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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Pritzker Prize Laureate Gottfried Bohm passed away.

German architect Gottfried Böhm, designer of the brutalist Church of the Pilgrimage, has passed away aged 101.

Böhm, who was the eighth winner of the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize, was widely known for his concrete churches that were largely built in Germany.

The colossal concrete Church of the Pilgrimage in the German town of Neviges, also known as Neviges Mariendom, is widely considered to be his greatest work.

Other key projects by the architect include the brutalist Bensberger City Hall, Museum of the Diocese in Paderborn and St Kolumba church in Cologne.

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Zimbabwean novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga wins PEN Pinter prize 2021.

Tsitsi Dangarembga, the Booker-shortlisted Zimbabwean writer who was arrested last year in Harare while protesting against corruption, has been awarded the PEN Pinter prize, praised for her “ability to capture and communicate vital truths even amidst times of upheaval”. Dangarembga was also shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize for her work, This Mournable Body. 

Established in 2009, PEN Pinter prize is given in memory of Nobel-laureate playwright Harold Pinter. The annual award is given to an author who, the website specifies, must have “a significant body of plays, poetry, essays, or fiction of outstanding literary merit, written in English.”

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Meghan Markle releases first children's book 'The Bench'.

The first children's book by Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, is a multicultural tribute to fatherhood.

"The Bench," a picture story published Tuesday 08 June 2021 by Random House Children's Books, celebrates the bond between Meghan's husband Prince Harry and son Archie and fathers and sons in general. 

Markle's rhyming narrative is complemented by illustrator Christian Robinson's watercolour images, showing families of different skin colours and backgrounds, from a light-skinned soldier returning home (Harry served in Afghanistan) to a dark-skinned man in dreadlocks, from a boy carrying a soccer trophy to a boy and his father wearing pink tutus.

The book's jacket describes Meghan, the actor formerly known as Meghan Markle, as "a mother, wife, feminist, and activist," committed to "activating compassion in communities across the world.

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BAFTA TV Awards 2021 winners announced.

The winners of the BAFTA TV Awards 2021 were announced.  The ceremony itself, filmed at London’s Television Centre and hosted by Richard Ayoade, was a hybrid event that kept in line with COVID-19 protocols by allowing a number of nominees from the main performance categories to attend, with others taking part digitally.

Winners of BAFTA TV Awards 2021 are:                                 

• Category - Leading Actress                                 
• Winner - Michaela Coel, I May Destroy You

• Category - Leading Actor                                 
• Winner - Paul Mescal, Normal People

• Category - Drama Series                                 
• Winner - Save Me Too

• Category - Best Comedy Performance         
• Winner - Charlie Cooper and Aimee Lou Wood

• Category - Best Comedy Series                       
• Winner - Inside No. 9

• Category - Original Music                                 
• Winner - Harry Escott, Roadkill

• Category - Sports                                              
• Winner - England v West Indies Test Cricket - Sky Sports Cricket

British Academy Television Awards are presented annually to recognize the outstanding work in British Television. It is being given annually since 1955. It is mainly given to British programs.

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Nitin Rakesh and Jerry Wind win International Business Book of the Year Award 2021

Nitin Rakesh and Jerry Wind won the International Business Book of the Year Award 2021. The authors made history this week by winning the prestigious International Business Book of the Year Award for 2021 for their recently launched book “Transformation in Times of Crisis”, published by Notion Press. Their book Transformation in Times of Crisis brings entrepreneurs and business owners the knowledge that can help their business thrive even in a crisis.

Author Nitin Rakesh is a distinguished leader in the Technology and Financial services industries and is the CEO and Executive Director of IT major Mphasis, since 2017. His Co-author Jerry Wind, is an internationally renowned academician and is currently Lauder Professor Emeritus and Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

The Business Book Awards is one of the biggest and most prestigious events in the calendar for business book writers all over the world. It highlights leadership, change, and sustainability in business through the promotion of business books and their authors. The organizers receive over 150 submissions from top authors and their publishers every year, making this achievement all the more special.

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David Diop becomes the first French Winner for International Booker Prize.

French novelist and academic David Diop has become the first French writer to win the International Booker Prize for Fiction.

His second novel, "At Night All Blood is Black", was inspired by his Senegalese great-grandfather's silence about his experiences in World War One.

The £50,000 prize will be split between Diop and the book's translator - US author and poet Anna Moschovakis.

It fended off competition from five other shortlisted titles, including Éric Vuillard's "The War of the Poor".

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Dr. Abeykoon wins the South-East Asia Region WHO World No Tobacco Day 2021 award.

In recognition of his extraordinary contribution to combatting harmful tobacco use, Dr Palitha Abeykoon, Former Chairman of National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol in Sri Lanka, International Pubilc Health Expert, and WHO Director-General Special Envoy for COVID-19 Preparedness and Response for SEAR, was named one of the South-East Asia Region WHO World No Tobacco Day 2021 awardees.

Sri Lanka was one of the first countries in the world to ratify the Framework Convention on Tobacco Contro (FCTC). Sri Lanka was also one of the first countries in the region to adopt a tobacco control law in line with the Articles of the FCTC, the National Tobacco and Alcohol Act of 2006, which led to the establishment of the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol (NATA). This law also banned all forms of tobacco advertising and sponsorships, prohibited sales to those under 21 and sales through vending machines, and declared most public places smoke-free.

When Dr Abeykoon was appointed the Chairperson of NATA in 2014, he formed crucial partnerships with the government public health network and enforcement agencies such as the Sri Lanka Police, Customs, and the Department of Excise to strengthen enforcement of tobacco control laws. He also formed a close relationship with Civil Society and Non-Government Organizations to boost advocacy and conduct community-level programmes and interventions related to tobacco reduction.

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Valeria Luiselli wins €100,000 Dublin Literary Award.

Mexican author Valeria Luiselli has won the 2021 International Dublin Literary Award for the novel "Lost Children Archive".

The novel, the first the author has written in English, follows an artist couple on a road trip from New York to Arizona with their two children in the heat of summer. As their parents’ relationship frays, the children try to make sense of both their family’s crisis and the larger one engulfing the news: the stories of thousands of children trying to cross the border into the US but getting detained or lost in the desert along the way.

The International Dublin Literary Award (Irish: Duais Liteartha Idirnáisiúnta Bhaile Átha Chliath) is presented each year for a novel written or translated into English. It promotes excellence in world literature and is solely sponsored by Dublin City Council, Ireland. At €100,000, the award is one of the richest literary prizes in the world. 

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Pablo Picasso's work sells for $. 103.4 mn.

A painting by Pablo Picasso has sold for more than $100m - marking the fifth work by the Spanish artist to sell for a nine-figure sum. Woman Sitting Near a Window (Marie-Therese) sold for $103.4m (£73.5m) at Christie's auction house in New York.

That figure comprises $90m for the painting itself, with fees and commissions on top. The auction house had estimated the painting would sell for $55m.

The work, titled Femme Assise Pres d'Une Fenetre (Marie-Therese) in Spanish, was sold after 19 minutes of bidding. This auction marked the fifth work by Picasso to have sold for more than $100m.

The record for a Picasso is $179.4m (£127.6m), which was paid for his painting The Women of Algiers in 2015. The last painting to fetch more than $100m was Claude Monet's 1890 work Meules, which reached $110.7m in New York in 2019.

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