Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book
won the U.K.'s prestigious CILIP
Carnegie Medal for children's fiction, the Guardian reported.
"It's
particularly fantastic for me because it was the first literary prize I
was ever aware of as a kid," said Gaiman. "When I was seven I got the
Narnia books for my birthday. I had read a couple before, but I got the
box set, and I got to The Last Battle and it said winner of the
Carnegie medal. I thought wow. It was a couple of years later that I
bought A Wrinkle in Time and became aware of the Newbery. They
are the first literary awards of any kind I was ever aware of and I've
got both of them--it's amazing. When I won the Hugo my 14-year-old self
exulted, but if you can make yourself aged seven happy, you're really
doing well--it's like writing a letter to yourself aged seven."
The
Graveyard Book's illustrator, Chris Riddell, was also shortlisted
for the CILIP Kate Greenaway medal for outstanding illustration, "but
narrowly missed out to Australian illustrator Freya Blackwood for Harry
& Hopper," the Guardian wrote.
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Masha Hamilton has been named this
year's recipient of the Women's National Book Association WNBA Award,
which is presented to "a living American woman who derives part or all
of her income from books and allied arts, and who has done meritorious
work in the world of books beyond the duties or responsibilities of her
profession or occupation."
Hamilton is a novelist and former
foreign correspondent. Her fiction includes 31 Hours and The
Camel Bookmobile. As a journalist, Masha worked for the Associated
Press, reporting from the Middle East, and for the Los Angeles
Times and NBC/Mutual Radio, reporting on the Soviet Union during
its final years.
In 2009, she launched the Afghan Women’s Writing
Project "to foster creative and intellectual exchange between
Afghan women writers and American women authors and teachers."
WNBA
president Mary Grey James praised "the depth of Masha’s commitment to
the world of literacy and books beyond her own career. She is a sterling
example of what the WNBA Award truly intends to honor--meritorious work
in the world of books beyond her profession."
