London Award Finalists Announced!

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The International Union of Writers has announced the finalists the the London Literary Awards, a new and ambitious five-yearly award given in six categories to writers in the Russian and English literary communities. And I believe I've scooped the major news outlets!

 

 Here's their press release:

 

Major New Literary Award Announced by International Union of Writers

 

The International Union of Writers (IUW) is pleased to announce the creation of the international London Literary Award, to be presented once every five years. The award will bring together some of the finest authors from around the globe, as well as promoting new writers on the world stage.

 

The goal of the London Literary Award is to encourage communication between English-language and Russian-language writers and two to create a common cultural space for sharing and understanding between these two great literary communities.

 

The London Literary Award will be given out in six categories:

 

The Charles Dickens Award for novels, short fiction, or journalism.

 

The Lord George Noël Gordon Byron Award for poetry or essays

 

The Samuel Johnson Award for criticism.

 

The William Shakespeare Award for dramatic works.

 

The Lewis Carroll Award for science fiction and fantasy.

 

The Mikhail L. Lozinsky Award for literary translation from Russian to English and English to Russian.

 

Each award will be given in three categories: New Authors, Established Authors, and Grand Masters. Our jury has compiled a preliminary list of finalists, each of whom, in our opinion is deserving of the title, Best Author of the Year. From this, a short list of finalists (listed below) was chosen.

 

Recognizing the difficulty of comparing works written in different languages, each award will be given out to one Russian-language author and one English-language author.

 

Our jurors have been working since 2018 to compile long lists of worthy writers and then to pare those down to the short lists below. Making the preliminary lists is an accomplishment in itself. So all finalists will receive medals and certificates from the International Union of Writers.

 

The English language long list for the Charles Dickens Award (Grand Master) is as follows:

 

            Woody Allen (USA)

            Dan Brown (USA)

            William Gibson (Canada)

            Joe Hill (USA)

            Peter Ackroyd (Great Britain)

            Kazuo Ishiguro Great Britain)

            J. K. Rowling (Great Britain)

            Stephen Fry (Great Britain)

            Tibor Fischer (Great Britain)

            Alexandra Adornetto (Australia)

            Birimbir Wongar (Australia)

            Richard Glover (Australia)

            Bradley Trevor Greive (Australia)

            Greg Egan (Australia)

            Eleanor Catton (Great Britain)

            Nick Cave (Australia)

            Peter Carey (Australia)

            Desmond O'Grady (Australia)

            Lex Marinos (Australia)

             Kiril Kadiiski (Bulgaria)

            Wilbur Smith (Republic of Zambia)

            Dina Rubina (Israel)

            Colm Tóibín (Ireland)

            Yu Jie (China)

            Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Lebanon)

            Laimonas Tapinas (Lithuania)

            Laila Lalami (Morocco)

            Robert MacNeil (Canada)

            Dorota Maslowska (Poland)

            Pier Bayar, Alain Fleischer (France)

            Antjie Krog (South Africa)

            John Maxwell Coetzee (Australian)

            Mongane Wally Serote (South Africa)

            Marlene van Niekerk (South Africa)

            Jonny Steinberg (South Africa)

 

The finalists of the Award in all categories have already been announced at our website:  https://inwriter.org/

 T he winners will be announced on December 11^th, 2020. Initially, it was planned to hold the award ceremony in London, so that the winners could get to know each other and their fans. Plans were made to include a tour of the city’s historical and literary sites, starting with Westminster Abbey and ending with 221B Baker Street, the address of Sherlock Holmes. However, due to the pandemic, such a large gathering is not currently possible. So the awards will be held online, with the time and location to be announced shortly.

 

Russian winners will receive a grant to translate their book so it can be published in the UK. For the winner of the William Shakespeare Award for Drama, the winner’s play will be produced on the stage of the Royal Court Theater.

 

For further information or for a complete set of the long lists, please contact the IUW at info@inwriter.ru.

 

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