Image: Flickr, Camera Eye Photography Authors from all over the world came together last week to celebrate the best and brightest in contemporary literature at the 2014 PEN Literary Awards. The ceremony honors both recently published authors and those whose work has been pivotal in crafting the modern literary scene. Prize-winning books ranged from deep dives into the world of sports medicine to playful children’s stories to enchanting literary fiction. These books are all must-reads, but in case you need more convincing to check out these titles, here are seven reasons why you should be reading this year’s 2014 PEN Literary Award winners. Reasons Why You Should Be Reading This Year’s PEN Literary Award Winners 1. They empower children This year, storyteller Bil Lepp won the PEN/Steven Kroll Award for Picture Book Writing with his children’s book The King of Little Things. By following the King of Little Things and his tiny subjects in their struggle to stop the devious King Normous, readers learn the value of simplicity and the power held by even those who are small. The book is made even more endearing by Lepp’s inspiration for the story — a whimsical playtime misadventure with his own son. Image: leppstorytelling.com 2. They let you travel the world Part of the power of literature is its ability to take you somewhere new. It’s this very virtue that PEN America celebrates with its PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. This year, the award went to The Diaries of Exile by Yannis Ritsos, translated by Karen Emmerich and Edmund Keeley. The Diaries of Exile details the life of a prisoner during the Greek Civil War, transporting readers to 1940s Greece within the bounds of this collection’s diary poems. Image: Archipelago Books 3. They celebrate diversity This year, PEN America awarded two authors — Ruth Ellen Kocher and Nina McConigley — the PEN Open Book Award. Kocher’s poetry collection domina Un/blued is simultaneously tragic and touching as it depicts various forms physical and mental of slavery. Likewise, McConigley’s Cowboys and East Indians addresses diversity and identity by looking at an eclectic cast of characters inhabiting Wyoming and India. Image: theaerogram.com 4. They advocate for social good Every year, PEN America spotlights social good with its PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. The prize is always awarded to an unpublished novel that addresses issues of social justice and comes with $25,000 and a publishing contract with Algonquin Books. This year, Ron Childress won the Bellwether Prize with his manuscript “And West Is West,” which explores corruption in both the military and Wall Street. Image: penamerican.tumblr.com 5. They are confronting violence in the NFL With the recent NFL controversies, much has been said about the brutality found within football, both on and off the field. But in their new book League of Denial, brothers Mark Fainaur-Wada and Steve Fainaru expose another type of violence perpetuated by the NFL — brain injuries incurred by players while playing football and how the NFL sought to cover […]
Mashable‘s social book club, MashableReads, met with author Juan Gabriel Vasquez for a Twitter chat on Sept. 24 to discuss his novel, The Sound of Things Falling. The novel deals with the aftermath of kingpin Pablo Escobar’s reign in Colombia. Mashable readers discussed their favorite characters and posed questions to the author. Vasquez shared his own experience writing the novel and where he draws inspiration from. If you missed the Twitter chat, you can check out some of the highlights in our Storify below. The next MashableReads book will be Necessary Errors by Caleb Crain. Make sure to follow @mashlifestyle for discussion about the book and tweet with the hashtag #MashReads during the chat. For an up-to-date discussion throughout the month, join our Facebook group and share your thoughts with other readers. [View the story “#MashReads Discusses ‘The Sound of Things Falling’” on Storify] Image: Mashable, Bianca Consunji Read more: http://mashable.com/2013/09/26/juan-gabriel-vasquez-twitter-chat/
Image: Mashable, Will Fenstermaker Our next selection for the MashableReads social book club is Molly Antopol‘s The UnAmericans. Molly Antopol, recently named one of The National Book Foundation’s top “5 Under 35” authors, makes her short story debut with her collection The UnAmericans. The collection follows a multiplicity of voices ranging from a teenager coming of age during the Red Scare to a former dissident writer from Prague reflecting on his negligence as a father. As Antopol navigates from story to story, she explores a global and multi-generational Jewish identity with so much heart, wisdom and tenacity that this story collection is bound to resonate with readers of all ages. Be sure to follow @mashlifestyle to discuss The UnAmericans, using the hashtag #MashReads throughout the month. You can also join our Goodreads group to