WILD MARY WAS WILD INDEED


I greatly enjoyed listening to Patrick Marnham talk about writing the Mary Wesley biography, Wild Mary at the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival last week.


It was intriguing that Toby Eady, Mary Wesley's second son, and now a prominent literary agent in London, (and married to author Xinran), was travelling with him and they are clearly great friends.


I am grateful to Random House publicist Jennifer Balle for bringing to my attention a delightful and frank piece written by Toby Eady in the Sunday Times in June last year.
It is well worth a read whether or not you have read the biography. But be warned having read this piece you will immediately want to read Wild Mary.

Wild Mary by Patrick Marnham
Published by Vintage, 4 May; 2007 $29.99

HALF OF A YELLOW SUN WINS ORANGE BROADBAND PRIZE

Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wins the prize against very tough competition.

Full report from the Guardian from where the stunning author pic by Martin Godwin was also taken.

Half of a Yellow Sun is her second novel, her first Purple Hibiscus was shortlisted for the Orange Prize in 2004 and won the Commonwealth Writers Best First Book Award.

The author has her own website. As does the winning title which was published by Fourth Estate in the UK and Knopf in the US.

Viva ValeNZia


You have to hand it to Reed Publishing, they are on the ball, this release from Rebecca Gannaway at Reeds just now:

It's 5-0 to Team Zealand in the Louis Vuitton Cup, victory is ours. Broken boats and alliances are things of the past, so now is the time to pick up speed and get behind the black boat as it sails to America's Cup glory.

New Zealander Penny Whiting has all the answers, tips, insight and knowledge to help enthusiasts navigate the choppy waters of the racing world.

Penny Whiting's The 32nd America's Cup – A Simple Guide is a book for those of us who love to watch the races but may not be totally familiar with the terminology and the format of Cup racing.

An authority on all things sailing, dynamic Penny is best known as a yachtswoman and the owner-operator of the Penny Whiting Sailing School. She has also been a swimming champion, international surfing competitor, rugby coach, writer, celebrity speaker, America's Cup and Whitbread commentator and Auckland City Councillor.

With momentum building, and expectations high, Penny will cut through the hype and fanciful forecasting to give New Zealander's an expert opinion on the chance of bringing home the America's Cup in 2007.

Tack your way in front of other America's Cup reportage with New Zealand's leading authority, Penny Whiting.

32nd Americas Cup available now from your nearest bookseller - RRP NZ$15.

AMAZON TO RAISE SPENDING ON ITS MONEY-LOSING UNIT IN CHINA

This from Bloomberg

BORDERS TO RE-LAUNCH WEBSITE NEXT MONTH

DUMPING AMAZON IN THE PROCESS

This from DMNews.

KEROUAC BIOGRAPHER LAMBLASTS VIKING PENGUIN

This story this morning from mediabistro.com

Photo shows Gerald Nicosia, biographer of Jack Kerouac

CORMAC McCARTHY OPENS UP TO OPRAH

Yesterday the reclusive 73 year old writer made his debut TV appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show. In fact it was only his third ever media interview!

This report from The Denver Post. Photo - AP/Harpo Productions.

I reviewed his latest book, The Road, earlier this year. McCarthy has since been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for this title.

JOHN LE CARRE'S SON RECEIVES WHOPPING ADVANCE FOR HIS FIRST NOVEL

Following a keen auction in New York over the weekend Random House is to pay Nicholas Cornwell pds.300,000 advance for The Wages of Gonzo Lubitsch which will be published by William Heinemann in the UK next May and by Knopf in the US.
Read the full story from The Independent overnight.

And more about the deal here.

Nadime Gordimer still breaking new ground as a writer, and a reader.

Nadime Gordimer won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991 and this year is a judge of the Man Booker Prize. John Freeman writes in The Independent of his meeting with her.

CONGRATULATIONS EMIRATES TEAM NEW ZEALAND

Emirates Team New Zealnd have beaten Luna Rosso 5-0 to win the Louis Vuitton Cup and earn the right to challenge Alinghi for the America's Cup, yachting's ultimate prize.

It is the first time a team has gone undefeated in the final in the 24 year history of the Louis Vuitton Cup.Congratulations to skipper Dean Barker and the team , and to all those involved.

