Robert Burns book project awarded £1m grant (UK)

A Scottish university has been given £1m to produce the first complete scholarly edition of the works of Robert Burns. Glasgow University's Centre for Robert Burns Studies will publish six volumes over the next eight years, with another six to follow in the next decade. They will include The Oxford Handbook to Robert Burns and The Collected Prose of Robert Burns. The work will be funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The £1m award follows an Oxford University Press (OUP) contract which the university secured two years ago to produce the work. The project - Editing Robert Burns for the 21st Century - will involve a team of five literary scholars at Glasgow led by Dr Gerry Carruthers, a leading international Burns expert. Dr Carruthers said the project marked "a seismic shift" in Burns studies. He said: "We now have the platform to assert Burns's status as a major Romantic-period artist alongside the likes of William Wordsworth and John Keats." - BBC

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Diagram Prize for the Oddest Book Title of 2010 shortlist (UK)

The shortlist for the Diagram Prize for the Oddest Book Title of 2010 has been announced. The winner will be announced 25 March 2011:

* 8th International Friction Stir Welding Symposium Proceedings - Various authors (TWI)

* The Generosity of the Dead - Graciela Nowenstein (Ashgate)

* The Italian's One-night Love Child - Cathy Williams (Mills & Boon)

* Managing a Dental Practice the Genghis Khan Way - Michael R Young (Radcliffe)

* Myth of the Social Volcano - Martin King Whyte (Stanford University Press)

* What Color Is Your Dog? - Joel Silverman (Kennel Club)
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'Lost' Enid Blyton book unearthed (UK)

"An unpublished and previously unknown Enid Blyton novel is believed to have turned up in an archive of the late children's author's work. Mr Tumpy's Caravan is a 180-page fantasy story about a magical caravan. It was in a collection of manuscripts that was auctioned by the family of Blyton's eldest daughter in September. "I think it's unique," said Tony Summerfield, head of the Enid Blyton Society. "I don't know of any full-length unpublished Blyton work." The collection was bought by the Seven Stories children's book centre in Newcastle" - BBC

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John le Carré to gift his entire literary archive to the Bodleian Library

"John le Carré, one of the world's most celebrated authors, has offered his literary archive to Oxford's Bodleian Library with the intention that it should become its permanent home. Le Carré said, 'I am delighted to be able to do this. Oxford was Smiley's spiritual home, as it is mine. And while I have the greatest respect for American universities, the Bodleian is where I shall most happily rest.' Richard Ovenden, Keeper of Special Collections and Associate Director of the Bodleian Libraries said 'We are enormously grateful that John le Carré has made his archive available to the Bodleian. It is compelling primary evidence of a major cultural contribution to a literary genre and will offer scholars important insights into his work. We hope the collection will also be appreciated more widely, through exhibitions, seminars and conferences as well as through digitization initiatives.'"

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Sheridan Morley Prize for Theatre Biography winner

"Actor Simon Callow's memoir My Life in Pieces (Nick Hern Books) has won the Sheridan Morley Prize for Theatre Biography. The "Four Weddings and a Funeral" actor combined "zest, originality and passion" in the memoir to win the £2,000 prize, according to the judges. He beat a shortlist comprising Reluctant Escapologist by stablemate Mike Bradwell, Finishing the Hat by Stephen Sondheim (Ebury), Putting it On by Michael Codron and Alan Strachan (Duckworth) and Born Brilliant –The Life of Kenneth Williams by Christopher Stevens (John Murray). The Sheridan Morley Prize is awarded annually for the best biography, autobiography or diary of a theatrical or show‐business subject published in the English language" - The Bookseller

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Historical Writers' Association (UK)

The Historical Writers' Association grew from the belief that we as historical writers need to have the same kind of professional body run by professional writers for professional writers (and their agents and publishers and booksellers) to sustain, promote and support each other and our work in the way that the Crime Writers' Association supports writers of crime. Our initial plans involve a Festival of Historical Literature to be held in conjunction with English Heritage's Festival of History at Kelmarsh, near Northampton on 16th - 17th July 2011

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The 2011 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Award shortlist announced

The shortlist for the The 2011 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Award has been announced:

* Will Cohu – 'East Coast – West Coast'
* Anthony Doerr – 'The Deep'
* Roshi Fernando – 'The Fluorescent Jacket'
* Yiyun Li – 'The Science of Flight'
* Hilary Mantel – 'Comma'
* Gerard Woodward – 'The Family Whistle'
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2011 Orange Prize for Fiction (UK) longlist

The Orange Prize for Fiction, the UK's only annual book award for fiction written by a woman, has announced the 2011 longlist. Celebrating its sixteenth anniversary this year, the Prize celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women's writing throughout the world:

* Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) - Sudanese; 3rd Novel
* Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch (Canongate) - British; 10th Novel
* Room by Emma Donoghue (Picador) - Irish; 7th Novel
* The Pleasure Seekers by Tishani Doshi (Bloomsbury) - Indian; 1st Novel
* Whatever You Love by Louise Doughty (Faber and Faber) - British; 6th Novel
* A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Corsair) - American; 4th Novel
* The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (Bloomsbury) - British/Sierra Leonean; 2nd Novel
* The London Train by Tessa Hadley (Jonathan Cape) - British; 4th Novel
* Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson (Sceptre) - British; 1st Novel
* The Seas by Samantha Hunt (Corsair) - American; 1st Novel
* The Birth of Love by Joanna Kavenna (Faber and Faber) - British; 2nd Novel
* Great House by Nicole Krauss (Viking) - American; 3rd Novel
* The Road to Wanting by Wendy Law-Yone (Chatto & Windus) - American; 3rd Novel
* The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) - Serbian/American; 1st Novel
* The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer (Viking) - American; 1st Novel
* Repeat it Today with Tears by Anne Peile (Serpent's Tail) - British; 1st Novel
* Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (Chatto & Windus) - American; 1st Novel
* The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin (Serpent's Tail) - British/Nigerian; 1st Novel
* The Swimmer by Roma Tearne (Harper Press) - British; 4th Novel
* Annabel by Kathleen Winter (Jonathan Cape) - Canadian; 1st Novel
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UK's most borrowed ebooks announced

Ebook retail and library service provider OverDrive has released a list of the most borrowed ebooks from UK libraries for February 2011. The list covers books checked out and on a waiting lists at libraries using OverDrive's fulfilment service. Books loaned by libraries can be read on any ePub/Adobe DRM compatible device any on a number of apps for tablets and smartphones. They cannot be read on Amazon's Kindle or Apple's iBooks which use their own proprietary DRM
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Julian Barnes wins David Cohen Prize for Literature

Author Julian Barnes, whose novels include Flaubert's Parrot and England, England, has been presented with the David Cohen Prize for Literature. Past recipients of the £40,000 prize, described by judges as the UK's Nobel Prize for Literature, include Harold Pinter and Doris Lessing. The biennial lifetime achievement award went to Seamus Heaney in 2009. BBC

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