stay updated on MashableReads, and let us know what you think of the book. Want to hang out with the author in person? Join our MashableReads San Francisco Meet Up for our event on March 26, at 6:00pm. If you’re in New York and want to get together with people to discuss the book, join our MashableReads New York Meet Up. Also, we’ve created some discussion questions and a suggested reading guide to keep you on track throughout the month. We encourage you to grab some friends and get together to discuss The UnAmericans some time in the month of March. And as always, tweet at us or post in our Goodreads group to let us know what you think of the book! Below, we spoke with Antopol about being a “5 Under 35” recipient, her advice for young writers and the influence of social media on storytelling. Q&A with Molly Antopol Mashable: You were named one of The National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35 Authors,” but the stories in The UnAmericans span generations. How did being such a young writer influence your story collection? Antopol: It’s an extraordinary honor to get this kind of recognition — I was thrilled to get the news, and to be in such incredible company. Writing is often such a solitary pursuit; it was very nice to be acknowledged by people who aren’t related to me! When I began writing these stories, I was blissfully ignorant of all things publishing-related. Reading was, at that point in my life, an entirely personal and haphazard experience. I’d stumble upon a book, fall in love with it and obsessively read everything by that writer, then read interviews with them to discover which writers they admired and go search for those books, and so on. The book took me ten years to write. It was really important for me to keep my blinders on the whole time. Because I teach in a writing program, a lot of my friends were publishing books. For some reason, the excitement of seeing close friends publish never pushed me to write faster — instead, it just made me want to tune out any noise so I could focus […]
Our next non-fiction selection for the MashableReads social book club is Douglas Rushkoff‘s Present Shock. We’ll be hosting a Twitter chat with Rushkoff on Dec. 16 from 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET. You can discuss the book with the author personally, along with other participants from all over the world. In Present Shock, Douglas Rushkoff details our culture’s recent shift from our concentration on thinking toward the future to our obsession with the present through pop culture, social media and work habits. Rushkoff notes how we use smartphone alerts and multi-tasking in an attempt to emulate the productivity rates of machines, but highlights the risk we run of ignoring natural biological cycles in doing so. Far from rejecting new technology, Rushkoff suggests a balanced approach to navigating a connected life that allows us to experience the moment without missing it altogether. Be sure to follow @mashlifestyle to discuss Present Shock, using the hashtag #MashReads during the chat. You can also join our Facebook group to stay updated on MashableReads, and let us know what you think of the book throughout the month. Want to hang out with the author in person? Share your thoughts on the book using the hashtag #MashReads via Vine video, Instagram or Twitter prior to the chat, and we will select 10 people to visit Mashable‘s New York headquarters to meet Douglas Rushkoff and participate in our book club. If you want to get started on Present Shock, you can listen to the first chapter from Audible below. Below, we spoke with Rushkoff about chronobiology, the importance of personal connection and resistance to mobile technology. Q&A with Douglas Rushkoff Mashable: Given your discussion of the active nature of modern entertainment with DVR and channel surfing, I’m curious to hear your thoughts on fantasy sports. Do you think they enhance sports fandom by making participants more likely to watch games because they feel like they’re participating in them, or do you think they cause us to miss out on the moment because we’re checking a box score instead of watching the game? Rushkoff: It always depends who you are and how you’re engaging. Fantasy sports went a long way toward developing the sabermetrics formulas used not only by oddsmakers but general managers in hiring players. So the amateur fantasists ended up creating some of the algorithms that Oakland GM Billy Bean’s statisticians used to win games with less salary money available for star players. As far as downsides, I’m not very concerned with people being distracted from the TV (I mean, who really cares if they’re looking at a different screen, or texting with fellow fans instead of paying attention to the corporate-sponsored game?). What I am more concerned about is the way that “money ball” changes the game itself, as well as the bigger culture of fandom. Everything is done with stats now. Players’ bonuses are based in numbers of wins or strike outs. So in order to save money, managers now pull pitchers from […]