Photos/Reuters.

SYDNEY WRITERS FESTIVAL DEEMED A GREAT SUCCESS

This from The Australian

Picture shows Ayaan Hirsi Ali, prominent & controversial Somali author and an opponent of Islam, who drew full houses at the Fesival and was given a standing ovation. Pic from Wikipedia website.

MIND THE GAP AND PICK UP A FREE BOOK

The London Book Project is releasing thousands of second hand books into the Underground and urging passengers to pick them up.

This story from the Sydney Morning Herald.

Have a look at The London Book Project's website.

AUTHOR/POET SARAH SALWAY SELECTS HER TOP 10 UNUSUAL RELATIONSHIPS FOUND IN FICTION

I found this unsusual take from the Guardian most interesting.

Does anyone wish to add another?

Highlights of Auckland Writers & Readers Festival on Radio New Zealand National : a six-part series beginning at 4.00pm, Sunday 8th July, 2007

At 4.00pm on Sunday 8th July, Radio New Zealand National begins a series of highlights from this year’s most recent literary celebration, the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival.

This presents a great opportunity to listen to sessions you missed at the Festival.

Hats off to the Fesival and Radio New Zealand National on this initiative.

The top sessions at this major literary event held in May have been selected to complement the coverage which occurred around the time of the event on Radio New Zealand National.

From the 65 sessions available, editor Paul Bushnell selected six panel discussions to allow audiences to hear how a line-up of international and local writers interacted with each other. He’s very pleased with the result, saying “There is a generous amount of reading by the authors from their own material. Fortunately, this pays off superbly as so many of them are also great performers.”

The discussion, too, ranges widely, from the intriguing technical detail of the session about translating books from one language to another, to deep consideration of ethical issues associated with many kinds of writing.
Bushnell feels that this Auckland event represents a further refinement of the writers festival format, commenting that “festival schedules have always provided substantial encounters between a single author and the audience, but as these sessions show, there’s also a great deal of interest in discussions between writers about a particular theme.”

And the themes are varied, including discussions of bad fathers; the challenges of writing about contemporary visual art; how books can be translated into another language; the explosive growth in local non-fiction writing; concluding with some entertaining anecdotes from travel writers who have found themselves in sticky situations of one sort or another.
According to Bushnell, Radio New Zealand’s first-time involvement with the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival marks both the company’s desire to reflect literary events outside Wellington, and the increasing strength and vigour of this particular enterprise.
He adds “it’s great to be able to allow a far larger audience than could ever fit into a single venue access to these marvellous writers, and to hear what they have to say to the audience and each other.” And the good news for book lovers is that Radio New Zealand’s plans for coverage of more book festivals in the future are well-advanced.

Programme 1: Auckland Writers Festival – Bad Dads in meltdown
Broadcast time: 4.06pm Sunday 8th July 2007
9.06pm Tuesday 10th July 2007

Chaired by Festival co-director Peter Wells, this lively session includes extensive reading by three very different authors whose autobiographical work provides different perspectives on growing up with fathers who behaved abusively and damagingly towards their families. Intriguingly, the theme of post-colonial experience is common to The Wah-Wah Diaries by Richard E Grant, Heartland by Neil Cross, and Deep Beyond the Reef by Owen Scott.

Programme 2: Auckland Writers Festival – Demon seed and damaged babies
Broadcast time: 4.06pm Sunday 15th July 2007
9.06pm Tuesday 17th July 2007

Nightmare childhoods and damaged lives are laid bare in the very different work of Lionel Shriver, author of the award-winning We Need to Talk about Kevin; and Paul Broks, whose study of neuropsychology Into the Silent Land was a surprise bestseller. Despite their different approaches to storytelling, both writers find a lot of common territory in a conversation moderated by psychiatrist Dr Jan Reeves.

Programme 3: Auckland Writers Festival – The art of translation
Broadcast time: 4.06pm Sunday 22nd July 2007
9.06pm Tuesday 24th July 2007

The international publishing scene depends on translation, as it opens books to new markets and audiences. Three writers who have an intimate knowledge of translation consider the complexities and challenges of the process, which at its best involves a high level of collaboration between translator and author. The panel features the award-winning Andreï Makine (born in the USSR, but now based in France), Linda Olsson from Sweden, and France’s Pierre Furlan, who has translated both Elizabeth Knox and Alan Duff into French. Local translator Jean Anderson is in the chair.

