Science fiction novel Brasyl in line for a prize
14/11/2008 . Source: Jessica Martin 
Northern Ireland scifi writer Ian McDonald has been nominated for the £50,000 Warwick Prize for Writing for his novel Brasyl which explores a range of alternative reality past, future and present Brazils. Buy Brasyl in the USA - or Buy Brasyl in the UK  Ian McDonald was born in Manchester in 1960 to a Scots father and Irish mother, but moved to Belfast when he was five and has lived there ever since. He began writing at the age of 9 and sold his first story to a Belfast magazine when he was 22. A number of his works draw on Northern Ireland. His Chaga novels feature a character, Gaby McAslin, who is a Northern Irish journalist, and his book Sacrifice of Fools depict what happens when an alien underclass settles in Belfast. His novel Hearts Hands and Voices is said to have a number of allegorical references to Northern Ireland.
The £50, 000 inaugural prize, run by the University of Warwick, stands out as an international cross-disciplinary biennial award open to pieces of writing in the English language, in any genre or form. The theme for the 2009 prize is Complexity.
The longlist consists of 20 titles, 12 non-fiction and eight fiction. Topics vary widely and include politics, maths, economics, global warming, slavery, nature, music, science fiction and poetry.
The longlist features a 2008 Pulitzer Prize and BBC Four Samuel Johnson Prize finalist (New Yorker music critic Alex Ross), the 2008 British Science Fiction Association winner (Ian McDonald) and a 2008 Man Booker Prize longlisted author (Joseph O'Neill).
Non-fiction entries range from Portrait with Keys, Croatian-born Ivan Vladislavic's depiction of modern South Africa to The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Canadian journalist Naomi Klein's critique of the global 'free market'. Fiction works include American poet Rachel Blau Dupleissis' long poem project Torques: Drafts 58-76 and first time novelist Thomas Legendre's The Burning.
International entries include writers from Croatia, America, Canada, Australia, UK, Ireland, Spain and Columbia.
The judging panel for the prize is chaired by China Miéville, award-winning 'weird fiction' writer. Judges include journalist Maya Jaggi; novelist, translator and academic Maureen Freely; Britain's first book blogger Stephen Mitchelmore and University of Warwick mathematician Professor Ian Stewart.
British fantasy author China Miéville told SFcrowsnest.com, "The style, form, genre and content of the works on the list is incredibly varied; the quality is anything but. Getting from this longlist to a shortlist, let alone a winner, will demand exactly the kind of open-minded and argumentative reading the prize is designed for, and, we hope, start many conversations about literature."
A shortlist of six titles will be announced on 23 January 2009. The winner will be announced on 24 February 2009 at the University of Warwick.
More over at www.warwick.ac.uk/go/prizeforwriting |
|
Add SFcrowsnest.com daily news updates to your
own web site or blog - just cut and paste the code
below...
POST YOUR COMMENTS  CLICK HERE TO HAVE YOUR SAY
|
