Alert! Ivan Vladislavić, SJ Naudé, Karen Jennings and Melissa de Villiers have all been longlisted for the 2015 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award – “the world’s richest prize for a collection of short stories”.
South African-born Canadian Russel Smith is also on the list.
Vladislavić is nominated for 101 Detectives, which is hot off the press and set to be launched in Johannesburg next week. Naudé is recognised for his own translation of his award-winning debut collection which first appeared in Afrikaans as Alfabet van die voëls. The Alphabet of Birds was launched in November last year. Both Vladislavić and Naudé are published by Umuzi.
Away from the Dead by Karen Jennings is also on the list. Published by Holland Park Press in the UK, this is “a collection of short stories putting ordinary African lives into words”. It was released last year. Melissa de Villiers’ debut collection The Chameleon House was published by Modjaji Books earlier this year and launched in March when she came to her native country on a short visit. Read an excerpt from this collection here.
Russel Smith was born in South Africa but has been living and working as a writer and newspaper columnist in Toronto, Canada for a significant time. His anthology, titled Confidence, is included on the impressive longlist, which was selected from over 500 titles.
The Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize is worth €25,000 to the winning author of a collection of short stories published for the first time, in English anywhere in the world, between July 2014 and June 2015 (selecteds, collecteds or books containing stories published in a previous volume of stories by the author will not be eligible). Translations are eligible. In 2015 we will be presenting the award for the eleventh time.
Besides South Africa, the longlist features authors from the UK and USA, Canada, Ireland, India, Nepal, Australia, Trinidad, Russia, Denmark, Norway, Iran, China and Singapore. Past winners of this prize includes Haruki Murakami, Simon van Booy, Ron Rash, Yiyun Li, Edna O’Brien, Nathan Englander, David Constantine and Colin Barrett.
The Longlist for the 2015 Frank O'Connor Award is up, and it's looking pretty neat! Let's see over the next while how much it whittles down.http://www.frankoconnor-shortstory-award.net/site/?page_id=427
Posted by The Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award on Tuesday, 28 April 2015
Book details
- 101 Detectives by Ivan Vladislavić
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EAN: 9781415206904
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- The Alphabet of Birds by SJ Naudé
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EAN: 9781415207130
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- Away from the Dead by Karen Jennings
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EAN: 9781907320439
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- The Chameleon House by Melissa de Villiers
EAN: 9781920590895
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- Confidence by Russel Smith
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EAN: 9781771960151
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