Programme 4: Auckland Writers Festival – Writing about visual art
Broadcast time: 4.06pm Sunday 29th July 2007
9.06pm Tuesday 31st July 2007

This session Talking the Talk brings together New Zealand’s most senior writer on art, one of the most lucid of our younger generation of critics and curators, and a leading figure from the UK. Linda Tyler chairs a wide-ranging session in which Hamish Keith, Justin Paton and Matthew Collings consider the practice of their craft. From the paintings and writings of Colin McCahon to the media coverage of the Cool Britannia generation, this conversation moderated by Linda Tyler provides fresh insight into what makes good (and bad) art description, commentary and criticism.

Programme 5: Auckland Writers Festival – Non-fiction in New Zealand
Broadcast time: 4.06pm Sunday 5th August 2007
9.06pm Tuesday 7th August 2007

The Real Stuff is the subtitle of this panel discussion, which explores the extraordinary growth in popularity of locally-produced non-fiction. Two publishers (Peter Dowling from Reed, and Mary Varnham from Awa Press) and an expert in creative non-fiction (Harry Ricketts) map out the salient features of this rapidly-unfolding literary territory. Graeme Hunt is in the chair.

Programme 6: Auckland Writers Festival – Travel Writing
Broadcast time: 4.06pm Sunday 12th August 2007
9.06pm Tuesday 14th August 2007

“Haven’t they got anything better to do” is the ironic subtitle of this encounter between a group of very different travel writers. Travel stories from the USA are recounted by Jo and Gareth Morgan (Backblocks America); bicycling in South America in Eleanor Meecham’s Llamas & Empanadas; and travelling in Tibet in Ian Robinson’s alarmingly-titled You Must Die Once. TV cameraman Geoff Mackley chases bad weather all over the world in Extreme Danger, and Pico Iyer reflects on the relationship between travel and globalisation in Sun after Dark.
Graham Reid controls this international traffic in a busy and entertaining session.

WILLIAM DART, AUCKLAND CRITIC EXTRAORDINAIRE

Where does this remarkable writer find time to achieve so much? Dart is the classical music and opera reviewer for the New Zealand Herald and his output is simply remarkable. Also impressive is his wide and deep knowledge of his subject and his ability to write in an authorative but always accessible manner.

When you consider that he also edits and publishes the highly regarded magazine Art New Zealand one can only wonder whether he ever gets any spare time.

Here are two stories written by him from today's New Zealand Herald:

The Michael Hill Violin Competition semifinals in Auckland tonight & tomorrow.

Wunderkind Pianist Born to Play Beethoven - CD review.

LONELY PLANET AUTHOR DISAPPEARS IN TIBET

This story today from The Times.

Genre-Busting Book Shortlisted for Both Major NZ Book Awards Announced

Genre-busting, hybrid book Brief Lives, written by Wellingtonian Chris Price and published by Auckland University Press, has been named as a finalist in the Biography Category of the Montana New Zealand Book Awards and as a finalist for Best Non-Illustrated Book in the Spectrum Print Design Awards.

‘Many of the books entered in the 2007 Montana New Zealand Book Awards challenged the judges by stretching the boundaries of conventional categories,’ says Dr Paul Millar, Convenor of Judges for the Montana New Zealand Book Awards.

Taking its inspiration from Aubrey’s classic work of the same name, Brief Lives is an eccentric collection of biographical essays and fictional reflections in which famous figures such as Goethe, Petrarch and Antonin Artaud rub shoulders with impecunious aristocrats, actors and art historians as well as a range of fictional characters caught amid the daily chaos of their lives. It is a meditation on mortality and the tasks of recording, collection and recollection we quixotically undertake to stave it off.

Brief Lives is a genre-crossing work that makes a plea for what historian Simon Schama has called ‘the eloquence of peculiarity’.

Brief Lives features some illustrations by artist Brendan O’Brien. The cover designer is Sarah Maxey of Wellington and the internal designer is AUP’s Katrina Duncan.

