Photography Book Now Winners 2010

Judith Stenneken, a photographer from Berlin, Germany, has been awarded the $25,000 Grand Prize for her book, Last Call. Ms. Stenneken's work, made at the historically important and famous Tempelhof Airport in Berlin, was chosen as the most creative and finest self-published photography book by an esteemed panel of judges led by Darius Himes, a co-founder of Radius Books.

Editorial Category Winner was 893 Mgazine - The Yakuza in Tokyo and hte Fine Art Category was won by Barecelona Unfolds by Arthur Tress.

William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year Award Call For Public Votes

Football,  Horse Racing, Hurling and practically every sport in between feature in this years long list and no doubt a few will find their way into Dad's Xmas stocking. As a sportshead, Tragic enjoys the William Hill Awards with seperate awards being given in both the UK and Ireland. There is no Sporting Book equivalent in Australia as far as he knows - might just have to get something going!

Tragic hopes that Darragh, My Story, by the great Kerry footballer, Darragh Ó’Sé (left), makes the shortlist. He retired in 2010 leaving a big gap in the game having won  six All-Ireland titles and having been named an All Star three times.

Following the announcement of the long list for the William Hill Irish Sports book of the Year for 2010 it has been revealed that the public have the opportunity to be a member of the judging panel and choose this year’s winner.

Eleven of Ireland’s top sports commentators will judge this year’s award including RTE’s Eamon Dunphy, Newstalk’s George Hook and Today FM and TV3’s Matt Cooper.  However the public vote will act as the twelfth judge in the award.  The most voted for book by the public on www.irishsportsbookoftheyear.com will go forward as the people’s choice and will be added to the votes of the rest of the judging panel.

Some of the titles involved in this year’s award included autobiographies by John Giles, Bernard Dunne and Darrgh O’Se along with stories about Lansdowne Road, Waterford Hurling and some of Ireland’s top jockeys and race horses. 

Tony Kenny, PR Manager for William Hill Ireland, said; “The William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year is about rewarding Ireland’s best sports writers and it is only right that the public get their opportunity to vote for their favourite.  The public get a chance to take their place amongst our judging panel and give their opinion on the best Irish sports book this year.”

More information on this year’s William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year and details on how to vote for this year’s winner can be found at www.irishsportsbookoftheyear.com

Links below to Amazon UK's data base for more info on titles. 

William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year - Long List

• Lansdowne Road – Gerard Siggins & Malachy Clerkin
• Kinane – Anne Holland
• Days of Heaven – Declan Lynch
• The Ecstasy and the Agony – Damien Tiernan
• A Football Man – John Giles
• Emerald Anfield – Keith Falkiner
• The Unconquerable Keane – David Smith
• Sea the Stars – Anne Holland
• My Story – Bernard Dunne
• The Club – Christy O’Connor
• Ruby – Ruby Walsh
• Screaming at the Sky – Tony Griffin
• The World is a Ball – John Doyle
• If You Don’t Know Me, Don’t Judge Me – Dan Shanahan
• 100 GAA Greats – John Scally
• Sporting Legends of Ireland – Turtle Bunbury & James Fennell
• Darragh, My Story – Darragh Ó’Sé
• Voices from Croke Park – Sean Potts
• My Father; A Hurling Revolutionary – Conor Power
• Alright Aldo – John Aldridge & John Hynes
• Stuttgart to Saipan – Miguel Delaney
• Dail Stars – Conor McMorrow
• Brothers in Sport – Donal Keenan
• Gaffers: 50 Years of Irish Football Managers – Trevor Keane
• Method in My Madness – Richard Dunwoody

2010 Canadian Culinary Book Award Winners

Canadian Culinary Landmarks Hall of Fame

Winners of the second annual Canadian Culinary Landmarks Hall of Fame Award, given to authors who have produced a stellar culinary book or a body of culinary works that taken together have had a lasting impact upon Canadian cuisine, are:

A Century of Canadian Home Cooking: 1900 Through the ’90s , by Carol Ferguson and Margaret Fraser, published by Prentice Hall Canada, Scarborough, ON, 1992.

A Century of Canadian Home Cooking: 1900 Through the ’90s is a landmark publication providing a lavish and engaging overview of our 20th century culinary history. Published in 1992, as Canada marked its 125th birthday, this book celebrates both the traditional and new styles of meals prepared at home.

Taking a chronological approach, the book layers decade upon decade, showing how Canada and our tastes have evolved and changed. Authors Carol Ferguson and Margaret Fraser highlight the major influences in each decade through text and pictures, captions and sidebars.


Each decade examines a wide range of topics including: the impact of media on eating habits, how kitchens have changed, developments in nutrition, food preparation and shopping, the influence of restaurant trends on home cooking, and the contributions of women’s organizations. History, culture, changing family patterns and education all have their place in this culinary tour. Each chapter includes recipes typical of each decade, Canadian classics like butter tarts and Nanaimo bars, multicultural traditions and regional favourites, illustrating our interwoven culinary roots and diversity.

