Rushdie aims for literary hat-trick as Booker marks 40th anniversary May 13, 2008
The shortlisted titles, which also include Pat Barker's The Ghost Road, Peter Carey's Oscar and Lucinda, J M Coetzee's Disgrace, Nadine Gordimer's The Conservationist and J G Farrell's The Siege of Krishnapur, where chosen by a judging panel. But the overall winner will be decided by votes from the public. (Independent)
Rushdie tipped for Booker treble May 12, 2008
JM Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer and JG Farrell are also in the running for the prize marking 40 years of the Booker. The award, which will be voted for by the public, will be presented at London's Literary Festival on 10 July. (BBC News)
Rushdie hot favourite to win 'The Best of the Booker' award May 12, 2008
The other five authors in the race are Pat Barker (The Ghost Road), Peter Carey (Oscar and Lucinda), J M Coetzee (Disgrace), J G Farrell (The Siege of Krishnapur) and Nadine Gordimer (The Conservationist) ... Second favourite is Pat Barker at 3/1, followed by Peter Carey 4/1 and J M Coetzee 5/1, Nadine Gordimer 8/1 and JG Farrell 10/1. (NDTV.com)
Rushdie favourite for best Booker Prize winner award May 12, 2008
South African author Nadine Gordimer is shortlisted for The Conservationist (1974), while Australian author Peter Carey is nominated for Oscar and Lucinda (1988), the first of his two Booker prize winners. The Ghost Road , by British writer Pat Barker, a winner in 1995, is also on the shortlist, which was drawn up by a panel of judges. (India Times, India)
Causing a commotion Apr 19, 2008
I had read voraciously, loved and sought to learn from writers as disparate as Joyce, Scott Fitzgerald, the Bront s, Flora Thompson, Chekhov, Gogol, Flaubert, Mary Webb, Constance Holme, Colette and Nadine Gordimer. But it was from Ernest Hemingway that I learnt the lesson of pruning my prose. (Guardian Unlimited -- Books)
'Let's have men-only book prize too' Apr 16, 2008
"The Scottish author Allan Massie highlighted the number of women who had won the Booker Prize, Britain's top literary award, from Nadine Gordimer in 1974 to Kiran Desai in 2006. He was a judge in 1988 when the female author PD James chaired the panel, and he said: "I don't think there was any anti-female discrimination. "SHORTLISTED AUTHORSThe Orange Broadband Prize is open to any woman writing in English, whatever her nationality, country of residence, age or subject matter.SADIE JONES: The... (Scotsman)
Kalima Unveils Three New Titles at London Book Fair Apr 10, 2008
"It is great that publishers are now recognising the opportunities in the Arab world. Organisations like Kalima can help the international publishing industry access this largely untapped market of 300 million Arabic speakers." At its official launch last November, Kalima announced a list of the first 100 candidate titles to be translated and published in Arabic, with the following titles now completed: - Il Segno (The Sign), Umberto Eco - The Halo Effect, Phil Rosenzweig - The Future of Human... (PR Newswire)
The Fake Memoirist's Survival Guide Mar 7, 2008
But none other than Nadine Gordimer made the mistake of , Ronald Suresh Roberts, that she had fabricated parts of an autobiographical essay published in The New Yorker in 1954. She hasn't denied his account but accused Roberts of a breach of trust. (Slate)
Canucks in running for Best of the Booker Feb 23, 2008
Winners of the award constitute a who's who of authors from the U.K., Ireland and the Commonwealth, ranging from Ian McEwan and John Banville to Nadine Gordimer and Peter Carey. Anne Enright scooped up last year's prize with The Gathering, in which dark secrets shape an Irish family. (StarPhoenix)
Winter Books Feb 1, 2008
Nadine Gordimer's latest collection of stories is not her strongest, but coming as it does toward the end of a 60-plus-year career, its inventiveness is impressive. Half the pieces, like the comic "Tape Measure," written from the perspective of a tapeworm, feel somewhat miscellaneouslightly erotic, satirical, sketchyyet they enliven a landscape that might otherwise appear unremittingly bleak. (Slate)
In probing race, a South African writer speaks to the universal Jan 16, 2008
In her latest story collection, Nadine Gordimer carries the reader to her familiar landscape: South Africa after apartheid, a country with 11 official languages and more shades of skin color. She also asks a familiar post-colonial question: Can a white liberal, migr or native, find a place in this country where the "standard of privilege" changes with each regime. (Boston Globe)
Literary grandees lobby EU-Africa summit Dec 6, 2007
In an open letter released this week, writers including Wole Soyinka, Gunter Grass, Nadine Gordimer, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie called for Zimbabwe and Darfur to be put on the meeting's agenda. "The EU-Africa summit presents an opportunity to address the biggest issues affecting our people," said the Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka. (Guardian Unlimited -- Books)