Today at 3 p.m. ET, Mashable is moderating a Google+ Hangout with best-selling authors Mitch Albom, Dave Barry, Greg Iles, Sam Barry and Ridley Pearson, as well as Lisa Rutherford and Jen Lou from digital publisher Coliloquy. Together, we’ll discuss the future of e-books, the changing role of printed books in today’s digital world and a new interactive e-book called Hard Listening: The Greatest Rock Band Ever (of Authors) Tells All. The story reveals the tale of a garage band called the Rock Bottom Remainders, which consists of the aforementioned authors and other popular writers. It’s told through a collection of essays, stories, musings, group email exchanges, photographs, candid conversations, audio clips, video clips and interactive quizzes. Here’s a full description of the Hangout: In the literary world, they’re rock stars, having sold a combined 350 million books. When they weren’t penning one of their 40 New York Times No. 1 best-sellers, though, they were rocking out as garage band, the Rock Bottom Remainders, created by acclaimed author Stephen King in 1992. Now, King and his bandmates — authors Scott Turow, Amy Tan, Dave and Sam Barry, Roy Blount Jr., Mitch Albom, James McBride, Ridley Pearson, Matt Groening and Greg Iles — are revealing details about their rockin’ private lives in an interactive e-book came out June 18. On June 25 at 3 p.m. ET, +Mashable’s Brian Anthony Hernandez will be moderating a Google+ Hangout with Mitch Albom, Dave Barry, Greg Iles, Sam Barry and Ridley Pearson, plus Writers House agent Amy Berkower and the volumes editor at Coliloquy Jen Lou, to discuss the future of e-books, printed books’ changing role in today’s digital world as well as their new interactive book. Homepage image by Mashable Read more: http://mashable.com/2013/06/25/google-hangout-best-selling-authors-discuss-the-future-of-e-books/
There are short stories, and then there are short stories that shake you to the core. It could be the ending, or a twist halfway through, or just the entire story that makes you go “WTF?!” from start to finish. There are last lines that change the meaning of the entire story. There are stories that you don’t understand until you read them multiple times. There are moments that shock you, anger you, unsettle you, freak you out, or make you want to throw the book across the room and scream “WHAT?!”. Above all, these are stories that you won’t easily forget. Dive into this list if you want to give your brain (and your pulse) a workout. short stories 1. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson This is one of the most famous short stories in American literature with a memorable ending that’s sure to rock you. An American small town seems innocuous enough — but oh, it is not. Image: Amazon Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce This story of a Civil War execution plays with time and has an ending that makes the story even more confusing, if that’s possible. Image: Amazon Dover Publications 3. A Perfect Day for Bananafish by J.D. Salinger This is the first appearance of Seymour Glass in the Salinger canon, and it’s safe to say you won’t truly understand the ending until you read every other Glass story. Maybe not even then. Image: Amazon Back Bay Books 4. A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor Another classic and unforgettable American short story in which a family road trip turns into something else. You can guess what’s going to happen, yet you’re still not prepared for it. Image: Amazon Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 5. Child’s Play by Alice Munro Alice Munro is the master of the disturbing, multi-layered short story, but when she turns her attention to the behavior of children, she truly outdoes herself. Image: Amazon Vintage 6. The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell This thriller inspired an episode of CBS Radio’s Suspense starring Orson Welles and a 1932 film. Image: Amazon Waking Lion Press 7. The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe Poe is famous for the macabre and supernatural, and this story is one of his most memorable. Image: Amazon Penguin Classics 8. The Catbird Seat by James Thurber The office frustrations of an unassuming middle-aged man quickly spiral out of control in this tale by the author who brought us the deceptive story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” Image: Amazon Library of America 9. The Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Luis Borges is a master of magical realism, and this story will make you contemplate the universe. Image: Amazon Penguin Classics 10. Zombie by Chuck Palahniuk This story is just plain cerebral. Image: Playboy 11. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman You slowly start to realize that something isn’t quite right in this story, although the […]
