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Awards

Lydia Davis Wins £60,000 Man Booker International Prize

Lydia Davis has won the fifth Man Booker International Prize, chosen from among nine finalists.

The announcement was made at Victoria and Albert Museum in London. We’ve included the complete list of finalists below. Here’s more from the official release:

 The Prize, worth £60,000, is awarded for an achievement in fiction on the world stage and Davis’s achievements are writ large despite often using startlingly few words (some of her longer stories only stretch to two or three pages). Her work has the brevity and precision of poetry. Sir Christopher Ricks, chairman of the judges, said her “writings fling their lithe arms wide to embrace many a kind. Just how to categorise them? They have been called stories but could equally be miniatures, anecdotes, essays, jokes, parables, fables, texts, aphorisms or even apophthegms, prayers or simply observations.”

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Thursday May 23: Real Talk about Life after Publication

These days, writers aren’t just writers: They’re social-media mavens, seasoned public speakers, and one-person publicity machines. And they still have to find time to write their books! Find out what life is like once you've landed that dream book contract in a free web chat with young-adult authors Elizabeth Norris (Unraveling and Unbreakable) and Brodi Ashton (Everneath and Everbound) — plus special guest Kristin Rens, editor at HarperCollins imprint Balzer + Bray. Thursday, May 23 at 7:00 p.m. ET. on Figment.com.

Katherine Boo Wins the 2013 Helen Bernstein Book Award

Journalist and author Katherine Boo has won the New York Public Library’s 2013 Helen Bernstein Book Award for Behind The Beautiful Forevers.

The $15,000 award goes to “journalists whose books have brought clarity and public attention to important issues, events, or policies.” Boo had this comment as she received the award:

Consistently, the recipients of this award make the argument through their work that you can’t just complain or accept that the American public don’t give a damn about genocide in Rwanda or ruined lives in the inner city … What this award symbolizes to me is that as a journalist working in the field, you have to report harder and work harder, until you make the American public give a damn. That’s what good writing with a capital ‘W’ is. Over the years, the Library has honored some bad-ass women, and has always honored hard-core, fierce reporting.

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2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Finalists

Amazon Publishing has revealed the five finalists in each category of its sixth Breakthrough Novel Award competition.

We’ve linked to all the winners and descriptions of their books below–what’s your favorite? Here’s more from the bookseller:

From now through May 29,Amazon customers are encouraged to read excerpts from the winning books and vote for their favorite novel at www.amazon.com/abna to choose the Grand Prize winner. The Grand Prize winner will be revealed at a special awards ceremony in Seattle on June 15, 2013 and will receive a contract from Amazon Publishing, as well as a $50,000 advance. The remaining winners will each be awarded a publishing contract with a $15,000 advance.

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Kim Stanley Robinson Wins Best Novel at Nebula Awards

2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson won the Nebula Award for best novel this year.  Aliette de Bodard took the best short story award for “Immersion”–read the complete story at Clarkesworld.

Below, we’ve collected free samples of all the nominees and winners–the best science fiction books of 2012. Many of these stories are available to read for free online. These are marked “COMPLETE” among the links.  Here’s more about the awards:

The Nebula Awards are voted on, and presented by, active members of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. Founded as the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1965 by Damon Knight, the organization began with a charter membership of 78 writers; it now has over 1,500 members, among them many of the leading writers of science fiction and fantasy.

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Nobel Prize in Literature Candidates Chosen

Five writers have already been selected as candidates for the 2013 Nobel Prize, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy revealed via a Twitter dispatch today. Who do you think made the top secret list of finalists?

The Nobel Prizes in other disciplines will be revealed between October 7 and October 14. “According to tradition,” the Nobel Prize for Literature date will be revealed at some point in the future. Here is the short and sweet tweet:

5 candidates have been selected for 2013 #NobelPrize in #Literature according to Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy.

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Jeff Kinney Wins Author of the Year

The 2013 Children’s Choice Book Award winners have been revealed. Jeff Kinney took author of the year award and John Green won the teen book of the year prize.

We’ve linked to free samples of all the winners below. How many have you read? Here’s more from the release:

The Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader announced the winners of the sixth annual Children’s Choice Book Awards (CCBAs) at a charity gala benefitting Every Child a Reader in New York City last night.  The announcement is an annual highlight of Children’s Book Week (May 13-19, 2013) as the CCBAs is the only national book awards program where the winning titles are selected by kids and teens. Young readers across the country voted in record numbers for their favorite books, author, and illustrator at bookstores, school libraries, and at bookweekonline.com, casting more than 1,000,000 votes.

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Uni Project Wins Innovations in Reading Prize

For the fifth year in a row, the National Book Foundation has bestowed its Innovations in Reading Prizes to groups “creating and sustaining a lifelong love of reading.”

Follow these links to explore the five winning projects: City National Bank for Reading Is the Way Up program, the Little Free Library movement, the Uni Project portable reading room, the Uprise Books Project for underprivileged teens and the Worldreader nonprofit. Each group will receive a $2,500 award, a certificate and a free trip to New York City to share their work with “funders, other people in the field, and reporters.” Here’s more about the Uni Project:

The Uni is a portable reading room for New York City conceived of and run by Leslie and Sam Davol. It provides a new kind of amenity for city residents, while fostering a stronger, more prominent culture of reading and learning. The Uni consists of lightweight cubes that serve as shelves and stack to create a place to gather. Benches provide seating, and volunteers act as hosts. The people who gather around are transformed into readers on a kind of stage, and neighborhoods are transformed into places where the value of reading and learning is recognized, promoted, and shared.

First Annual Book Bloggies Awards Coming

JKSCommunications, a literary publicity company, has organized the First Annual Book Bloggies Awards to honor book bloggers.

For four categories, the winners will be determined by readers’ votes: Biggest Variety, Most Creative Features, Best Indie Reviewer, and Most Eye-Catching Blog Layout. A deadline has been set for midnight on May 14th.

Here’s more from the announcement: “In addition to your votes in those separate categories, the JKS team will be choosing one overall winner as the 2013 Miss/Mr. Book Bloggie of the Year. Recipients of each award will be announced May and each will receive a special award to commemorate this honor!”

Stephen King & Harper’s Win National Magazine Award

Harper’s Magazine and Stephen King have won the National Magazine Award for fiction this year.

Below, we’ve linked to winners in other writing categories. Harper’s Magazine received the award for King’s story, “Batman and Robin Have an Altercation” (subscriber only), published last September.

At the awards ceremony last night, The Paris Review and editor Lorin Stein took the National Magazine Award for the best Literary, Political and Professional Magazines of the year. Atlantic editor and author Ta-Nehisi Coates won the essays and criticism award for “Fear of a Black President.”

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Dennis Lehane Wins Edgar Award for Best Novel

Author Dennis Lehane has won the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award for Best Novel with Live by Night.

You can read free samples of all the Edgar Award nominees below, highlighting the winning books in bold.

Among the winners, Ben Winters won best paperback original with The Last Policeman and Chris Pavone won the best first novel by an american author with The Expats.

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