REQUIRED READING Nov 25, 2007
(Twelve/Hachette)The. by Marie Phillips (Little, Brown). (New York Post -- Opinions)
Translation project to bring cream of foreign writers to Arabs Nov 22, 2007
Other titles due out in Arabic this year are by Nadine Gordimer, Khaled Hosseini, Albert Camus, George Eliot, Albert Einstein, Jacques Lacan and Spinoza. Muhammad al-Mazrouei, of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, which is financing the translation and publishing project, said: "We want to give Arabic readers the opportunity to read and enjoy a breadth of quality writing from around the world in their mother tongue. Arabic is a beautifully expressive language, and one that should... (Guardian Unlimited)
Public radio Nov 10, 2007
Hanna Krall, The Woman from Hamburg, read by Hope Davis; Nadine Gordimer, The First Sense, read by Joanna Gleason; E. Canin, Vivian, Fort Barnwell, read by Steven Gilborn. 10 p.m. In Other Words. (Montana Standard, MT)
Ex-Dissidents Hopeful for Myanmar Sep 30, 2007
In another letter last week, Nobel literature laureate Nadine Gordimer, known for her works about the inhumanity of apartheid in her native South Africa, appealed to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to do something "in the name of shared humanity.". "No one anywhere in our world who respects the sanctity of life, justice and the freedom of people to demand reconciliation of conflict through peaceful means can turn aside from the spectacle of Burma," she said. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- World)
We review Vusi's latest album Sep 4, 2007
As Nadine Gordimer famously once said: "Vusi Mahlasela sings as a bird does: in total response to being alive. Music was at heart at the struggle for freedom; Vusi was there. Music is at the heart of reconstruction: Vusis music is here to stir and delight us. Hes a national treasure.". After three years spent winning audiences in Europe and the USA its good to have him back even if its only on CD.. (iAfrica.com)
All Together Now Aug 23, 2007
This year's selection for the county is Nadine Gordimer's The Pickup. The 2001 novel by South African writer Nadine Gordimer won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991. (Ithaca Times, NY)
Relive some Madiba magic! Jul 18, 2007
19 September 2006 Ambassador of Conscience Award: Amnesty Internationals most prestigious honour, the Ambassador of Conscience Award, was present to Mandela by South African writer and Nobel laureate, Nadine Gordimer, at his home in Johannesburg. On receiving the award, the retired statesman reiterated that the fight for justice is not over, focussing his attention on poverty. (iAfrica.com)
Turning the page on Pottermania Jul 14, 2007
Before it agreed to take on the first Potter in 1996 legend has it that 12 other publishers had passed on the manuscript and to pay its 31-year-old author a $6,000 advance, it was a medium-sized company, just 10 years old and noted primarily for its roster of adult fictioneers, including Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje and Nadine Gordimer. Pre-Potter it went public in 1994 Bloomsbury's annual revenues floated in the range of $18-million to $20-million. (Globe and Mail -- Entertainment)
A long way from home Jul 11, 2007
Nadine Gordimer, one of the many writers indebted to Achebe for the ground that he broke, described him last month as the "father of modern African literature". She was one of the judges who awarded Achebe, now 76, this year's Man Booker international prize, given every two years for an exceptional lifetime's achievement. (Guardian Unlimited -- Arts)
Love story wins 'African Booker' Jul 11, 2007
The four African winners of the Nobel prize for literature - Wole Soyinka, Nadine Gordimer, Naguib Mahfouz and JM Coetzee - are patrons of the prize. Guardian Unlimited. (Guardian Unlimited -- Books)
Chinua Achebe: The storyteller Jun 16, 2007
As Man Booker judge Nadine Gordimer this week lauded "the father of modern African literature as an integral part of world literature", his cupboard of international awards now looks even more crowded and glittering ... THEY SAY "Chinua Achebe's early work made him the father of modern African literature." - Nadine Gordimer, Nobel laureate. (Independent)
The unseen literary world Jun 14, 2007
Nor was Achebe obscure to the galaxy of writers - including Nobel laureates Wole Soyinka, Toni Morrison and Nadine Gordimer - I heard pay birthday tributes to him at Bard College in upstate New York, where he has taught since a car crash in Nigeria 17 years ago left him in a wheelchair. Yet making the case for profiling Achebe in this paper in 2000, I was struck anew by how towering figures in world literature can fall beneath the radar in the west, or slip from memory. (Guardian Unlimited -- Books)
