Tuesday 8 July 2008

Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award


This competition went straight from a longlist to a winner.

Now entering its fourth year, the award, which offers a cash prize of 35,000 euro provided by Cork City Council, with media sponsorship by the Irish Times and in the gift of the Munster Literature Centre, goes from strength to strength.

The winner is Jhumpa Lahiri for Unaccustomed Earth.
dazzling tales of assimilation take readers from Calcutta to Cambridge

and she's won the Pulizer too as well as being beautiful. Is there's anything she can't do? Can she sing in tune?

Click here for interviews with various writers on their reactions to being on the longlist. Note there are 8 from Salt publishing in the UK. They're obviously doing something right.

IRELAND (5 authors)

Mary Rochford (IRELAND)
Gilded Shadows
Tia Publishing, Birmingham, UK
Mary O’Donnell (IRELAND)
Storm over Belfast
New Island, Dublin, Ireland
Gerard Donovan (IRELAND)
Country of the Grand
Faber & Faber Ltd, London, UK
Anne Enright (IRELAND)
Taking Pictures
Jonathan Cape – The Random House Group, London, UK
Roddy Doyle (IRELAND)
The Deportees and other stories
Jonathan Cape – The Random House Group, London, UK
BRITAIN (14 authors including 8 authors from Salt Publishing)

James Waddington (BRITAIN)
Torc
Ogo Press, Honley, Holmfirth, UK
Clare Wigfall (BRITAIN)
The Loudest Sound and Nothing
Faber & Faber Ltd, London, UK
Niki Aguirre (BRITAIN)
29 Ways to Drown
Flipped Eye Publishing, Manchester, UK
Wendy Perriam (BRITAIN)
Little Marvel and Other Stories
Robert Hale Limited, London, UK
David Gaffney (BRITAIN)
Aroma Bingo
Salt Publishing Ltd, Cambridge, Uk
Carys Davies (BRITAIN)
Some New Ambush
Salt Publishing Ltd, Cambridge, Uk
Elizabeth Baines (BRITAIN)
Balancing on the Edge of the World
Salt Publishing Ltd, Cambridge, Uk
Padrika Tarrant (BRITAIN)
Broken Things
Salt Publishing Ltd, Cambridge, Uk
Linda Cracknell (BRITAIN)
The Searching Glance
Salt Publishing Ltd, Cambridge, Uk
William Guy (BRITAIN)
The I Love You Book
Salt Publishing Ltd, Cambridge, Uk
Vanessa Gebbie (BRITAIN)
Words From a Glass Bubble
Salt Publishing Ltd, Cambridge, Uk
Richard Bardsley (BRITAIN)
Body Parts – The Anatomy of Love
Salt Publishing Ltd, Cambridge, Uk
Robert Shearman (BRITAIN)
Tiny Deaths
Comma Press, Manchester, Uk
Adam Marek (BRITAIN)
Instruction Manual for Swallowing
Comma Press, Manchester, Uk

AUSTRALIA (4 authors)

John Clancy (AUSTRALIA)
Her Father’s Daughter
University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia Queensland, Australia
Susan Midalia (AUSTRALIA)
A History of the Beanbag
Uwa Press, Crawley, Australia
Kathryn Lomer (AUSTRALIA)
Camera Obscura
University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia Queensland, Australia
Nam Le (VIETNAM-AUSTRALIA)
The Boat
Canongate Books Limited, Edinburgh, UK

NEW ZEALAND (4 authors)

Tim Jones (NEW ZEALAND)
Transported
Random House New Zealand Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand
Sue Orr (NEW ZEALAND)
Etiquette for a Dinner Party
Random House New Zealand Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand
Elizabeth Smither (NEW ZEALAND)
The Girl Who Proposed
Cape Catley Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand
Witi Ihimaera (NEW ZEALAND)
Ask The Posts Of The House
Raupo Publishing Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand

USA (8 authors)

