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Orwell Prize
The Orwell Prize is a British prize for political writing. The Prize is awarded by The Orwell Foundation, an independent charity (Registered Charity No 1161563, formerly "The Orwell Prize") governed by a board of trustees. Four prizes are awarded each year: one each for a fiction (established 2019) and non-fiction book on politics, one for journalism and one for "Exposing Britain's Social Evils" (established 2015); between 2009 and 2012, a fifth prize was awarded for blogging. In each case, the winner is the short-listed entry which comes closest to George Orwell's own ambition to "make political writing into an art". In 2014, the Youth Orwell Prize was launched, targeted at school years 9 to 13 in order to "support and inspire a new generation of politically engaged young writers". In 2015, The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain's Social Evils, sponsored and supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, was launched. The British political theorist Sir Bernard Crick founded The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Orwell Foundation
The Orwell Foundation is a charity registered in England and Wales, the aim of which is "to perpetuate the achievements of the British writer George Orwell (1903–1950)". The Foundation runs the Orwell Prize, the UK's most prestigious prize for political writing. In addition to the Prizes, the Orwell Foundation also runs free public events, debates and lectures and provides free online resources by and about Orwell. Since 2014, they have also run "Unreported Britain". The Orwell Youth Prize, a separate charity, work with young people aged 12–18 around the UK. The Orwell Youth Prize organises writing workshops for young people and runs a writing prize, culminating in an annual Celebration Day. The foundation is based at University College London, and is a registered charity no. 1161563. Orwell Prize The Orwell Prize, established in 1994, is an annual award recognising and rewarding the books and journalism that come closest to realizing Orwell's ambition to "make political writing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Summer (Smith Novel)
''Summer'' is a 2020 novel by Scottish author Ali Smith, first published by Hamish Hamilton. Plot Each novel in Smith’s seasonal series is juxtaposed with a work of Shakespeare – in this one, it is A Winter's Tale. All of the books also topically examine everyday life in Britain. Summer, written between January and summer 2020, covered the conclusion of the Brexit process, and takes in COVID-19 lockdown, and Black Lives Matter protests, alongside continuing focus on immigration. Each novel references work of a female artist, in this case, Lorenza Mazzetti. Summer focuses on teenagers Sacha, a young activist, her brother Robert, a disaffected individualist, children of Grace Greenlaw, a former actress. It brings back characters from the first two books in the quartet, exploring the youth of Daniel Gluck, who compares immigration detention centres to his internment in WWII, as well as the return of Charlotte from the periphery of Winter. Reception According to Book Mark ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birnam Wood (novel)
''Birnam Wood'' is the third novel by New Zealand writer Eleanor Catton. Published in February 2023, the novel follows members of guerilla gardening collective Birnam Wood as, with the help of a charismatic tech billionaire, they undertake a new project on abandoned farmland. Like her previous novel '' The Luminaries'', the book is set in a fictionalised New Zealand, primarily in and around a national park in the South Canterbury region. The title is taken from a line in ''Macbeth''. Plot Mira Bunting and Shelley Noakes are members of Birnam Wood, a gardening collective who plant and tend illegal gardens around Christchurch. While reading about a landslide blocking the Korowai Pass Road, Mira sees an opportunity for the group in a seemingly abandoned farm in the nearby rural town of Thorndike. The farm's owner is Owen Darvish, an entrepreneur and conservationist. Mira takes a trip to the farm to scope out the land, but is discovered by Robert Lemoine, a tech billionaire to who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eleanor Catton
Eleanor Catton (born 1985) is a New Zealand novelist and screenwriter. Born in Canada, Catton moved to New Zealand as a child and grew up in Christchurch. She completed a master's degree in creative writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters. Her award-winning debut novel, '' The Rehearsal'', written as her Master's thesis, was published in 2008, and has been adapted into a 2016 film of the same name. Her second novel, '' The Luminaries'', won the 2013 Booker Prize, making Catton the youngest author ever to win the prize (at age 28) and only the second New Zealander. It was subsequently adapted into a television miniseries, with Catton as screenwriter. In 2023, she was named on the ''Granta'' Best of Young British Novelists list. Early life Catton was born in Canada in 1985, where her father was a graduate student completing his doctorate at the University of Western Ontario on a Commonwealth scholarship. Her mother Judith is a New Zealander from Canterbury, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caleb Azumah Nelson