Awards showcase Nigerian authors Jun 14, 2007
"Chinua Achebe's early work made him the father of modern African literature as an integral part of world literature," said novelist Nadine Gordimer, one of the three judges for the award, in an announcement in London on Wednesday ... Edited for its first 10 years by Nigeria's Achebe, now 76, Heinemann brought Ngugi wa Thiong'o from Kenya and Nadine Gordimer from South Africa and many more to the attention of the international literary world. (Christian Science Monitor -- World)
Chinua Achebe wins Man Booker Prize Jun 14, 2007
Judges for the prize were American author and Princeton University professor Elaine Showalter; South African writer and 1991 Nobel Prize for Literature winner Nadine Gordimer; and Irish author Colm Tibin. In her comment on the prize, Gordimer said, "Chinua Achebe's early work made him the father of modern African literature as an integral part of world literature." Tibin said, "Chinua Achebe has been one of my heroes since I read his book Things Fall Apart.". (Newsday -- Entertainment)
Volunteer Woo gets Gold Star Jun 14, 2007
Chinua Achebe's early work made him the father of modern African literature as an integral part of world literature, said Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer, one of the judges. In 'Things Fall Apart' and his other fiction set in Nigeria, Chinua Achebe inaugurated the modern African novel, said another judge, academic Elaine Showalter. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
Nigeria author wins Booker award Jun 13, 2007
Achebe was called "the father of modern African literature" by writer Nadine Gordimer, one of the judges, who added that he is "integral to world literature". He's what I think writers should be. (BBC News)
Man Booker International judges honour Chinua Achebe Jun 13, 2007
Showalter was joined on the judging panel by the South African novelist Nadine Gordimer and the author Colm To;b;n. Gordimer said of Achebe that he has achieved "what one of his characters brilliantly defines as the writer's purpose: 'a new-found utterance' for the capture of life's complexity. This fiction is an original synthesis of the psychological novel, the Joycean stream of consciousness, the post-modern breaking of sequence. He is a joy and an illumination to read.". (Guardian Unlimited -- Books)
Who said that? Apr 25, 2007
Business Report - Faulty eNatis system stalls release of car sales figures. Online Edition Powered By IOL. (Business Report, South Africa)
Books in brief Apr 24, 2007
A mix of 27 veteran and first-time readers are signed up to perform dramatizations of selected works by Joseph Brodsky, Paul Heyse, Imre Kertesz, Nelly Sachs, Nadine Gordimer, Boris Pasternak, Shmuel Yosef Agnon and Isaac Bashevis Singer. The audience will also learn how the Nobel Prize came to be (and how it almost didn t come to be) and what it takes to win a Nobel Prize. (Albany Democrat-Herald, OR)
- Marcel Berlins Apr 18, 2007
Surprise, surprise, the three judges were an American, an Irishman and a South African (Elaine Showalter, Colm Toibin and Nadine Gordimer). This is not meant to be one of those whinges that the towering genius has been ignored while the talentless hack is included (though I want you to know that I could easily have written such a piece, so bizarre are some of the choices). (Guardian Unlimited)
Poverty is linked to violence, says Sen Apr 18, 2007
"I assume that poverty automatically, without any kind of social intervention, leads to violence," Sen said at the Parktown home of literary laureate Nadine Gordimer. Sen was invited by Gordimer to present the Nadine Gordimer lecture at the University of the Witwatersrand today ... The Nadine Gordimer lecture was founded by the School of Literature and Language Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in 2004 to honour Gordimer's contributions to South African intellectual life and... (Business Report, South Africa)
Who wears the world's literary crown? Man Booker award aims to decide Apr 14, 2007
The judges, of almost matching eminence in their fields, are the US academic Elaine Showalter, the South African novelist Nadine Gordimer, and the Irish writer Colm Toibin. They have the task of picking a winner in June. (Guardian Unlimited -- Arts)
Canadians rule on international Booker prize list Apr 14, 2007
Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer from South Africa, one of the three judges, said yesterday "it is purely coincidental" that three of the 15 nominees for 2007 are Canadian. Indeed, Elaine Showalter, a Princeton University English professor and chairwoman of the judges' panel, stressed that "it was the quality of the writing [that came] first.". (Globe and Mail)
Carey gets nominated Apr 14, 2007
