The shortlist for the 2005 Whitbread Book Awards, honoring the "most
enjoyable books of last year" by writers in the U.K. and Ireland, was
made public yesterday. Among the fiction nominees are Salman Rushdie
for Shalimar the Clown and Nick Hornby for A Long Way Down. A full list of nominees in the five categories is available at the awards Web site.
Winners in each category will be announced January 4; the overall winner is made public January 24.
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Jon Stewart, David Javerbaum and Ben Karlin, authors of America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy in Action (Warner), have won the 2005 Thurber Prize for American Humor. The $5,000 prize is presented by Thurber House, the Columbus, Ohio, center for writers and readers with headquarters in the boyhood home of the dryly humorous James Thurber. Established in 1996, the prize began being awarded annually last year.
The runners-up for the prize were Andy Borowitz, author of The Borowitz Report: The Big Book of Shockers (S&S), and Firoozeh Dumas, author of Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America (Random House).
Concerning the winner, Rachel Cline, one of the judges, said, "When the really smart extra-terrestrials finally locate the fused wreckage of our planet, I hope they are able to retrieve a copy of this book. It catalogs the follies of faith, greed, idealism and idolatry that animated a great nation. Added bonus: if they happen to have had Seventh Grade Civics on Krypton, the ETs will also bust a thorax laughing."
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Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, among many other SF books, has been awarded the Sri Lankabhimanya award, Sri Lanka's highest civilian award, Reuters reported. Clarke has lived in the country for many years.
Winners in each category will be announced January 4; the overall winner is made public January 24.
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Jon Stewart, David Javerbaum and Ben Karlin, authors of America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy in Action (Warner), have won the 2005 Thurber Prize for American Humor. The $5,000 prize is presented by Thurber House, the Columbus, Ohio, center for writers and readers with headquarters in the boyhood home of the dryly humorous James Thurber. Established in 1996, the prize began being awarded annually last year.
The runners-up for the prize were Andy Borowitz, author of The Borowitz Report: The Big Book of Shockers (S&S), and Firoozeh Dumas, author of Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America (Random House).
Concerning the winner, Rachel Cline, one of the judges, said, "When the really smart extra-terrestrials finally locate the fused wreckage of our planet, I hope they are able to retrieve a copy of this book. It catalogs the follies of faith, greed, idealism and idolatry that animated a great nation. Added bonus: if they happen to have had Seventh Grade Civics on Krypton, the ETs will also bust a thorax laughing."
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Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, among many other SF books, has been awarded the Sri Lankabhimanya award, Sri Lanka's highest civilian award, Reuters reported. Clarke has lived in the country for many years.