Latest news with #PulitzerPrizeforFiction
Axios
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Axios
New book tackles the legend of Jim from Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn"
A new book unpacks Jim in Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" — a fictional enslaved Black man who is one of the most memorable characters in American Literature. Why it matters: For more than a century, Jim has been a source of sympathy, ridicule, anger, and protest due to the Black dialect he uses throughout the novel, but scholar Shelley Fisher Fishkin says that he's been misunderstood. The big picture: " Jim: The Life and Afterlives of Huckleberry Finn's Comrade," released last month by Yale University Press, comes out amid renewed interest in the Twain character. Percival Everett recently won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel, "James," which reimagines Jim from an illiterate enslaved man as often portrayed to a savvy and literate soul who has more agency. Fishkin tells Axios she wanted to explore how we've viewed Jim throughout the decades and how he has shaped American culture. The text in Twain's classic hasn't changed throughout the years, "but we've changed," said Fishkin, one of the world's top Twain scholars. Catch up quick: " The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" tells the story of Huck, a young, uneducated white boy, and Jim, an escaped slave, as they travel together down the Mississippi River on a raft. The pair must avoid mobs of slave hunters and robbers along their journey and develop a sense of care for one another. The book uses racist epithets of the time, and Jim speaks in a language that critics say today resembles offensive minstrel shows in the late 1800s — all of which have generated demands for the novel to be banned. Yes, but: Fishkin says Twain was being subversive in the use of Jim's dialect and criticizing all the racist stereotypes with a humanized portrayal. "Jim is the smartest character in the book. It's a mistake to assume he's there to be ridiculed. In fact, he becomes a father to Huck," says Fishkin, who wrote the 1993 literature critic classic, "Was Huck Black? Mark Twain and African American Voice." Fishkin says Jim is a complex character who is really the first Black father portrayed in American literature. Zoom in: In her new book, Fishkin takes on the historical myths and models of Black men in post-Civil War America. She then gives us a rundown of the debates of Jim and the novel's use of racist language that have generated pushback from liberals and conservatives. Fishkin then presents the reader with an innovative exercise in one chapter, exploring what Jim would say about everything in his own dialect. She ends with a lesson on how some high school teachers are presenting the book today and what lessons can be learned when the book "is taught correctly."
New Statesman
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New Statesman
Viet Thanh Nguyen Q&A: 'My earliest memory? Being taken to school on a Vespa'
Illustration by Kristian Hammerstad Viet Thanh Nguyen was born in Buôn Ma Thuot, Vietnam, in 1971. He is an award-winning novelist and professor of English and American studies. His debut novel, The Sympathizer, won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. What's your earliest memory? Being taken to school on the back of a motorbike, later confirmed to be a Vespa. Who are your heroes? In childhood: Spider-Man. Now: my mother and father. Which political figure do you look up to? I don't think we should look up to political figures, who are often flawed and often have to make compromised choices, or outright bad ones. We should look to political movements, whose collective virtues can outweigh individual failures. What book last changed your thinking? Rashid Khalidi's The Hundred Years' War on Palestine. What would be your 'Mastermind' specialist subject? I know how to read and write and I love stories and poems, so literature, from the perspectives of both readers and writers. In which time and place, other than your own, would you like to live? Being born in the United States in the mid 1950s was probably nice. Too young to go to war, too old to really confront the worst of the climate catastrophe to come; part of a wealthy country that still had a vibrant middle class. Of course, this answer is much more true if you are white, male, able-bodied. So the real answer is that I don't think it's so much about time and place but about resources. If you have wealth and privilege, most places and times were probably pretty good times, until the revolution came. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Who would paint your portrait? My daughter. She's five. What's the best piece of advice you've ever received? About my writing: focus on the process, not the outcome. My partner told me that and she was absolutely right. Unfortunately, or fortunately, it took three decades of process to become a writer. The process taught me humility and that art is a discipline and a calling, akin to a spiritual path – not a profession or a career, which is important but only secondarily so. What's currently bugging you? I was tempted to say Trump, but I think he's more of a symptom. What bugs me is the lack of a powerful, global, unified left movement that can so far match the billionaires, their politicians, and the arms and fossil fuel industries. What single thing would make your life better? World peace. But more realistically, if everyone could just read a book a month, I think the world would be a better place. And even that seems unrealistic. When were you happiest? Right now, with my family, which is my real home. In another life, what job might you have chosen? Writer. It was pretty good this time around. Are we all doomed? Yes and no. That depends on how you define 'we'. The human species will adapt, get wiser, and survive, I hope. But not all of us will survive, given the inequalities between nations and within them. That makes it urgent that the definition of 'we' is as inclusive as possible, so that more of us can be saved. If we are willing to sacrifice the least and the weakest of us, there is the distinct danger that we are perpetuating conditions that will inevitably doom all of us. 'The Cleaving' edited by Isabelle Thuy Pelaud, Lan P Duong and Viet Thanh Nguyen is published by University of California Press [See also: Martin Freeman Q&A: 'My childhood hero was Jesus as portrayed by Robert Powell'] Related