In a statement, the judging panel - academic Elaine Showalter and novelists Nadine Gordimer and Colm Toibin - said the nominees were "diverse in nationality, language, themes and techniques but united in their dedication to the power of the word". Launched in 2004 as a spin-off from Britain's prestigious Booker Prize, the international trophy is awarded every two years to a living author who has published fiction in English or whose work has been translated into English. (The Age, Australia -- Entertainment)
Carey listed for international Booker Prize Apr 13, 2007
The panel of judges is chaired by US literary critic Elaine Showalter and includes writers Nadine Gordimer of South Africa and Colm Toibin of Ireland. The winner will be announced in early June. (ABC Online)
Atwood on World Booker shortlist Apr 13, 2007
In a statement, the judging panel - academic Elaine Showalter and novelists Nadine Gordimer and Colm Toibin - said the nominees were "diverse in nationality, language, themes and techniques but united in their dedication to the power of the word". The inaugural prize for the International Booker was won in 2005 by Albanian writer Ismail Kadare. (BBC News -- Entertainment)
Canadians in contention for Man Booker International Apr 13, 2007
Thursday's list, assembled by a high-powered panel of judges authors Nadine Gordimer from South Africa and Ireland's Colm Tibn as well as Princeton University English professor Elaine Showalter was appropriately eclectic, in terms of both national origin and the oeuvres of the writers. Besides the trio of Canadians, all of whom have are associated with Toronto-based McClelland & Stewart Publishers, the nominees include authors from the U.S. (Don De Lillo, Philip Roth), the United Kingdom (Ian... (Globe and Mail)
Atwood, Roth Among 15 Up for Booker Apr 13, 2007
The judging panel - academic Elaine Showalter and novelists Nadine Gordimer and Colm Toibin - said the nominees were "diverse in nationality, language, themes and techniques but united in their dedication to the power of the word.". The inaugural prize for the International Booker was awarded in 2005 to Albanian writer Ismail Kadare. (Shoals TimesDaily)
Zimbabwe: Symptoms of Decline [analysis] Apr 12, 2007
The annual Indaba, which once hosted Nobel prize-winning authors such as Wole Soyinka and Nadine Gordimer, was reduced to a one-day conference entitled 'Africa - the cradle of conversation. Not only was security and ticket-selling diligently performed by school children, but the overwhelming irony of the title was lost on nobody in a nation where conversing too freely about Mugabe and the heavy-handed ZANU PF ruling party is forbidden under tight media laws. (allAfrica.com)
Why we need another book prize Apr 12, 2007
"More than a few skeptics snarled the question when it was learned that something called "the Man Booker International Prize" was somehow going to be announced at Massey College in Toronto in April, 2007. Between the Giller Prize and the Governor-General's Literary Awards, between the Orange and the Pulitzer and the Prix Goncourt and, well . . . dammit, the annual Booker Prize for Fiction and the bloody Nobel Prize for Literature itself: enough! Well, no. Not enough, in fact. There's never... (Globe and Mail -- Entertainment)
Impac awards announce all-male shortlist Apr 10, 2007
While a number of female literary big-hitters featured at the early stages, including Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer, Booker-winner Margaret Atwood, Orange-winner Ali Smith and Zadie Smith, none made it through to the next stage, resulting in an all-male shortlist. Other big names to miss out include Kazuo Ishiguro, John Banville, Ian McEwan and Haruki Murakami. (Guardian Unlimited -- Books)
Gordimer Gets French Legion Of Honor Apr 3, 2007
South African Author Nadine Gordimer Awarded France's Highest Award ... Nadine Gordimer, above in a file photo, was awarded the decorative medal on at a ceremony over the weekend at the Pretoria home of Denis Pietton, the French ambassador in South Africa ... (AP) Nobel laureate for literature Nadine Gordimer, noted for her work about the inhumanity of apartheid, has become one of just a few South Africans to receive France's highest award, the Legion of Honor. (CBS News)
People: Nadine Gordimer, Martin Sheen, R.E.M., Paris Hilton Apr 3, 2007
Nadine Gordimer, 83, was awarded the French Legion of Honor last weekend. " /> People: Nadine Gordimer, Martin Sheen, R.E.M., Paris Hilton Reuters, The Associated Press, The New York Times Published: April 2, 2007 Add to Clippings Text Size The South African writer and Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer, 83, was awarded the French Legion of Honor last weekend at the home of Denis Pietton, the French ambassador to South Africa. "We also wish to pay tribute to a symbolic figure of the fight against... (International Herald Tribune)
SA writer receives French award Apr 1, 2007
