Wesley Morgan wins the 2022 William E. Colby Award.

Author and journalist, Wesley Morgan has won the William E. Colby Award 2022 for his military and intelligence writing. 

He was cited for his book “The Hardest Place: The American Military Adrift in Afghanistan’s Pech Valley.” The Colby Award, a $5,000 prize named for the former ambassador and CIA director William E. Colby, is given for “a major contribution to the understanding of military history, intelligence operations or international affairs.” The Colby Award is presented by Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont. The Colby award was established in 1999.

Source: www.libraryjournal.com

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J.D. Crowe, Influential Bluegrass Musician, Dies at 84.

Grammy-winning bluegrass musician J.D. Crowe, whose influential career spanned more than 50 years, has died. He was 84.

His son, David, confirmed the death on Saturday (Dec. 25) to The Associated Press.

Born James Dee Crowe in 1937, his career included stints with Jimmy Martin’s Sunny Mountain Boys, Mac Wiseman and his own band, the Kentucky Mountain Boys, which later became the New South.

Crowe won a Grammy award in 1983 for best country instrumental performance for his song "Fireball".

Source: www.billboard.com

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Joan Didion, American journalist and author, dies at age 87.

Joan Didion, the eminent journalist, author and anthropologist of contemporary American politics and culture – a singularly clear, precise voice across a multitude of subjects for more than 60 years – has died at her home in Manhattan, New York. She was 87.

The cause of death was from complications to Parkinson’s disease, according to Paul Bogaards, an executive at Didion’s publisher Knopf.

Known for her pioneering blend of the personal and the political in her journalism and essays, Didion became a household name with her writing on US society.

Source: www.theguardian.com

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‘He-Man’ artist and toy designer Mark Taylor passes away.

Mark Taylor, artist and toy designer for the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe franchise as well as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, passed away. 

Taylor began his career with Mattel in 1976 as a packaging designer. He-man was the muscled frontman for toy manufacturer Mattel’s Masters of the Universe franchise. 

He-Man was the epitome of a hulking superhero warrior but also became an icon within the LGBTQ+ community.

Source: www.mercurynews.com

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Gothic novel author Anne Rice passes away.

American gothic-fiction writer Anne Rice, best known for The Vampire Chronicles novel series, passed away at the age of 80. 

Anne Rice's debut novel, published in 1976, Interview with the Vampire revolves around a vampire named Louis de Pointe du Lac, who narrates the story of his life to a reporter. 

Her other works: Pandora, Violin, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, The Witching Hour etc.

Source: www.theguardian.com

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Jason Mott Wins National Book Award for ‘Hell of a Book’.

Jason Mott won the National Book Award for fiction for his novel “Hell of a Book,” an account of a Black author’s book tour intertwined with one focused on a Black boy in the rural South and a third character, The Kid, who may be imaginary.

Mr. Mott, who said that his agent had picked his work out of the unsolicited “slush” pile 10 years ago, is a poet and the author of three novels in addition to “Hell of a Book.”

Winners of 2021 National Book Awards:

FICTION

Jason Mott, Hell of a Book
Dutton / Penguin Random House

*

NONFICTION

Tiya Miles, All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake
Random House / Penguin Random House

*

POETRY

Martín Espada, Floaters
W. W. Norton & Company

*

TRANSLATED LITERATURE

Elisa Shua Dusapin, Winter in Sokcho
Translated from the French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins
(Open Letter)

*

YOUNG PEOPLE’S LITERATURE

Malinda Lo, Last Night at the Telegraph Club
(Dutton Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House)

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Frida Kahlo art fetches record $34.9m at auction.

A painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo has sold at Sotheby's auction house in New York for a record $34.9m (£25m).

It is the highest price paid at auction for a Latin American artwork. The record had previously been set by a work by Diego Rivera, with whom Kahlo had a decades-long tumultuous relationship. His piece sold for $9.76m in 2018.