Winnipeg Free Press
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
James adds Pulitzer Prize to trophy case
Percival Everett's novel James, a reimagining of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim, the escaped slave, has landed another award, and a big one at that — the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Published in March 2024, James also won the Kirkus Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award, and was a finalist for the Booker Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Buy on Everett's path to the Pulitzer wasn't a straightforward one. A May 6 New York Times article indicates James wasn't among the top three books among jurors were considering, but there was no consensus on a winner among the finalists — Rita Bullwinkel's Headshot, Stacey Levine's Mice 1961 and Gayl Jones's The Unicorn Woman — and Everett's book was brought in as a fourth option. Other Pulitzer winners on the books front included Jason Roberts for Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life in the biography category, Tessa Hulls for Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir in the memoir/autobiography category, Marie Howe for New and Selected Poems in the poetry category and co-winners Edda L. Fields-Black for Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War and Kathleen DuVal for Native Nations: A Millennium in North America in the history category. For a complete list of winners, including in the journalism and music categories, see ● ● ● The Dave Williamson Short Story Competition (or 'The Dave,' for short) has announced the seven-story short list for this year's prize, the third time the award has been presented. Four of this year's finalists are from Manitoba — Sonia Marrone for Runner of the Woods, Lynne Martin for Finger Talk and Julia Rempel for Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies, all of whom are from Winnipeg, and Fisher Lavell of Swan River for Wild Animals I Have Known. The other three finalists for the prize, which is administered by the Manitoba Writers' Guild, hail from Ontario — Hamilton's Agata Antonow for The Opposite of Comforting, Ottawa's Amber Fenik for Tides and Toronto's Sarah Israr for Chaiwali. This year's judges were local authors Mitchell Toews, Zilla Jones and Michael Hutchinson. The winners will be celebrated at a reception on Thursday, May 29 from 7-9 p.m. at Video Pool (second floor, 100 Arthur St.) , where Beyond Boundaries III, an anthology of winning stories, will be launched. To attend and for more information, see ● ● ● Della Steinke takes a frank look at having lived life on the edge in her new book Mothering to Mother Ink: A raw memoir of hard truths and second chances, which she launches at 2 p.m. today at McNally Robinson Booksellers' Grant Park location. Buy on Co-written by Kevin Zrill, the book chronicles the abuse Steinke suffered from her adoptive mother, living in her car as a teenager, an unplanned pregnancy, caring for her teenaged child recovering from a car accident, sobriety, helping gang members leave their pasts behind and more. ● ● ● The potential benefits of psychedelics, particularly around mental-health issues, has been thrust into the spotlight in recent years. In a new book published by Fernwood Publishing, two authors and academics explore whether corporations and the medical establishment are best-suited to lead the charge on psychedelics' newfound mainstream appeal. Carleton University prof Jamie Brownlee and University of Winnipeg criminal justice prof Kevin Walby's Psychedelic Capitalism launches Thursday at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson's Grant Park location. Buy on ● ● ● The University of Manitoba's Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture has announced that Winnipeg poet Melanie Dennis Unrau will be its next writer in residence, beginning this fall. Unrau's most recent book was 2024's Rough Poets: Reading Oil-Worker Poetry; her next collection of poetry, Goose, will be published in October by Assembly Press. Buy on Author and flutist Sonja Boon is the current writer in residence, and will serve until Unrau takes over. books@ Ben SigurdsonLiterary editor, drinks writer Ben Sigurdson is the Free Press's literary editor and drinks writer. He graduated with a master of arts degree in English from the University of Manitoba in 2005, the same year he began writing Uncorked, the weekly Free Press drinks column. He joined the Free Press full time in 2013 as a copy editor before being appointed literary editor in 2014. Read more about Ben. In addition to providing opinions and analysis on wine and drinks, Ben oversees a team of freelance book reviewers and produces content for the arts and life section, all of which is reviewed by the Free Press's editing team before being posted online or published in print. It's part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
The Hindu
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
The Hindu On Books newsletter: Pulitzer for Percival Everett's ‘James', reading Hanif Kureishi and more