Here is a review of Brief Lives from the Listener in September last year and here are my comments on the book published here on January 23 as one of my best books for 2006.

Photo of Chris Price from the Victoria University of Wellington website.

First Reviews of the Two Biographies of Hillary Rodham Clinton

Here they are, both from the Sunday edition of the New York Times.

A Woman in Charge - The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton by Carl Bernstein Knopf US$27.95

Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton

by Jeff Gerth & Don Van Natta Little,Brown US$30

Hillary Clinton photo from Wikipedia website.

GREAT NEW ZEALAND DIGI-POEM COMPETITION 2007

Put your imagination and design skills to work and be part of NZ's first ever digi-poem competition.

Full details here...........

BOOKBLOG STATS

Monday to Friday last week my blog had 1533 visitors, an average of 366 per day which is a new record. I put the higher than usual number of visitors down to the interest in the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival.

Of the 1533 visitors 72.28% came from New Zealand, 7.33% from the US, 6.25% from Australia, 3.24% from Japan, 3.19% from the UK and the rest from all over including in descending order Canada, Singapore, India, Senegal, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Austria, Greece, France, Toga, and 12 others.

June 9 15, 2007 ISSUE NZ LISTENER

Great interview by Philip Matthews with Tim Winton, the undoubted star of the recent Auckland Writers & Readers Festival while Denis Welch caught up with another Aussie star from the Festival, Kate Grenville.

Read an excerpt from the Tim Winton piece here and an excerpt from the Kate Grenville piece here. Better still, buy the Listener and read them in full.

Tim Winton pic is one of two fine studies by Jane Ussher that appear within the Matthews story.

BEST BUSINESS BOOKS

Robert Bruner, Dean of the School of Business at the University of Virginia, makes his picks, and his first choice may surprise you.

Photo of Robert Bruner by David Deal for US News & World Report from where this story is taken.

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS Khaled Hosseini Bloomsbury NZ$38

This is the title I read over the weekend and earlier today reviewed on Radio New Zealand National. My comments here are somewhat fuller than time allowed for on that broadcast.

Khaled Hosseini is of course the author of the hugely successful first novel, The Kite Runner, the book which in the US alone sold over 4 million copies. He was born in Kabul, Afghanistan the son of a diplomat and high school teacher. At the time of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 his father was working at the Afghani embassy in Paris and the family sought political asylum in the US where the author was educated.

This book , like its predecessor, is also set in Afghanistan, and it also gives the reader an inside look at the enormous difficulties of living there over the past three decades under the various regimes that have ruled – Soviets, warlords, Taliban etc. Another similarity between the two books is the presence of a very unpleasant villain and a truly wonderful, almost saintly best friend.
However that is where the similarities stop because whereas the first novel featured fathers and sons and friendships between men, this new novel features mothers and daughters and friendships between women. In fact if you had to sum the story up in a few words you could say that it is a story that focuses on the plight of Afghani women.

It covers the period from about 1970 to the present day and particularly it is about two girls, Mariam and Laila, whom we meet as children, one growing up in Herat and the other in Kabul. As women they become friends when they end up being both married to the same man. Their husband Rasheed is the villain in this story and a very nasty piece of work he proves to be. I think he is probably the most repulsive male I have come across in modern fiction in many a year.

There is much death & loss and unimaginable grief in the book which of course reflects life in Afghanistan, especially for women, over these years. One cannot say too much about it without giving away the story but I have to say I was moved by it, and often while reading it felt greatly saddened.

There is something of a history lesson within the novel with the various regime changes, names of commanders, human rights abuses etc all being accurate although it is not overdone. They had a particularly tough time under the Taliban regime and I was interested to read a report in the New Zealand Herald today (June 5) where in Gaza an extremist Islamic group has told women working in television to wear veils and full religious garb on air or they will be beheaded. That is the sort of approach that the Taliban immediately introduced when they took power in Afghanistan. Only it was much, much worse, women were forbidden to do work of any kind, they were not allowed to leave their homes unless accompanied by a male member of their family, they were not allowed to speak unless spoken to, they were not allowed to laugh in public, and girls were forbidden from attending school. The punishment for women committing adultery was death by stoning.
But these historical aspects of the novel are cleverly intertwined with the family stories taking place and you are only aware of them as they affect family life.

