright will remain with the poet, we reserve the right to publish any shortlisted poem on our website.
The decision of the judges is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

Closing date is midnight on 30th September 2012



Disclaimer: This competition is not associated with Book a Poet in anyway. If you have any questions or queries please contact The Poetry Kit's organisers directly. Contact details provided above. Thank you.

ARTEMIS FOWL AND THE LAST GUARDIAN is out NOW - the final instalment!

As fans of the Artemis Fowl series, we recommend this final instalment of the exciting series and wonder what Eoin Colfer will create next ...
 

IS THIS ARMAGEDDON FOR ARTEMIS FOWL?

Opal Koboi, power-crazed pixie, is plotting to exterminate mankind and become fairy queen.

If she succeeds, the spirits of long-dead fairy warriors will rise from the earth, inhabit the nearest available bodies and wreak mass destruction. But what happens if those nearest bodies include crows, or deer, or badgers - or two curious little boys by the names of Myles and Beckett Fowl?

Yes, it's true. Criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl's four-year-old brothers could be involved in destroying the human race. Can Artemis and Captain Holly Short of the Lower Elements Police stop Opal and prevent the end of the world?

On the 9th July 2012, Eoin Colfer took part in a Puffin Virtually Live webcast broadcast from the library in Fowl Manor.  He read from 'ARTEMIS FOWL AND THE LAST GUARDIAN' for the first time and answered viewers' questions. You can now watch the video on demand at www.puffinvirtuallylive.co.uk

To find out more about Eoin Colfer and his work check out www.eoincolfer.com!

How to write a Limerick

Inspired by our Guest Blog on the 4th July by Mike Barfield, here is a guide to writing a limerick:

It is speculated that limericks were invented by soldiers returning from France to the Irish town of Limerick in the 1700s. Edward Lear is often associated with the limerick as he popularised the form. The sign of a good limerick is the last line, where the punchline or heart of the joke lies.

In its basic form, a limerick is a five-lined poem with one couplet and one triplet. The rhyme pattern is AABBA, with lines 1,2 and 5 containing three beats and rhyming. Lines 3 and 4 will have two beats and also rhyme. Limericks are meant to be funny, sometimes bordering on the darker sense of humour.

Below are examples of Edward Lear's (1812-1888) limericks:

There was an old man of Tobago
Who lived of rice, gruel and sago
Till, much to his bliss,
His physician said this –
To a leg, sir, of mutton you may go.

There was a Young Lady in White
Who looked out at the depths of the night;
But the birds of the air
Filled her heart with despair,
And oppressed that Young Lady in White.

There was a Young Lady of Lucca,
Whose lovers completely forsook her;
She ran up a tree
And said, 'Fiddle-de-dee!'
Which embarrassed the people of Lucca.


To help children write their own limericks, take a look at the great examples and ideas at Teaching Ideas - www.teachingideas.co.uk/english/limerick

To find out more about Edward Lear and his work, please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Lear or Mike Barfield's blog - see 4th July posts!