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that national book list is pretty funny: not many categories at the beginning and then they gradually pile up then after '83 its back to fiction/non- ?!
but as far as fiction goes it seems to be the one that follows a lot of the book threads on ile: a lot of faves for ilxors are on there.
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 19 December 2003 09:28 (twenty years ago) link
two weeks pass...
i hate possession-sorry. i buy a lot of books based on book prize lists because i usually find them in the second hand bookstores. but i am more pro-Booker. probably because i sometimes don't feel myself being able to relate to the Pulitzer prize winners. so far all the national book awards i've read have made me wary. but then again the US/UK divide do not apply to me since i don't reside in either. it's often true though- the shortlist is usually more interesting than the actual winner.
― unfazed, Thursday, 8 January 2004 18:25 (twenty years ago) link
The International
Impac Dublin Literary Award, though not that old (it began in 1996) usually produces an eclectic high-quality short list of international titles. Nominations are provided by libraries.
It was through the IMPAC award that I discovered No Great Mischief by Alistair Macleod, one of my favorite books of the past five years.
― charles hanson (whynotsneeze), Thursday, 8 January 2004 18:54 (twenty years ago) link
William Gass has a hilarious little essay on the subect of book awards "Pulitzer, The People's Prize" in Finding a Form, in which he writes that "the Pulitzer Prize in fiction takes dead aim at mediocrity and almost never misses." It's generally difficult to argue with, and ends up being almost an artefact of the prize-selection process. Also cf. Michael Kinsley's (I believe it was Kinsley) somewhat disturbing recounting of his own appearance in a prize jury, wherein he barely was able to read any of the books under consideration (which seemed also to be the case for a number of the jurors, and which led to generally disinterested yea or nay votes, and attention paid only to those books that had already received attention, that were, so to speak, pre-accredited).
Myself, I tend to trust the book awards not at all; even the National Book Award committee, recently, seems always to agree with the trade publications. (The Shipping News? _Really_?) The short-story awards tend to be somewhat more useful, just because the idea, there, is to provide a _selection_ of praiseworthy stories, all of which are likely to have been read by the editors (whose names are often right there on the collection cover, for better or worse, whether Oates or Elkin or Wideman). This way a number of different criteria can be applied, and the stories can be taken on their own terms. On the other hand, any prize offered to merely a single book is all too likely to be influenced by the implied politics of the choice, leading to selections of books that very neatly fit the "specifications" of an award-winning book. While this can lead to true classics being chosen, it's more or equally likely to pander to moralistic or salvationist treacle.
As far as I can tell, the book awards have been chugging along on their own steam, with very little relevance to quality (above a certain measure of literacy/canniness), and will continue to do so. It shouldn't really be a point of bitterness, as long as one understands that winning one of the major awards is a boon akin to winning a lottery, not winning a footrace.
M.
― Matthew K (mtk), Monday, 12 January 2004 16:35 (twenty years ago) link
I've stopped paying attention to US prizes and focus on the UK
awards. The Pulitzer has become too hit-and-missed and last
listing of National Book Awards bored me to tears!
― Steve Walker (Quietman), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 01:58 (twenty years ago) link
I in fact go out of my way to avoid books that have received some sort of award. They're usually the worst, with only a very few exceptions.
― writingstatic (writingstatic), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 03:03 (twenty years ago) link
three weeks pass...
I tend to investigate the Booker shortlist, the National Book Award shortlist, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. I'm iffy on the Pulitzers, having agreed with some choices and disagreed with other. But I do seek out the books considered for awards by the American Library Association, and am a sucker for anything that wins the Newbery and Caldecott awards.
Here's a link to a site with lots and lots of links to literary award sites: Literature Awards.
― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Thursday, 5 February 2004 11:45 (twenty years ago) link
eight years pass...
From the little I could glean from the wikipedia article, it appears that the James Joyce prize is awarded by a society of university students, whose callow judgment is well-reflected in the list of recipients.
― Aimless, Tuesday, 29 January 2013 18:44 (eleven years ago) link