I recommend AThousand Splendid Suns to everyone who enjoyed The Kite Runner. It is hard to out down, it is a love story and a story of sisterhood and at the same time it is the story of the past 30 years of turbulent history in a country that still does not know peace. I found myself totally engrossed throughout but be warned it is utterly heartbreaking in parts

Footnote:

The title of the novel comes from a 17th century Persian poet and Laila’s father quotes two lines from that poem as his farewell ode to Kabul:

“One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,
Or the thousand splendid suns that hide beneath her walls.”

BAD MAN WINS CHILDREN'S BOOK AWARD

Author Andy Stanton pays tribute to Roald Dahl, The Simpsons & others. This story from the Guardian, author pic by Martin Godwin.

MUMMY-LIT AND VOGUE MAGAZINE

This story from the Daily Telegraph Sunday.

Rock Bottom Remainders band performs in New York.

This "literary" band includes Amy Tan, Stephen King, Dave Barry, Mitch Albom and others. Read more about them in this story from today's New York Times.

TOO MANY BOOKS BEING PUBLISHED?

If you think there are then these figures from Publishers Weekly will support your arguement.

1984 DEFINITIVE BOOK OF THE 20TH CENTURY

Claim for George Orwell's novel made in the Guardian.

GEORGIA STATE JUDGE RULES IN HARRY POTTER'S FAVOUR

This from the Houston Chronicle.

MONDAY JUNE 4 IS A PUBLIC HOLIDAY IN NZ

Yes it is a long weekend here so Bookman Beattie has scooted up north where he is busily reading, and greatly enjoying, Khaled Hosseini's brilliant new novel A Thousand Splendid Suns which he is reviewing on Radio New Zealnd National on Tuesday morning.

Hosseini's first book, The Kite Runner, was a huge international success. This new title is also set in Afghanistan.

DEAD AUTHORS NOMINATED FOR FINALS

I thought this was a poor choice of heading for a story in the NZ Herald June 2.

Lloyd Jones to have tea with the Queen after winning Commonwealth Writers Prize

WILL HUTTON ON CHINA

Distinguished British journalist Will Hutton was in Auckland last week for the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival but sadly I couldn't get to his session so I was delighted to find that Chris Barton had interviewed him in the Weekend Herald yesterday.

Hutton's book, The Writing on the Wall, China & the West in the 21st Century has quickly become required reading for al interested in China.

Barton's interview is worth a read.

Author pic by Dean Purcell.

ON CHESIL BEACH

This reviewer writing in the New York Times was not impressed.

ROWLING BACKS IDEA OF HARRY POTTER THEME PARK

The Times reports that JK has given the project the thumbs up...........

GUARDIAN CHILDRENS BOOK PRIZE LONGLIST

Julia Eccleshare introduces this year's long list of eight titles

Victoria University Press tops the Montana New Zealand Book Award Nominations

Seven books by seven talented writers have earned Victoria University Press the most shortlisted titles by any one publisher in this year’s Montana New Zealand Book Awards.

Two books each in Fiction (“The Cowboy Dog” by the late Nigel Cox and “The Fainter” by Damien Wilkins) and Poetry (“One Shapely Thing” by Dinah Hawken and “The Year of the Bicycle” by James Brown) plus Tim Beaglehole’s biography of his father, “A Life of J C Beaglehole” are joined by first time writers Michele Amas with “After the Dance” and Airini Beautrais with “Secret Heart” in the Best First Book of Poetry category.

Tied for second place this year with four nominations each are large multi-national Random House NZ Ltd and Te Papa Press, the publishing arm of Te Papa Tongarewa.

Publishing around twenty five books a year, VUP has already had its share of Montana New Zealand Book Award-winning titles with Bill Manhire’s collection of poetry, “Lifted” taking out the Poetry prize last year. Nigel Cox’s “Responsibility” was named as runner-up in Fiction while the anthology edited by Damien Wilkins, “Great Sporting Moments: The Best of Sport Magazine 1988-204” won the Reference and Anthology prize in the 2006 awards.