From the turn of the century, when immigrants adapted their treasured recipes, through the difficult times of the ’30s and ’40s, from the convenience food of the ’50s to the raised nutritional consciousness in the ’60s, from natural foods in the ’70s to nouvelle cuisine and comfort food in the ’80s and ’90s, A Century of Canadian Home Cooking is an entertaining, sumptuously illustrated historical-cultural tribute to the evolution of Canadian cuisine.

Kate Aitken’s Canadian Cookbook, by Kate Aitken, published by The Montreal Standard, Montreal, 1945.

Kate Aitken’s Canadian Cookbook, first published in 1945 by The Standard of Montreal where she was food editor, went into numerous updated editions and reprinting into the 1970s. It was published by Collins of Toronto, with separate editions sponsored by the national drug store chain Tamblyn’s. In 2004, Whitecap Books published a reprint of the first edition edited by Elizabeth Driver.

The reader of The Kate Aitken Cook Book finds traditional recipes for Aitken favourites: chili sauce, mustard pickles and catsup, chicken pot pie and dumplings, apple pie, and cupcakes, but also less familiar foods such as crepes suzettes, brioche and veal rossini. They are reliable, for she tested them all during her innumerable classes and cooking shows including in her own home where she had four kitchens. In her cookbooks Mrs. A. looks back on a happy childhood on the farm where her mother – and many of their neighbours – were prize-winning cooks.

Entrie Invited -South Africa's Sunday Times Literary Awards 2011

Entries are now open for South Afirca's Sunday Times Literary Awards 2011, and organisers have announced several changes and additions to the rules.

To avoid unnecessary costs of having books sent to the Sunday Times and then dismissed for consideration, the Sunday Times is requesting that publishers submit a list of titles which they are considering for entry to the paper by November 15. 

These are hoped to increase awareness of the event and enhance the profile of its short-listed authors.

Any full-length work relating to Southern Africa, published between December 1 2009 and December 1 2010 and written by a South African citizen - based locally or abroad - or someone who has been resident in the country for more than three years is eligible for entry.

Academic and self-published works will not be considered.

A three-person panel will judge each award this year, rather than five as in past. The short lists will be announced at the Franschhoek Literary Festival in May next year.

The limit on the number of titles that publishers can enter for consideration has been removed, but books that do not meet the criteria for the award will not be accepted.

These may be e-mailed to Mantombi Makhubele at MakhubeleM@avusa.co.za or faxed to 0112805111

The lists will be checked to see whether the titles meet the requirements and then the books that are approved will need to be sent by courier to the Sunday Times offices at 4 Biermann Avenue, Rosebank 2196 by December 8 2010.

The 2010 Alan Paton Award went to Albie Sachs (left)  for his memoir The Strange Alchemy of Life and Law, while the Fiction Prize was awarded to Imraan Coovadia for his novel High Low In-Between.

The 2011 winners will be announced at a ceremony in Johannesburg in July next year.

For the full list of rules, criteria and previous winners, visit http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/bookcase/

'The Nib' Australia's CAL Waverley Library Award for Literature Shortlist

Now in its ninth year, the CAL Waverley Library Award for Literature, or 'The Nib', as it is more affectionately known, is a AU$20,000 Prize which acknowledges and rewards the role of research in fiction and non-fiction - it also happens to be one of  Tragic's favourite book awards.

The 2010 shortlist has just been announced.

The award punches well above it's weight honouring as it does a much neglected area of literary endeavour. Honoured books showcase authors who have mastered the skill of  combining vigorous and painstaking research with an ability to produce an engaging narrative in the written form. Not an easy task.

Previous winners include Tim Low (2002), Barry Hill (2003), Geoffrey Blainey (2004), Helen Garner (2005), Gideon Haigh (2006), John Bailey (2007) and Christopher Koch (2008). 

In the last few years Tragic has made a point of reading the  entire Nib  short list and has yet to agree with the judges final choice!  Tragic's reading takes place in the year between 'Nibs'  as his only gripe with the prize is the short 3 weeks or so between shortlist and winner announcements.

As with a number of awards that he follows from start to finish, Tragic suspects that outside of the judges, book retailers, authors and publishers, ie: vested interests,  he is one of a handful who still bothers with shortlists at all.

The exception probably lies with the major awards such as the Booker, the Miles in Australia, America's National and the British Galaxy (recently re-badged British Nationals), where various book clubs make a point of reading the shortlists. As for longlists, Tragic is not even convinced that even the appointed judges read the contenders from cover to cover!

A mere blimp in time between shortlist and announcements of winners is understandable in that many prizes do not have the budget to promote longer shortlists periods in which to engage a wider public. There is also the double-edged sword in that momentum can be lost with a prolonged period between shortlist and winners, or even more deadly, the fact that the wider populace is not really that interested in the first place!