Kahlo's painting "Diego y Yo" was one of her final self-portraits. The work depicts a tearful Kahlo with her husband Rivera painted above her eyes.

It was described by Sotheby's at the auction on Tuesday as "one of the most important works by Kahlo ever to come to auction".

Source: www.bbc.com

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World famous legendary author Wilbur Smith passes away.

Internationally acclaimed Zambia-born South African author, Wilbur Smith has passed away. He was 88. 

The global bestselling author has authored 49 novels and sold over 140 million copies worldwide in more than 30 languages. 

He rose to fame in 1964 with his debut novel “When the Lion Feeds” which turned in the movie with 15 sequels. 

Smith published his autobiography “On Leopard Rock” in 2018.

Source: www.business-standard.com

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The 2021 FM Global Resilience Index 2021.

The 2021 FM Global Resilience Index is the only tool that compiles economic, supply chain and risk quality data on nearly 130 countries to evaluate resilience around the world. This publicly available resource is designed to help you develop a detailed story about the risks your company may face in different regions so you can make informed strategic decisions on where to do business. 

By using the index, you’ll have access to

• An interactive world map with resiliency rankings and scores based on 12 objective measures.
• Exportable data tables for your reference.
• Powerful insights on what drives each country’s levels of resilience.
• Get the information you need today to find the optimal locations for your organization to do business.

Source: www.fmglobal.com

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A woman won a million-euro Spanish Literary Prize.

Renowned female Spanish crime author, Cameron Mola, won the one million euros worth 2021 Premio Planeta literary prize. 

Three middle-aged men rose to the podium to collect the coveted award on Friday (15th) for the currently unreleased novel “The Beast”.

Jorge Díaz, Agustín Martínez, and Antonio Mercero were the writers who penned numerous best-selling crime thriller books under the pseudonym ‘Cameron Mola’.

They decided to write under the pseudonym for no “particular reason” and without “consideration of the name’s gender”.

The prize is being awarded since 1952 by the Spanish Publisher Grupo Planeta. 

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Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth by Wole Soyinka released.

A novel titled “Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth” authored by Wole Soyinka has been released. Wole Soyinka is Africa’s first Nobel laureate in Literature. He wrote his last novel ”Season of Anomy” in 1973. 

He returns with a new novel after nearly 50 years. His notable plays include ''The Jero Plays'', ''The Road'', ''The Lion and the Jewel'', ''Madmen and Specialists'' and ''From Zia, With Love''.

Source: www.penguinrandomhouse.com

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Jhumpa Lahiri to launch her new book ‘Translating Myself and Others’.

The next book from Jhumpa Lahiri, the Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction writer, will highlight her work as a translator. Princeton University Press announced that Lahiri's 'Translating Myself and Others' will come out next spring. Lahiri has lived off and on in Rome for nearly a decade, and her translation projects include 'The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories' and her novel 'Whereabouts', which she first wrote in Italian.

Her new book will features essays on the meaning of translation, translating her own writing, and her dream of translating a classic from ancient Rome, Ovid's 'Metamorphoses'.

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Sri Lankan novelist Anuk Arudpragasam shortlisted for Booker Prize 2021.

Sri Lankan novelist Anuk Arudpragasam’s “A Passage North” has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2021.

The shortlist for the prestigious literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the UK or Ireland was announced on Tuesday (Sep. 14).

Arudpragasam, born in Colombo, is an award-winning author who bagged the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and Shakti Bhatt Prize for his debut novel “The Story of a Brief Marriage”. Published in 2016, this novel also made the shortlist for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the German Internationaler Literaturpreis.

The 33-year-old’s second novel “A Passage North” explores the lasting effects of the trauma and violence of the island’s civil war, and a past love affair.

Other nominees for this year’s Booker Prize include:

• Damon Galgut - The Promise. The ninth novel by the South African writer which tells the story of a white family over the decades from the Apartheid era.