Previous VUP Fiction winners include Elizabeth Knox for “The Vintner’s Luck” (1999) and Annamarie Jagose for “Slow Water” (2004).

Bookman Beattie extends his warmest congratulations to VUP publisherFergus Barrowman and his small, talented team.

Ground-breaking Maori dictionary a Montana New Zealand Book Awards finalist

Another release this am from Booksellers New Zealand (they must have been working all through the night!):

The first-ever monolingual Maori dictionary is a finalist in this year’s Montana New Zealand Book Awards.

Tirohia Kimihia, written by Huia Publishers for the Ministry of Education competes in the reference and anthology section of the Montana New Zealand Book Awards alongside An Illustrated Guide to New Zealand Hebes by Michael Bayly and Alison Kellow and Furniture of the New Zealand Colonial Era: An Illustrated History 1830-1900 by William Cottrell.

The learner dictionary took a team of five linguists seven years to complete.

Huia Publishing Managing Director, Robyn Bargh said the dictionary, sends a powerful message to learners of the language that the world can be described and discussed entirely through the medium of Maori rather than English.

‘Total immersion in a language is known to be the fastest way to learn; there was a real need for a monolingual Maori dictionary and it’s a major milestone that Tirohia Kimihia is published.’

Montana New Zealand Book Awards Te Reo advisor, Hone Apanui says the dictionary is long overdue, particularly with the renaissance of te reo Màori over the past decade.

‘Tirohia Kimihia is the first all Máori language dictionary aimed at learners of Máori,’ Mr Apanui says.

Tirohia Kimihia is unique in that the words have been chosen based on their frequency of use. There are approximately 3500 headwords in the dictionary, and more than 6000 meanings are defined. The focus of the dictionary is on content words, so the headwords are mostly verbs, nouns and adjectives.

The principal sponsors of the Montana New Zealand Book Awards are Montana and Creative New Zealand. The awards are managed by Booksellers New Zealand and supported by Book Publishers Association of New Zealand, the New Zealand Society of Authors and Book Tokens (NZ) Ltd.


The 2007 Montana New Zealand Book Awards winners will be announced at a gala dinner on Monday July 30th at Sky City Convention Centre.


Pukapuka Taki Kupu Màori kua uru ki ngà tohu pukapuka a Montana

Kua tau he pukapuka taki kupu Màori ki roto i ngà tohu pukapuka otinga a Montana, koia pea te pukapuka pènei i te ao kua tàia ki te reo Màori anake.

Kei te whakataetae a Kimihia Tirohia, nà Huia i tuhi mà Te Tàhuhu o Te Màtauranga, i roto i te wàhanga whakapuaki - paenga kòrero o Ngà Tohu Pukapuka a Montana. Kei tòna taha ko An Illustrated Guide to New Zealand Hebes nà Michael Bayly ràua ko Alison Kellow me Furniture of the New Zealand Colonial Era: An Illustrated History 1830-1900 nà William Cottrell.

E whitu tau ètahi tohunga reo e rima e hanga ana i te pukapuka àkonga nei.

I kì a Robyn Bargh te Kaità matua o Huia, ko te mea nui kei te puta i te pukapuka nei ki ngà àkonga o te reo ko tènei, ka taea te ao te kòrero mà te reo Màori anake kaua noa mà te reo Ingarihi.

‘Kei te mòhiotia ko te rumaki reo te ara tere ki te ako i te reo; nà runga i tènei mòhio i kitea he wàhi mò tètahi pukapuka taki kupu i roto i te reo Màori anake, à, he mea nui tènei kua puta a Tirohia, Kimihia.’

I kì a Hòne Apanui, te kaitohutohu Màori mò ngà Tohu Pukapuka a Montana, kua tae kè te wà mò tètahi pukapuka taki kupu pènei, kitea nei te aranga ake o te reo i roto i ngà tau tekau kua hipa.

I kì anò a Hone Apanui, ‘Ko Tirohia Kimihia te pukapuka taki kupu tuatahi kei te reo Màori anake, à, koia anò te tuatahi i tuhia mò ngà àkonga o te reo Màori.’

