Huge congratulations to Short Review author Petina Gappah, whose collection, An Elegy for Easterly, has won the 2009 Guardian First Book Award, "the second short story writer to win the award in its 10-year history, " says The Guardian today, "the first being Yiyun Li in 2006. Gappah's collection of 13 stories, An Elegy for Easterly, tells of the lives of people, rich and poor, caught up in events over which they have little control."
"The Guardian's literary editor, Claire Armistead, who chaired the judging panel, said she was thrilled to name Gappah as winner, particularly since 2009 is the year of the short story. There had been some wonderful first books, she said, and 'Petina Gappah's humane and disarmingly funny mosaic of life in Zimbabwe is undoubtedly one of the very best.'"
Congratulations, Petina! Read my review of An Elegy for Easterly, an interview with Petina about the collection, and the rest of the Guardian article.
PS I didn't know 2009 was The Year of the Short Story! Did anyone know about this? Oops, it's nearly over. Let's do it again next year.
3 comments:
That's lovely news!
I read of the resurgence of the short story in the Wall Street Journal. Great news! Thanks for this info.
I cant reeeed the comments. How do I change colours?
ooodl;es of congrats to Petina as well. have blogged earlier. and nope, I had NO idea it was the Year of the short story. Who said it was, and where did they say it??
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