Wellington City Libraries along with IP (Interactive Publications) invite you to the launch of Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand, on Monday 19^th October at 5.30 pm ground floor Central Library, Victoria Street. This amazing anthology is edited by poet, fiction writer, critic and publisher Mark Pirie and Tim Jones, poet and fiction writer, both Wellingtonians. There is an impressive number of New Zealand writers represented in this anthology. The readers for the evening include poets Janis Freegard, Nic Hill, Jack Perkins, Rachel McAlpine, Helen Rickerby, Robin Fry and the editors Mark Pirie and Tim Jones.

The seating will be available on a first come first served based.

So come along and join us for a wonderful evening of poetry.

October is the month for celebrating New Zealand writing and publishing. This is an annual event in which New Zealand books are highlighted,  and writers new and well-established are acclaimed and rediscovered. As part of the celebration we’ve created an online quiz - How well do you know New Zealand Fiction?  on our Popular Topics Fiction web page. Find out how your knowledge stacks up! You might know more than you think, and you may even come across an interesting fact or two that you didn’t know. Good luck – and we hope you discover a fantastic New Zealand book or two this month!

(P.S. The  book above  is the answer to one of the quiz questions…)

Hilary Mantel has been awarded the 2009 Mann Booker Prize for her novel Wolf Hall. A historical novel recounted through the eyes of Thomas Cromwell, who started out as a Blacksmith’s boy and eventually became one of the most powerful men in England beside Henry VIII. Wolf Hall has been the most popular novel ever to win the Mann Booker Prize. Hilary Mantel has written nine other novels, two have been historical, with A Greater Place of Safety published in 1992 and set in France at the time of the French revolution, winning the Sunday Express Book of the year. Beyond Black published in 2005 was shortlisted for the 2006 Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction the same year.

The shortlist for this year’s Man Booker Prize has been announced with six finalists chosen from 13 on the long list and which in turn was chosen from the 132 titles submitted.

The shortlist includes a semi autobiographical novel titled Summer Time, by the 2003 Noble Prize for Literature winner J.M. Coetzee. He previously won the Booker Prize in 1983 for The Life and Times of Michael K, and in 1999 for Disgrace. A. S. Byatt with her novel The Children’s Book is also a finalist and a past winner of this prize in 1990 for Possession: a romance.

The most popular book on the shortlist is Hilary Mantel’s historical novel Wolf Hall. Other finalists are Adam Foulds with The Quickening Maze, Sarah Waters with The Little Stranger and Simon Mawer with The Glass Room. The winner will be announced on 6^th October 2009.

The novelist, playwright, Fleet Street columnist and social commentator Keith Waterhouse has died at the age of 80. He worked for 35 years, until 1986 as a columnist in the Daily Mirror and then until this year for the Mail newspaper. He never missed a deadline and his columns were always witty, at times satirical, but always contained pertinent social comment. He was also prolific novelist and playwright, his most famous play being Billy Liar, with the film version being released in 1959. He also wrote for television, notably The Frost Report and the Worzel Gummidge series. Wellington City Libraries holds 17 of his novels and many collections of his newspaper columns. His comic novels include Mrs. Pooter’s Diary, Bimbo, Palace Pier and his last, Good Grief.

The much acclaimed prolific Western writer Elmer Kelton has died aged 83. He began his career as a journalist after serving in the United States Army during World War II. He was farm and ranch editor for the San Angelo Standard-Times for 15 years, then spent 22 years as editor of Livestock Weekly.  His first short story was published 1948 and his first novel Hot Iron in 1955. From then he published over 60 fiction and non-fiction titles. His novel, The good old boys was published in 1978 and was made into a television movie in 1995. He received numerous awards for his fiction, the most acclaimed being, The time it never rained, published in 1974, The man who rode Midnight published in 1988 and most recently Way of the Coyote published in 2002.

Elmer Kelton was more than a typical Western writer, with most of his novels set in recent times with characters facing the problems of modern day range life.

The 2009 Man Booker Prize long-list has recently been announced. From 135 submitted novels, the panel of five judges have chosen thirteen. Of these, four are past-shortlisted writers, these include Colm Toibin for Brooklyn, William Trevor for Love and Summer, Sarah Waters for The Little Stranger, and Hilary Mantel for Wolf Hall. Also included were two writers who have previously won this award, A. S. Byatt for The Children’s Book and past double winner J. M. Coetzee for Summertime. The short-list will be announced on 8 September 2009, with the winner on 6 October 2009.

Wellington City Libraries congratulates all the 2009 Montana New Zealand Prize winners, especially Emily Perkins winner of the Montana Medal for Fiction for her novel titled, Novel About My Wife.  Also Wellington writers Jill Trevelyan, winner of the top non-fiction prize for her biography, Rita Angus: An Artist’s Life , Kate De Goldi with the readers’ choice prize for The 10 PM Question, and Jenny Bornholdt, for winning the poetry prize for her collection, The Rocky Shore.  More information, past and present, on the New Zealand Montana Book Awards can be found on the New Zealand Book Council website.

The winner of the 2009 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, one of the literary world’s richest, was recently announced. This year’s award was won by Michael Thomas for his first novel Man Goes Down. Brilliant in its scope and energy, deeply moving and insightful this novel tell the story of a young black father of three in a biracial marriage trying to claim a piece of the American Dream he has hoped for since his youth.

Michael Thomas was born and raised in Boston, where his novel is set. He recieved his B. A. from Hunter College and his M.F.A. from Warren Wilson College. He teaches at Hunter and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Science Fantasy writer David Eddings has died aged 77. Born in Spokane, Washington State in 1931 he studied Middle English at University. After a short time in the army he spent a period working on missile development. His first novel, a contemporary adventure titled High hunt, was published in 1973. He changed to science fantasy after seeing the continual reprintings of Lord of the Rings, then in its 73rd reprint. He became one of the most popular writers of his chosen genre, with each new book reaching the top ten best seller lists. Nearly all his work was in series form, which allowed a deeper character and story line development. These series began with the Belgariad series, with the first book, Pawn of Phrophecy published in 1982. This series was followed by the Malloreon, the Elenium, the Tamuli and the Dreamers series. The Younger Gods was his last novel in the Dreamers series published in 2006. The only stand alone science fantasy novel by David Eddings was The Redemption of Athalus published in 2000.