Welcome to this edition of The Hindu on Books Newsletter. The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 2025, has been awarded to Percival Everett's James (Pan Macmillan). Working with Mark Twain's 1884 classic, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Everett tells the story from the perspective of Jim, the runaway slave. Everett gives agency to Jim, as first, he takes up a pencil to write his tale, giving himself a new name — James; and then picks a violent route to get his freedom. If Twain's attempt to convey the contradictions of slavery came up short and 'problematic', as Everett has said in interviews, he fills the vacuum by telling the story from the other side. Read the review here. In reviews, we read a former top Facebook staffer's account of the company's reckless ways, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's new novel, Hanif Kureishi's memoir of his struggles after a fall paralysed him and more. Books of the week Sarah Wynn-Williams' Careless People (Pan Macmillan India) is a revelatory exposé of Facebook (now Meta) and its meteoric rise to global dominance, written by someone who was once in the inner circle. As a former Director of Global Public Policy, Wynn-Williams had a front-row seat to the corporate and political machinations that shaped Facebook into one of the world's most influential tools, and in many ways, its most reckless, writes the reviewer John Xavier. 'Within a few chapters into the book, you will know why Meta has tried to block the book's sale and bar the author from further promoting it. What Wynn-Williams offers is a darkly funny, shocking, and ultimately devastating portrait of a company that has irreversibly transformed how people interact, communicate, and perceive the world—often for the worse.' In 2022, writer Hanif Kureishi had a bad fall in Rome. The spinal cord injury meant he could no longer 'walk, write or wash himself', and struggled to accept his new reality as a patient. But throughout his medical journey – he eventually returned to London where he is based – he dictated a 'series of despatches' to his family. The drafts were then revised and expanded into a profound book, Shattered (Hamish Hamilton). In his review, Chintan Girish Modi writes that the memoir is the story of Kureishi's determination 'to keep writing' and draw sustenance from words. 'In doing so, he has created a book that will give courage to the hopeless and evoke empathy in the cold-hearted.' Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Dream Count (Fourth Estate) tells interlocking stories of four women in the U.S. — Chiamaka, a Nigerian travel writer; Zikora, her lawyer-friend; Kadiatou, her Guinean housekeeper; and Omelogor, her acerbic banker-cousin. Through these stories, Adichie explores middle-age experiences, womanhood, class, and immigration. In her review, Radhika Santhanam calls it an 'extraordinary, expansive novel' though it is not a perfect book -- 'the feminism is so old-school that men are boring at best and abusers at worst. It also fizzles out towards the end.' But, says Santhanam, Adichie is a master storyteller who simply dazzles and hypnotises with her satire, wit, and prose. 'And for that reason alone, this novel that was 10 years in the making is well worth the wait.' Spotlight In continuing Israel strikes on Gaza, 16 people died on Sunday including at least three children. Israel resumed its military offensive in Gaza in March after a two-month shaky truce in its war against Hamas which began after the Palestine military outfit's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Gaza's health ministry, news agencies report, has said over 2,000 Palestinians have died since March, and the overall toll has gone past 50,000. Three weeks into the bombardment of Gaza in 2023, Canadian-Egyptian writer and journalist Omar El Akkad had tweeted: 'One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.' The tweet went viral, and he picks the title of his new book from it. One day, everyone will have always been against this (Penguin) is a memoir and a reappraisal of Western liberal values – all 'lies', he contends. More importantly, he wonders aloud why the world and powerful powers are allowing the slaughter in Gaza to continue. Akkad writes that one of the hallmarks of Western liberalism is an assumption, in hindsight, of virtuous resistance as the only polite expectation of people on the receiving end of colonialism. 'While the terrible thing is happening – while the land is still being stolen and the natives still being killed – any form of opposition is terroristic and must be crushed for the sake of civilisation.' In Gaza, the horrors, he says, have been meticulously documented by Palestinians, and meticulously brushed aside by the major media apparatus of the Western world. He points out that Gaza has led to a fracture – 'a breaking away from the notion that the polite, Western liberal ever stood for anything at all.' But as the Vietnam War – the country celebrated 50 years of the end of the war and reunification of north and south on April 30 – and other wars have shown, the only antidote to indifference and silence is astute documentation of horrors inflicted on fellow human beings. Browser Caste in India is mostly reported from the experience of the oppressed. Caste as a privilege is not understood well. Ravikant Kisana documents the lives, concerns and crises of India's urban elites, framing the 'savarnas' as a distinct social cohort, oblivious of its own social rules, privileges and systems in Meet the Savarnas: Indian Millennials Whose Mediocrity Broke Everything (Ebury Press). (Ebury Press). In 2013, Puja Pabari, not a cricket fan, married ace batsman Cheteshwar Pujara, and witnessed firsthand the life of a player. In her memoir, The Diary of a Cricketer's Wife (HarperCollins), written with Namita Kala, she reflects on what it means to be a cricketer's wife in India, and the triumphs and struggles to be a player. (HarperCollins), written with Namita Kala, she reflects on what it means to be a cricketer's wife in India, and the triumphs and struggles to be a player. Lindsay Pereira's Songs Our Bodies Sing (Penguin) narrates the tale of a heartbroken father in London who turns to the Beatles to make sense of what he has lost. Other characters too turn to music to understand their world. The stories are set at points of intersections between the east and west – and the commonalities they share rather than differences. (Penguin) narrates the tale of a heartbroken father in London who turns to the Beatles to make sense of what he has lost. Other characters too turn to music to understand their world. The stories are set at points of intersections between the east and west – and the commonalities they share rather than differences. Once Upon a Beginning: Incredible Origin Stories from India (Hachette India) by Nalini Ramachandran are tales passed down through generations by indigenous communities from different parts of India. The collection of rare and untold creation myths piece together the mysteries of life and evolution.
