AbeBooks' Reading Copy

The Miles Franklin Award is considered by many to be the most prestigious literary prize in Australia, it is given for the “novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases.”  The shortlist for the 2013 award have just been announced and this year five women are [...]

This afternoon The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.  The book was described by the committee as an “exquisitely crafted novel that carries the reader on an adventuresome journey into the depths of totalitarian North Korea and into the most intimate spaces of the human heart.” The Orphan [...]

Each year The Alcuin Society (who are a fantastic association of bibliophiles out of Vancouver) give out their Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada, which are awarded for various categories.  The winning books will be presented at exhibitions across the country and at the Frankfurt and Leipzig Book Fairs, and at the Canadian [...]

We love the BC Book Prizes here at AbeBooks. Granted, we’re a bit biased, given that we make our headquarters in British Columbia’s capital city (Victoria). But the prizes really are something special, highlighting the best written talent this beautiful province has to offer in seven categories: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, regional, children’s literature, illustrated children’s [...]

As of now in 2013, Doris Lessing is 93. She was born in 1919 and her second novel, published in 1956, was titled Retreat to Innocence. All of this, coupled with her round, sweetly wrinkled face and penchant for wearing her white hair parted at the middle and pulled back into a bun, might give [...]

And in today’s news for awards you probably don’t want to win as a writer, the Bad Sex Awards are given to the author who produces the most awkward, uncomfortable, and cringe-worthy sex scene in any given year. The 2012 prize has been announced, and the lucky recipient is Canadian author Nancy Huston, for her [...]

Marjorie Celona – if you haven’t heard the name before, remember you heard it here first, because she is going places. The Victoria, British Columbia-born author is on a launch tour for her debut novel right now. Simply titled Y, the novel has already generated all kinds of literary buzz, earned legions of devoted fans, [...]

Happy 75th birthday to the Governor General’s Awards, which began in 1937 as literary awards only. Contemporarily, the title is an umbrella for a collection of annual awards recognizing and rewarding excellence in a variety of artistic and academic categories. Back in 1937, the first Governor General’s Literary Award came into being under Lord Tweedsmuir [...]

Congratulations to Hilary Mantel. As predicted by many, her novel Bring up the Bodies has just been announced in London’s Guildhall as the winner of this year’s £50,000 Man Booker Prize award. This also means that signed copies of Bring Up the Bodies will increase in value very quickly, so jump on it if you [...]

Congratulations to University of Victoria teacher Madeline Sonik, whose collection of personal essays, Afflictions & Departures, has won the ninth annual City of Victoria Butler Book Prize. The collection details Sonik’s childhood stage by stage, relating incidents, feelings and developments to social and current events of the time, with a deep, meaningful understanding and insight [...]