South African novelist and Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer, whose work addresses the struggle against apartheid, received France's Legion of Honour on Saturday at a ceremony in her home country. "By making you an officer of the Legion of Honour, we also wish to pay tribute to a symbolic figure of the fight against apartheid," said French ambassador in South Africa Denis Pietton. (iAfrica.com)
French literature Mar 29, 2007
And, as an example worth following, they point to how literature in English has been enriched by Commonwealth and other foreign writers, among them V. S. Naipaul, Nadine Gordimer, Salman Rushdie, J. M. Coetzee, Kazuo Ishiguro, Ben Okri, Arundhati Roy, Peter Carey and Kiran Desai. Still, the timing of this new campaign is not accidental. (International Herald Tribune)
- Henry Porter Mar 18, 2007
Think of the contributions made by Charles Dickens and George Orwell in Britain, Vaclav Havel in Czechoslovakia, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in the USSR, Nadine Gordimer in South Africa or Orhan Pamuk in Turkey. Our creative writers won't be inspired by the same things because we live in utterly different circumstances. (Guardian Unlimited)
Review: At The Same Time Mar 9, 2007
While praising Victor Serge, Nadine Gordimer and Fernando Pessoa in her speeches, she resurrected an old-fashioned idea of literature as protest. "A great writer of fiction, by writing truthfully about the society in which she or he lives, cannot help but evoke (if only by their absence) the better standards of justice and of truthfulness that we have the right (some would say the duty) to militate for in the necessarily imperfect societies in which we live.". (International Herald Tribune -- Arts)
- Can I make up my own mind? Writers' favourite books Mar 4, 2007
In the circumstances, Mr Zane has done well to scare up replies from, among others, Lorrie Moore, Annie Proulx, Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe, Stephen King and Nadine Gordimer. The two-time Booker winner Peter Carey responded with a mainstream list (Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Fitzgerald, Dickens, Proust), but added a note that summarises deftly the problems inherent in all such enterprises. (Guardian Unlimited)
Mystery Unsolved Mar 3, 2007
Nadine Gordimer wrote in the New York Times Book Review, "One comes away from the in Everyman with the open truth that subservience, sexual connotations aside, is a betrayal of human responsibility." One of the judges tells the Washington Post, "Roth has faced such terrifying truths absolutely straight, and made even this devastating material into a ." Another judge comments to the AP, "Roth never looks away, never trivializes, . He manages to wrestle with grief, the immensity of losing self."... (Slate)
'This stuff matters' Feb 17, 2007
"Although I never really liked things like Rider Haggard and Buchan, I was quite old in school when I first encountered writers such as Peter Abrahams and Nadine Gordimer. This was another view of South Africa as a place through which not only adventurers roamed. Having said that, I don't think we even did South African literature at university." ... "And I greatly admire Nadine Gordimer, who also did some seriously dangerous things way back in her youth. I would have been willing to blow things... (Guardian Unlimited -- Arts)
Quick reads, deep thoughts, lasting enjoyment Feb 7, 2007
"New Sudden Fiction" is Robert Shapard and James Thomas's fourth anthology of short-short stories, featuring works from an international cast of writers including Tobias Wolff, Ha Jin, Nadine Gordimer, and Jorge Luis Arzola. Both teachers of literature and creative writing , Shapard and Thomas kicked around various names -- "experimental fictions," "prose poems," even "enigmas" -- to describe these tiny tales. (Boston Globe -- Living)
Judge berates Nadine Gordimer's biographer Jan 10, 2007
The biographer of the Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer was eviscerated by a South African court today in a savage judgement dismissing a libel action against a local newspaper. Ronald Suresh Roberts, who is also writing an authorised biography of President Thabo Mbeki, sued the Johannesburg Sunday Times for, among other things, describing him in a headline as "unlikeable". (Guardian Unlimited -- Books)
Where the truth lies about lives of the famous Jan 4, 2007
A splendid literary spat has been brewing for some time between Nadine Gordimer, the Nobel prize-winning writer, and her biographer, Ronald Suresh Roberts ... And that should be Nadine Gordimer s comfort too let her words speak. (TimesOnline)
African homecoming| Jan 2, 2007
As Nadine Gordimer famously once said: "Vusi Mahlasela sings as a bird does: in total response to being alive. Music was at heart at the struggle for freedom; Vusi was there. Music is at the heart of reconstruction: Vusi s music is here to stir and delight us. He s a national treasure.". After three years spent winning audiences in Europe and the USA it s good to have him back even if it s only on CD.. (iAfrica.com)