He rerekè a Tirohia Kimihia i te mea i kòwhiria ngà kupu i runga i te whakamahi i te wà o aua kupu. Tata ki te 3500 ngà kupu matua, à, kei kò atu i te 6000 ngà tikanga kua whakamàramatia. Whakatau ai te pukapuka taki kupu nei i ngà kupu whai take, nà reira ko te nuinga o ngà kupu matua he kupu mahi, he kupu ingoa, he kupu tohu momo.

Ko Montana me Creative New Zealand ngà kaitautoko matua o Ngà Tohu Pukapuka a Montana o Aotearoa. Nà Booksellers New Zealand i whakahaere ngà tohu nei, à, nà te Book Publishers Association me te New Zealand Society of Authors and Book tokens (NZ) Ltd i àwhina.

Ka pànuitia ngà kaiwhiwhi o ngà Tohu Pukapuka o Montana Aotearoa i te hàkari o te Mane te 30 o Hurae ki te Sky City Convention Centre. ENDS

Literary Critic Awards Celebrate a Decade of Excellence

This just in from Booksellers New Zealand.

The BPANZ Review Awards celebrates its 10th year with a record number of finalists.

Presented each year in conjunction with the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, the BPANZ Review Awards recognise the vital importance of articulate, responsible, informed criticism in maintaining a healthy literary culture.

BPANZ Review Awards judges Lynn Freeman and Jill Rawnsley said choosing the finalists was a formidable task due to the high calibre of entries.

‘We were particularly impressed with the quality of writing, the range of New Zealand and international books reviewed – both in fiction and non-fiction.’

They were also impressed with the selection of reviewers editors had chosen.

The finalists in the BPANZ Reviewer of the Year category not only wrote exceptionally well, they each connected with their material and their audience, they said.

The finalists are: poet, writer and critic, David Eggleton; award-winning writer, Charlotte Grimshaw and veteran critic, writer and academic, Dr Nicholas Reid.

All three finalist reviews were written in the New Zealand Listener.

Print media dominate the BPANZ Review Page or Programme of the Year finalist line-up, taking all three places.

The finalists are: The New Zealand Listener, Metro and Sunday Star-Times.

The BPANZ Review Awards is one of the only avenues that publicly recognise the role of literary critics.


The BPANZ Reviewer of the Year receives a $1,000 prize. Special acknowledgement will also be made for the best broadcast review, best short print review (less than 500 words) and best long print review (more than 500 words).

The awards for BPANZ Best Review Page or Programme Award will be made to the publication, website or programme which presents the best selection of book reviews in a style that is relevant to their target audience.

Special acknowledgement will also be made for the best broadcast review programme, best magazine review pages and best newspaper review pages.

The principal sponsors of the Montana New Zealand Book Awards are Montana and Creative New Zealand. The awards are managed by Booksellers New Zealand and supported by Book Publishers Association of New Zealand, the New Zealand Society of Authors and Book Tokens (NZ) Ltd.
The winners of the BPANZ Review Awards will be announced at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards gala dinner on Monday July 30 at Auckland’s SkyCity

CK STEAD AND LLOYD JONES TO FIGHT OUT MONTANA FICTION AWARD

Booksellers New Zealand has just announced the shortlist for this year's Montana New Zealand Book Awards and here they are:

The full list of finalists in the 2007 Montana New Zealand Book Awards by category are:

Fiction
The Cowboy Dog by Nigel Cox (Victoria University Press)
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (Penguin Books)
My Name Was Judas by C K Stead (Vintage)
Ocean Road by James George (Huia Publishers)
The Fainter by Damien Wilkins (Victoria University Press)

Poetry
One Shapely Thing: Poems and Journals by Dinah Hawken (Victoria University Press)
The Goose Bath by Janet Frame (Vintage)
The Year of the Bicycle by James Brown (Victoria University Press)


Biography
A Life of J C Beaglehole, New Zealand Scholar by Tim Beaglehole (Victoria University Press)
Brief Lives by Chris Price (Auckland University Press)
Douglas Lilburn: His Life and Music by Philip Norman (Canterbury University Press)

