LONDON — British writer Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for fiction on Tuesday with “Orbital,” a short, wonder-filled novel set aboard the International Space Station that ponders the beauty and fragility of the Earth. Harvey was awarded the 50,000-pound ($64,000) prize for what she has called a “space pastoral” about six orbiting astronauts, which … Read more
British writer Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for fiction on Tuesday with Orbital, a short, wonder-filled novel set aboard the International Space Station. Harvey was awarded the £50,000 (US$64,000) prize for what she has called a “space pastoral” about six astronauts circling the Earth, which she began writing during Covid-19 lockdowns. The confined characters … Read more
Edna O’Brien, Ireland’s literary pride and outlaw who scandalized her native land with her debut novel, The Country Girls, before gaining international acclaim as a storyteller and iconoclast that found her welcomed everywhere from Dublin to the White House, has died. She was 93. O’Brien died Saturday after a long illness, according to a statement by … Read more
Paul Auster, a prolific, prize-winning man of letters and filmmaker known for such inventive narratives and meta-narratives as The New York Trilogy and 4321, has died at age 77. Auster’s death was confirmed on May 1 by his literary representatives, the Carol Mann Agency, which did not immediately provide additional details. Auster had been diagnosed … Read more
Eleanor Catton is among the five North American authors shortlisted for the second iteration of the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. The $150,000 USD ($203,971.50 Cdn) prize recognizes the best fiction book by a woman or non-binary writer from the U.S. and Canada. It is presently the largest international literary prize for women writers. Each of the four remaining finalists will … Read more