Caleb Azumah Nelson (born 1993) is a British–Ghanaian writer and photographer. His 2021 debut novel, '' Open Water'', won the Costa Book Award for First Novel. Personal life Azumah Nelson grew up in Bellingham in South East London and currently lives in South East London. For the first six years of his life, he lived with his maternal grandmother after she moved to London from Ghana, though she eventually returned to her home country. He was educated at a local "predominantly black primary school" before obtaining a scholarship to the independent Alleyn's School London in Dulwich, where he was "one of only four black kids in the year." He graduated from Coventry University with a sports science degree. Beyond writing and photography, Azumah Nelson played violin for 10 years. As a teenager was also a talented basketball player with aspirations of playing in Europe and perhaps getting a sports scholarship to an American university; however, he badly dislocated his right shou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust Limited. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of ''The Guardian'' in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of ''The Guardian'' free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for ''The Guardian'' the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in its journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The editor-in-chief Katharine Viner succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The New Life (Crewe Novel)
''The New Life'' is the 2023 debut novel of British writer Tom Crewe. It is a work of historical fiction set in 1890s London and tells the story of two men collaborating on a study favouring civil rights for what were then called "sexual inverts" and now as the gay community. The work is a historical imagining of LGBT rights before the late 20th century gay rights movement. The novel received widespread critical acclaim, and won the 2023 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. Inspiration ''The New Life'' was inspired by "the true story of John Addington Symonds and Henry Havelock Ellis, who worked together on one of the first medical texts about human sexuality," ''Sexual Inversion.'' While discussing the book's inspiration with ''Shelf Awareness'', Crewe explained that, approximately a decade before ''The New Life'' was published, he had "read Phyllis Grosskurth's 1964 biography of John Addington Symonds and became interested in the aspects of the 19th-century gay experience" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Vanishing Half
''The Vanishing Half'' is a historical fiction novel by American author Brit Bennett. It is her second novel and was published by Riverhead Books in 2020. The novel debuted at number one on ''The New York Times'' fiction best-seller list. HBO acquired the rights to develop a limited series with Bennett as executive producer. ''The Vanishing Half'' garnered acclaim from book critics, and Emily Temple of Literary Hub noted that in 2020 it was the book most frequently listed among the year's best, making 25 lists. Synopsis ''The Vanishing Half'' is a multi-generational family saga set from the 1940s–1990s and centers on identical twin sisters Desiree and Estelle "Stella" Vignes and their daughters Jude and Kennedy, respectively. Desiree and Stella are black and have exceptionally light skin. They are raised in the fictional town of Mallard, Louisiana where the residents are exclusively people with light skin. Desiree and Stella witness the lynching of their father in the 1940s a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Death Of Vivek Oji
''The Death of Vivek Oji'' is a novel by Nigerian writer Akwaeke Emezi. It was published on 4 August 2020 by Riverhead Books. The novel recounts the life and death of protagonist Vivek Oji. It is Emezi's second adult novel after ''Freshwater''. The book received critical attention and was an instant ''New York Times'' best seller. Plot A Nigerian man named Chika is married to an Indian immigrant, Kavita. They have one son, Vivek Oji, who was born on the day his grandmother Ahunna died. Vivek has a birthmark on his heel that matches a scar on Ahunna's foot. On the same day that a riot destroys a local marketplace, Kavita finds Vivek’s nude body wrapped in cloth and laid on her doorstep; the narrative then explores the years of Vivek’s life and death in a non-linear narrative. Vivek’s spirit occasionally comments on the narrative. Vivek grows up with his cousin Osita. As a teenager, he begins experiencing blackouts. Osita’s parents Mary and Ekene (Chika’s brother) h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leave The World Behind (novel)
''Leave the World Behind'' is a 2020 novel by Rumaan Alam, published by Ecco. In 2023, the novel was adapted into a feature film by Netflix. Plot summary A family consisting of parents Amanda and Clay and their children Archie and Rose drive to a remote area on Long Island, where they have rented an expensive house for a vacation. One night, a couple, George and Ruth, arrive at the house unexpectedly. They claim to be the owners of the house and explain their presence as due to a blackout in the city, offering a partial refund in return for George and Ruth staying in part of the house. Amanda receives news of a blackout across the East Coast of the United States, but she remains suspicious of George and Ruth. Clay insists on letting George and Ruth stay. The phone, television, and Internet services at the house fail. The next day, it is hotter than usual, and Rose sees dozens of deer outside the house, later seeing thousands more deer. Clay leaves the deer alone, wanting to d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
