literary awards

Every writer wants to be honored with a literary award, certainly, but some of those statuettes aren’t exactly the most aesthetically pleasing trinkets for your mantle.

Canadian author Will Kymlicka's book Multicultural Odysseys: Navigating the New International Politics of Diversity has made the short list for the 2008 Lionel Gelber Prize, which honors the best works on international affairs. The four other nominees for the $15,000 award can be found here.

So you know how to read and people know your name; congratulations, you’re now qualified to sit as a judge for a major literary award. What say you, people? Do we need celebrities to validate literary prizes, or do you see this trend as a positive step toward democratization of reading? Or perhaps it’s simply marketing gone mad.

The fifteen nominees for the year's best work of fiction include Richard Wright, M.G. Vassanji and one of my favorite authors, Michael Ondaatje. They’re vying for one of the most sought after prizes on the Canadian literature scene.

Twenty-eight year old Monica Arac de Nyeko has been awarded the Caine Prize for her short story Jambula Tree. The £10,000 prize is “Africa’s most prestigous literary honor”.