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Latest News / Highlights : National Book Award Winners Announced
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| Posted by admin on 2008/11/20 12:04:34 (20 reads) |
The winners of the 2008 National Book Awards were announced last night, November 19, at the National Book Foundation's 59th National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. The night's ceremonies included the presentation of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters to Maxine Hong Kingston and the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community to publisher Barney Rosset.
This year's National Book Award winners are:
Fiction
Peter Matthiessen, Shadow Country (Modern Library)
Nonfiction
Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (Norton)
Poetry
Mark Doty, Fire to Fire: New and Collected Poems (HarperCollins)
Young People's Literature
Judy Blundell, What I Saw and How I Lied (Scholastic)
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Latest News / Highlights : In Memoriam Michael Crichton 1942 – 2008
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| Posted by admin on 2008/11/6 12:30:00 (27 reads) |
Michael Crichton passed away in Los Angeles today after losing his battle with cancer at the age of 66. Best known as an enormously successful novelist, Crichton also created popular TV Shows such as E.R., directed films, wrote non-fiction, and sparked controversy with some of his scientific views, including his disbelief in global warming.- Julie Johnson |
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Latest News / Highlights : Meet the Author: Annie Vanderbilt
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| Posted by admin on 2008/11/5 12:17:20 (41 reads) |
Where are you from originally?
I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My family started to come to Sanibel for spring vacation before the causeway was built. Twice we crossed by ferry. On our third visit, voila, there was a bridge. In 2002 my husband, Bill, and I drove our truck and camper to Sanibel in search of a place to escape the snows of Ketchum, Idaho, where we've lived for the past 26 years. We found that place on Coconut Drive.
When and why did you begin writing?
I wrote my first novel in my thirties. I had always loved to write. One day when I was thirty-two, I sat down at the typewriter and embarked on my first writing adventure. I was searching for an agent for my completed manuscript when I fell off a cliff while hiking in the canyons of Utah. For the next six years I walked on crutches and a cane, put my first novel in the closet, and ran a cross-country ski touring business with my husband, Bill, so that I could be active in the community, not cooped up at home writing, while I was healing.
What inspired you to write your first book?
The Secret Papers of Madame Olivetti is actually the second novel I have written. (The first was still in the closet when our house in Idaho burned down in 2005.) My protagonist, Lily Crisp, a smart, attractive, sexy woman of a certain age, came into my mind fully formed, as did her story with its twists and turns. I wanted to write a book that would be a really good read, a well-written page turner that would immerse the reader in exotic and sensual settings and explore the many facets of love. It took ten years to complete the manuscript; life intruded in the form of caregiving elderly parents. Those years certainly enriched my writing and gave me the oppotunity to hone my skillls.
Who or what has influenced your writing?
I have never taken a writing class or workshop, so what I write comes from within: my own style, my own structure, my own cadence. What has influenced my writing most is the many adventures I have had in the past forty years: wilderness explorations, overseas work and travel, surviving my fall from the cliff--all these life experiences give one's writing grounding and substance.
Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
I suppose it would be take a risk or two, as Lily Crisp does. As I've written in the Conversation Guide at the end of the book, Let the voluptuous side of living and loving take center stage.
What book are you reading now?
I am reading Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth. Bill and I were in Peace Corps in India in 1968., so I read anything I can that has to do with India. Lumpiris' writing is beautiful and her stories of Bengalis settling in a new land, the States, are simple and poignant.
What are your current projects?
I am writing another novel. It begins and ends on Sanibel, travels to Japan and the Pacific Northwest, and once again involves relationships and the complexities of love. But there are a couple of dead bodies in this next book.
Who is your favoite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?
My favorite authors write complex, sensual stories in beautiful prose. Their settings are provocative and richly textured. Marguerite Duras, Michael Ondaatje, Suzanna Moore, Lawrence Durell, to name a few.
Who designed the covers?
I believe she works for Penguin, in their art department, but I'm not sure. I'm thrilled with the cover.
What was the hardest part of writing your book?
The hardest part was making the transitions from present to past seamless. Because of how I have structured the book, I need to go back and forth in time quite often, but these transitions must not be confusing or jarring. That took a lot of rewriting and tweaking.
Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?
I learned that I'm not a quick writer. I tinker with words and sentences. I write many drafts. If unchecked, I write obsessively. In short, for me writing takes a lot of time, so if I'm going to fit in my walk on the beach and some biking and fly fishing, i.e., lead a balanced life, I have to rein myself in and ration the time I spend at the computer.
Do you have any advice for other writers?
Don't give up. Finding an agent and getting published take perseverance, luck and chemistry. It took me ten years to write Madame Olivett. It took another three years for my manuscript to cross the desk of an editor who read it and said, This is it. I'm making an offer on this book tomorrow.
Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
This is a love story for adults. Women and men have enjoyed it equally. So immerse yourself in Lily's adventures, fantasize a little. Escape is good, especially in these uncertain times.
To buy Annie's Book Click here.
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