Anyhow back to the Nib whose shortlist is highly recommended for those  interested in the Australian focused literature.

All shortlisted Nib authors are awarded the Alex Buzo Prize in honour of the late Bondi-based writer who achieved success in most literary genres, his most famous being the play ‘Norm and Ahmed’. So winners already in this respect.

Shortlisted Book with judges comments below. Factors considered by the judges include readability, innovation, knowledge and literary merit, and value to the community. The winners are due on 24th November.


2010 CAL Waverley Library Award for Literature Shortlist

Ken Hillman    Vital Signs: stories from Intensive Care      [UNSW Press]

A man with interesting blue feet, which have to be cut off; a woman with blood poisoning as a result of going for a ten kilometre run after shaving off her pubic hair; families at the bedsides of dying patients: these are among the scenes sketched for us in this remarkable memoir by the first Australian doctor to qualify as an intensive care specialist.  While recounting his own experiences, he also discusses the ethical dilemmas faced by medical staff with the power of life or death in their hands, and supplies a well-researched history of the development of life-saving technology. Above all, though, this book is the story of man who has had to live with tragedy for much of his life – and who has been able, occasionally, to avert it. 

Ben Hills   Breaking News: the golden age of Graham Perkin     [Scribe Publishing]

Just weeks before the dismissal of the Labor Government in 1975, Graham Perkin, the editor of Melbourne’s Age newspaper, died of a heart attack at the age of 45. His last editorial, famously headed “Go Now, Go Decently”, implored Gough Whitlam, the leader he had previously supported, to defuse the impending crisis by resigning. His plea went unnoticed, and the news of his death was overshadowed by the drama that followed. This book recounts the life of one of Australia’s most influential and gifted journalists, but it is much more than just a biography. It is a detailed insider’s account of the workings of a great newspaper, and an insight into the development of the mass media – not only newspapers, but magazines, radio and television – as we know them today. It is also a history of this country, as seen through a newspaperman’s eyes, in the period between the Second World War and the end of the Vietnam War, written with the readability and clarity of a thriller. 

Leta Keens              Shoes for the Moscow Circus                    [Murdoch Books]

Taxidermists, boat-builders, book-binders, bat-makers, a blacksmith, a foundry, a tannery, a cricket ball maker, and a doll hospital, among many other unusual yet necessary occupations, are examined in patient, meticulous detail by the author of this fascinating book, which might best be described as an industrial miscellany. Interviews with craft-obsessed, sometimes cantankerous workers are combined with vivid descriptions of the settings where these varied and specialist trades are carried out. This is a delightful yet most unexpected book, wide-ranging in its research and lucid in its written expression. 

Paul Kelly              The March of the Patriots   [Melbourne University Publishing] 

The story of Australian politics in the last two decades, it can be argued, is the story of two leaders whose differences were less than their similarities.  Both Paul Keating

Kristin Otto                         Capital: Melbourne at the Centre of the World 1901-1927         [Text Publishing]

For its first twenty-seven years as a federation, the capital city of Australia was Melbourne.  This eventful period took in the First World War, and many dramatic advances in technology and industry, as cars, aeroplanes, the wireless and the cinema were introduced.  This handsomely illustrated book provides a series of snapshots of life in Melbourne in those years, as seen through the eyes both of ordinary people and of eminent figures such as Sir John Monash, Dame Nellie Melba, C.J. Dennis, Houdini, and Macpherson Robertson, inventor of the Cherry Ripe. Mac Robertson was responsible for Melbourne’s first death by car accident, when he ran over a man in Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, while travelling at “seven or eight miles an hour”.  When the war ended, Melba had herself driven to the village of Lilydale, where she rang the fire bell; Dennis’s illustrator, David Low, said of her that “she was a bullying woman who ate a great deal and swore a lot.”  There are similar illuminating anecdotes on every page of this evocative study. 

Andrew Tink                  William Charles Wentworth                       [Allen & Unwin]

The figure of W.C. Wentworth looms over Australian history and politics to this day, particularly here, where a neighbouring electorate bears his surname. Thus it seems appropriate that his biography should be undertaken by an author with first-hand experience of the political life. All the same, research and writing skills are as necessary to the creation of a biography as is the empathy that results from a shared occupation. Both are present, here, in a book that recounts the life of the illegitimate son of a surgeon suspected of highway robbery, who became a celebrated explorer, poet, journalist, politician, newspaper proprietor, owner of the South Island of New Zealand, and founder of a dynasty. It is a life that cannot fail to hold the reader’s attention, and a story deserving of the justice this elegantly written work has done it. 

Tragic covers the award over at Literary Awards Australia and the details about Waverley Words can be found at Literary Festivals Australia or go to  www.waverley.nsw.gov.au/library/whats_on.