"That The Canning Season [see below], a young-adult novel about a city girl from Pensacola, Fla., who must spend a summer with her 91-year-old twin aunts in rural Maine, won the prize was particularly meaningful because of the initial doubts about how the book might be received, Horvath said.
Awards: November 2003 Archives
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Author rejects prize from 'anti-migrant' newspaper
"Peter Wright, editor of the Mail on Sunday, agreed to give the cash to the campaign group, one of the Mail's least favourite charities. He hastily called Mail executives and the prize's judges into a cabal, and they agreed to award the prize again to another writer on the shortlist as soon as possible..."
Sonya Hartnett, shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys award, may still end up with the prize, after the judges' first choice, Hari Kunzru, refused to accept it because of the prize's sponsorship by the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday.
Guardian Unlimited Books | News | Bestsellers make impact on eclectic longlist
"The rising popularity of children's books with adult appeal can also be seen in the list. Sonya Hartnett, winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction prize for Thursday's Child, is nominated by three Australian libraries for her tender tale of childhood, Of A Boy. Isabel Allende, the magical realist Chilean author, is picked by a library in her native country for City of the Beasts, an adventure story set in the Amazon featuring two teenagers. Cornelia Funke's The Thief Lord gets a German vote... ..."
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Curious incident of writer's literary hat trick
Mark Haddon is shortlisted for the Whitbread adult novel award (note, not first novel award), whilst the children's book shortlist is as follows:
Children's book shortlist:
The Fire-Eaters David Almond (Hodder)
The Oracle Catherine Fisher (Hodder)
Private Peaceful Michael Morpurgo (HarperCollins)
Naked Without a Hat Jeanne Willis (Faber and Faber)
Governor General Award Winners...
Illustration: Allen Sapp, for his illustrations to
The Song Within My Heart by David Bouchard. Sapp, who grew up on the Red Pheasant reserve in Saskatchewan in the 1930s, is a descendent of the Cree leader Poundmaker.
Text: Glen Huser, for his novel Stitches
Mark Haddon is reported in today's Publishing News notice of his Booktrust Teenage Prize win as being "overwhelmed" by the feedback he is getting from readers. Not, we would imagine, overwhelmed by the media reporting of this prize, an inaugural award which seems, incredibly, to have received minimal attention. On this basis it has some way to go before it acquires the kudos that was instantly attached to the US-equivalent Michael Prinz Award.
Best English-language Book with an Authentic Welsh Background:
ROB LEWIS for his book Cold Jac published by Pont/Gomer, a picture-book set on a farm in Wales.