• Patricia Lockwood - No One Is Talking About This. This is the debut novel by the American poet and memoirist.

• Nadifa Mohamed - The Fortune Men. Somaliland-born British author’s book is set in the docks of post-war Cardiff Bay and follows the story of a real Somali sailor who was wrongly accused of murder.

• Richard Powers - Bewilderment. The Pulitzer-winning US author depicts the story of a widowed astrobiologist who turns to experimental treatments to help his nine-year-old son with additional needs - and take him to other planets.

• Maggie Shipstead - Great Circle. This US author’s novel focuses on the stories of a daring post-war female pilot and a 21st century Hollywood actress who is trying to rescue her reputation by making a film about her.

Source: www.adaderana.lk

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British Author Susanna Clarke wins for 'truly original' comeback.

British author Susanna Clarke has won the 2021 Women's Prize for Fiction for her second novel Piranesi.

The fantasy work is the long-awaited follow-up to her acclaimed 2004 debut Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.

Piranesi, a mystery about a man living alone in a labyrinthine house, beat five other books to the £30,000 prize.

Novelist Bernardine Evaristo, the chair of the judging panel, said she and her fellow judges "wanted to find a book that we'd press into readers' hands".

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NASA Perseverance Mars Rover to Acquire First Sample.

NASA is making final preparations for its Perseverance Mars rover to collect its first-ever sample of Martian rock, which future planned missions will transport to Earth. The six-wheeled geologist is searching for a scientifically interesting target in a part of Jezero Crater called the “Cratered Floor Fractured Rough.”

This important mission milestone is expected to begin within the next two weeks. Perseverance landed in Jezero Crater Feb. 18, and NASA kicked off the rover mission’s science phase June 1, exploring a 1.5-square-mile (4-square-kilometer) patch of crater floor that may contain Jezero’s deepest and most ancient layers of exposed bedrock.

When Neil Armstrong took the first sample from the Sea of Tranquility 52 years ago, he began a process that would rewrite what humanity knew about the Moon.

It took Armstrong 3 minutes and 35 seconds to collect that first Moon sample. Perseverance will require about 11 days to complete its first sampling, as it must receive its instructions from hundreds of millions of miles away while relying on the most complex and capable, as well as the cleanest, mechanism ever to be sent into space – the Sampling and Caching System.

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UN and IOC launch stamps.

The United Nations and International Olympic Committee have initiated a new move to acknowledge the role of sports for peace. They have launched a series of stamps for the same.

The United Nations Postal Administration or UNPA worked in partnership with the International Olympic Committee. They both worked together to make a series of stamps to notably marking the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in valuing the role of sports to peace. These also commemorate the shared values of both organizations.

A Japanese artist Satoshi Hashimoto illustrated the designs of the stamps and the souvenir sheets. Three souvenir sheets feature a slogan ‘sports for peace’ in three languages namely English, French, and German. They also feature Olympic rings and a dove of peace.

The UNPA will release the stamps on July 23 to commemorate the start of the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

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Sri Lanka’s first online book library for children.

Anyone who missed visiting libraries and bookstores, and have found it a challenge to keep your little one engaged and occupied at home, Wooks.lk offers a simple yet effective solution. 

Wooks.lk was born out of the desire and need to offer interactive children’s books in a safe space online. This platform offers interactive books in both Sinhala as well as English, read aloud by Elocution teachers of both languages. It also comprises traditional Sri Lankan folklore titles, as well as English storybooks, the first of its kind in Sri Lanka.

Wooks.lk will fullfil the necessity in creating a platform for digitally available books for children across the island. Currently, each book uploaded to the website has been verified by qualified kindergarten teachers, language masters, categorised by age groups and available in both Sinhala and English languages.

The digital library covers storybooks that are available for free, along with a larger extensive selection that can be purchased. The free version also allows for sample stories and children’s colouring books that can be viewed online. 