Jhumpa Lahiri (USA)
Unaccustomed Earth
Alfred A. Knopf Inc., Random House Inc., New York, Usa
Wanda Coleman (USA)
Jazz and Twelve O’Clock Tales
Black Sparrow Books, Boston, Massachusetts, Usa
Benjamin Percy (USA)
Refresh, Refresh
Jonathan Cape – The Random House Group, London, Uk
Janet Kauffman (USA)
Trespassing – Dirt Stories and Field Notes
Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Usa
Jim Shepard (USA)
Like you’d understand, anyway
Alfred A. Knopf Inc., Random House Inc., New York, Usa
Marianne Herrmann (USA)
Signaling For Rescue
New Rivers Press, Moorhead, MN, Usa
Don Waters (USA)
Desert Gothic
University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, Usa
Donald Ray Pollock (USA)
Knockemstiff
Harvill Secker Editorial – The Random House Group Ltd, London, UK

CANADA

Alison MacLeod (CANADA)
Fifteen Modern Tales of Attraction
Hamish Hamilton, London, UK

SINGAPORE

Wena Poon (SINGAPORE)
Lions in Winter: stories
MPH Group Publishing, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

TAIWAN

Egoyan Zheng (Qian-Ci Zheng) (TAIWAN)
Urn’s Bottom Village Stories
Press Store Publishing Co., Taichung City, Taiwan

NIGERIA

Tubal R. Cain (NIGERIA)
Dandaula and Other African Tales
Precious Styles Nigeria Limited, Jebba, Kwara State, Nigeria

9 comments:

Ossian said...

Terribly bad form to lunge for the winner like that. It's a bit wham bam thank you ma'am. Not even a romantic dinner first.

If Henry Fonda had been on the jury, that never would have happened. You can play the whole film and imagine the jury's deliberation exactly paralleling it.

At first they all think it's an open and shut case, Jhumpa is the one. Then in the end, some old cove spills a family picture out of his wallet and breaks down, "Damn these snappers, I tell you, you give them everything and what do you get..! Ok, ok. Not Jhumpa. Give it to Roddy."

(I'd have been the lightweight saying things like, let's chase this contender up the flagpole and see if the cat climbs after her.)

emordino said...

It seems very early for this. Isn't the competition usually around October?

Michelle Dalton said...

I'm halfway through that Gerard Donovan and it's gold. I nearly cried this morning after reading By irish Nights. I hope he continues with the short fiction than the novels.

Group 8 said...

It's a brilliant prize and, pleasingly, 3 women have won it so far (Yiyun Li, Jhumpa L and Miranda July).
There's a bit of debate on this non-shortlisting aspect on my blog, if anyone cares to read more. Post of Sat 5th July.

Emerging Writer said...

Having thought about it, I think the short story as a form needs all the promotion and publicity it can get and a shortlist for such a rich prize would have boosted that enormously. What do you think?

Ossian said...

I hate to hammer away at this but, no, actually - I love to. Anyway, I've been hammered too, it's a cycle of short story judging abuse, you see. But when such a big prize is to be given out, it makes you wonder if there isn't a bit of laziness in this outcome. I mean I got hammered for the opposite - nobody was good enough. If I'd known all I had to do was stick a pin in the list... Anyway, hopefully Rana Dasgupta will find one worthy contender next time in the Willesden, where Zadie didn't. Now I'm just off to play some torch songs.

Ossian said...

I'm thinking of publishing my next collection under the soubriquet of August NGogo Whangshi, and hiring a nubile dolly girl to pose on the flyleaf. Some little sleight of words to get away with it, and next minute, there I am stepping up to accept the Man Booker with everyone thinking, God - is that Grayson Perry?

Emerging Writer said...

Is Willesden running again? Ooo. But she is really beautiful. I hope my publicity photos are as striking (some hope. I might use my baby photo).

Writing For My Life said...

The thing about the longlist, as far as I know, is that it comprises all the books entered for the competition. I agree that a shortlist would have been helpful in promoting short stories. There can be no question, though, that Jhumpa Lahiri is one of the current heavyweights of literature, a great talent and, I'd imagine, a popular winner. Plus, a condition of the award is that the winner comes to Cork to read during the festival in October.
In previous years, the winner was announced at a ceremony and the shortlisted writers were all present. Maybe that is part of the reason for skipping the shortlist stage...