History
Chiefs of Industry:Māori Tribal Enterprise in Early Colonial New Zealand by Hazel Petrie (Auckland University Press)
Luca Antara: Passages in Search of Australia by Martin Edmond (East Street Publications)
Vaka Moana – Voyages of the Ancestors edited by K. R. Howe (David Bateman Ltd)

Environment
Extinct Birds of New Zealand by Alan Tennyson and Paul Martinson (Te Papa Press)
Ghosts of Gondwana: The History of Life in New Zealand by George Gibbs (Craig Potton Publishing)
New Zealand: A Natural World Revealed by Tui De Roy and Mark Jones (David Bateman Ltd)

Illustrative
Eagle’s Complete Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand by Audrey Eagle (Te Papa Press)
Julia Morison: a loop around a loop by Justin Paton with essays by Jennifer Hay and Anna Smith (Christchurch Art Gallery and Dunedin Public Art Gallery)
Lake of Coal: The Disappearance of a Mining Township by David Cook (Craig Potton Publishing and Ramp Press)

Lifestyle and Contemporary Culture
Crown Lynn : A New Zealand Icon by Valerie Ringer Monk (Penguin Books)
Kāhui Whetū: Contemporary Māori Art – A Carver’s Perspective by Roi Toia and Todd Couper (Reed Publishing)
Stitch: Contemporary New Zealand Textile Artists by Ann Packer (Random House)

Reference and Anthology
An Illustrated Guide to New Zealand Hebes by Michael Bayly and Alison Kellow (Te Papa Press)
Furniture of the New Zealand Colonial Era: An Illustrated History 1830- 1900 by William Cottrell (Reed Publishing)
Tirohia Kimihia: A Māori Learner Dictionary by Huia Publishers (Ministry of Education)

The winner in each category receives a prize of $5,000. Each category winner is eligible for the Montana Medal for non-fiction or poetry or fiction, both of which carry a prize of $10,000.

The New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA) Best First Book Awards. There are three categories and this year, for the first time, the finalists of these three categories are announced today together with the Montana New Zealand Book Awards category finalists.

The finalists for the NZSA Best First Book Awards are:
Fiction
Davey Darling by Paul Shannon (Penguin Books)
Overdue New Releases by Matt Johnson (Urban by Longacre Press)
The Sound of Butterflies by Rachael King (Black Swan)

Poetry
After the Dance by Michele Amas (Victoria University Press)
Cup by Alison Wong (Steele Roberts)
Secret Heart by Airini Beautrais (Victoria University Press)

Non-fiction
An Illustrated Guide to New Zealand Hebes by Michael Bayly and Alison Kellow (Te Papa Press)
Douglas Lilburn: His Life and Music by Philip Norman (Canterbury University Press)
Furniture of the New Zealand Colonial Era: An Illustrated History 1830- 1900 by William Cottrell (Reed Publishing)

Each NZSA Best First Book Awards category winner receives $2,500.

The principal sponsors of the Montana New Zealand Book Awards are Montana and Creative New Zealand. The awards are managed by Booksellers New Zealand and supported by Book Publishers Association of New Zealand, the New Zealand Society of Authors and Book Tokens (NZ) Ltd.

The winner of the poetry category will be announced on Montana Poetry Day on Friday 27 July 2007.

All other winners including the BPANZ Review Awards will be advised at a gala dinner to be held at Sky City in Auckland on Monday 30 July 2007.

Footnote from Bookman Beattie:
Well well well, an all male final in the fiction category! Surely it must be CK STead or LLoyd Jones? I'm mjust heading off for the weekend so more comment from me on the list overall
in a day or two.

BETHUNES ANNOUNCE RARE BOOK AUCTION

THURSDAY 10 JUNE

Among the books a collection of 15 Tintin titles 1st edition in English.

For the full catalogue click on this link.

A SHORT HISTORY OF TRACTORS IN UKRAINIAN REJECTED 36 TIMES

BEFORE FINDING A PUBLISHER

Marina Lewycka talks to Stephen Moss

from the Guardian at the Hay Festival. Author pic by David Sillitoe.

HOMECOMING FOR

GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ

The master returns to his hometown.

it's official - there is going to be a

HARRY POTTER THEME PARK

This from Mediabistro's GalleyCat this morning......

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