Wooks.lk was officially launched at Temple Trees recently under the patronage of Hon. Namal Rajapaksa, Cabinet Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, State Minister of Digital Technology and Entrepreneur Development. 

For more information visit www.wooks.lk 

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Kanya D’Almeida becomes first Sri Lankan to win Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

Kanya D’Almeida has been declared the overall winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, for a "captivating" tale set in a Sri Lankan "sanctuary for the forsaken".

D’Almeida, from Colombo, Sri Lanka, was named the winner by actress Dona Croll in an online ceremony on 30th June. D’Almeida, who won for her story "I Cleaned The—", is the first Sri Lankan to win the overall prize and the second to win for the Asia region.

The prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction. Regional winners receive £2,500 with £5,000 for the overall winner.  

"I Cleaned The—", is a story about "dirty work"—domestic labour, abandonment, romantic encounters behind bathroom doors and human waste. The Asia judge, Bangladeshi writer, translator and editor Khademul Islam, described it as "a life-affirming story of love among the rambutan and clove trees of Sri Lanka—love for a baby not one’s own, love for a high-spirited elderly woman. Love found not among the stars but in human excrement. Literally. And all the more glorious for it."

The 2021 prize was judged by an international panel of writers, each representing one of the five regions of the Commonwealth, and chaired by South African writer Zoë Wicomb. Alongside Islam, the other panelists were Nigerian writer A Igoni Barrett, British poet and fiction writer Keith Jarrett, Jamaican environmental activist, writer and 2012 Caribbean regional winner Diana McCaulay, and author and 2016 Pacific regional winner Tina Makereti from New Zealand.

Source: www.thebookseller.com

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Greece recovers Picasso, Mondrian paintings stolen in 2012.

Greece has recovered works of art by Pablo Picasso and Piet Mondrian, stolen from its National Gallery in 2012.

Thieves broke into the gallery and snatched Picasso’s 1939 painting “Woman’s Head”, donated by the Spanish artist in 1949, and Dutch painter Mondrian’s “Mill” dated 1905.

To mislead the guard, the thieves had activated the gallery’s alarm system several times before breaking into the building early in the morning. The guard turned off the alarm only to spot one of the thieves through the motion detector.

Authorities arrested a 49-year-old Greek man who confessed that he had stolen the paintings and led police to a forest outside Athens where he had hidden them, the Citizens’ Protection Ministry said.

Footage handed out by police from the site showed one of the paintings sealed in a package sitting under the bushes.

The arrested man said a sketch by Italian painter Guglielmo Caccia, donated to the gallery in 1907 and also stolen in 2012, had been destroyed, the ministry said.

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French non-fiction author Emmanuel Carrere wins top Spanish award.

French author Emmanuel Carrere, popular for his non-fiction books in a high literary vein, has been granted this year’s Spanish Princess of Asturias Literature Award. The award is one of the eight prestigious prizes by the foundation named after the heir to the Spanish throne, Princess Leonor.

Its jury said Wednesday that Carrere, 63, was chosen among 33 candidates from 20 countries because of the ability of his works to straddle reality and fiction.

Starting with his The Adversary in 2000, about the murderer Jean-Claude Romand, Carrere abandoned a previous career in fiction and began to write stories narrating his own experience or the lives of others.

His books contribute to the unmasking of the human condition and relentlessly dissect reality, the award’s jury said in a statement. It added that, in doing so, Carrere draws an incisive portrait of today’s society.

The author has also worked as a screenwriter and maker of films and documentaries, including a collaboration with German filmmaker Werner Herzog. Carrere has also been a jury member at the Cannes and Venice film festivals.

The 50,000-euro (USD 61,000) award is handed out annually during a lavish ceremony, normally in October, by the Princess of Asturias Foundation, which is presided over by Princess Leonor’s father, King Felipe VI.

The eight prizes cover different disciplines, from arts to social sciences or sports.

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