Maggie Gee made OBE
A massive congratulations to Saqi and Telegram author Maggie Gee, who has been awarded an OBE in the New Years Honours list for her services to literature.
Maggie has published many novels to great acclaim, including The White Family, shortlisted for the 2003 Orange Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. She was the first female Chair of the Royal Society of Literature and is now one of its Vice-Presidents.
She is also a member of Brent SOS Libraries group and has been campaigning tirelessly alongside residents to save the Kensal Rise branch.
Nawal el Saadawi wins Women of the Year Outstanding Achievement Award 2011
Saqi Books is delighted to announce that the Egyptian writer, novelist and activist, Nawal el Sadaawi is the winner of the Good Housekeeping Women of the Year Outstanding Achievement Award 2011.
The award recognises a woman who has achieved significant cultural, social, economic or political success, both domestically and internationally. The judges believe that Nawal El Sadaawi, who - as she approaches her landmark 80th birthday - is 'still inspiring students and women to fight for their beliefs.'
Author of over 40 books that have been translated into over 30 languages, Nawal El Saadawi has fought relentlessly against injustice and the barriers faced by women in Egypt, both in her work as a physician and psychiatrist and in her writing. Nawal is very happy to have been honoured with this award, adding 'it means that my creative work gains more and more recognition from my peers and others and it will help other groups in other countries to recognise my work, too. Winning this award encourages me to continue my creative dissident writing and fighting.'
Aamer Hussein's The Cloud Messenger shortlisted for Muslim Writers Awards 2011
Muslim Writers Awards was founded in 2006 to harness creative talent and nurture aspiring writers within the Muslim community. Since its inception, it has grown to become a landmark calendar event in the Muslim writers' calendar, and attracts support from a broad range of organisations in the UK.
This year we are pleased to announce that The Cloud Messenger by Aamer Hussein has been shortlisted for the Prize alongside Cairo-born author, Bahaa Taher, and Iranian writer, Shahriar Mandanipour. The awards ceremony will take place on the 22nd November at the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.
Telegram moves into e-book Publishing.
This week Saqi and Telegram took its first few tentative steps towards the new digital era of e-book publishing. Eeek. We intend to make most of our titles available in this format over time but to get the ball rolling, you can now download some of our best sellers; Sjon's From the Mouth of the Whale, Andrew Kaufman's All My Friends are Superheroes, and Mischa Hiller's Shake Off.
Hopefully this means you'll be able to take your favourite Telegram titles with you wherever you go. Happy e-booking.
Sjón's The Blue Fox shortlisted for Jan Michalski Prize.
The Jan Michalski Prize for Literature is attributed each year by the Foundation to crown a work of world literature. An original feature of the Prize is its multicultural nature. It is open to authors from the world over and is intended to contribute to their international recognition. Telegram is pleased to announce that this year Sjón's The Blue Fox is in the running. The authors of short-listed works will be invited for a three-month period of residence in the Maison de l'Ecriture.
Mischa Hiller's Sabra Zoo has won the 2011 Commonwealth Writers' Prize First Book Award in the South Asia and Europe Category!
The Commonwealth Writers' Prize is one of the world's most important literary awards, presented annually by the Commonwealth Foundation with the support of the Macquarie Group Foundation.
Established in 1987, the prize aims to recognise the best fiction by both established and new writers from Commonwealth countries and ensure these works reach a wider audience outside their countries of origin.
Bi Feiyu's Three Sisters has won the Man Asian Literary Prize 2010!
The Man Asian Literary Prize is given annually to the best novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into English. The prize is the most important award handed out annually to writers across Asia - and is the region' s equivalent of the Man Booker and Pulitzer Prizes.
Bi Feiyu beat off tough competition from highly acclaimed writers from across Asia including Japan's Kenzaburo Oe, winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Congratulations Bi!
Telegram author shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize South Asia and Europe
Internationally recognized for propelling authors into the literary spotlight, the shortlist for the regional winners from South Asia and Europe has been unveiled in the race to win the influential 2010 Commonwealth Writers' Prize. All fingers and toes are most definately crossed for Aamer Hussein's beautiful novella, Another Gulmohar Tree for when the regional winners are announced on the 11 March. You can see the full shortlist on the press release here. Congratulations Aamer!
Saqi wins Nibbie!
Saqi took home the Nibbie for Diversity in Literature at the British Book Industry Awards in Cambridge on 1st of June 2010.
They said we were 'Impressively multilingual, multicultural and international, with employment policies genuinely supporting diversity.'
Hooray!
Julia O'Faolain
After a terrible day of delays, Julia O'Faolain finally arrived in Dublin for an inteview for the Irish Times. You can read the result here
Julia was at the Dublin Writer's Festival this weekend following a launch at the Médiathéque Française in Dublin and the Irish Embassy in London. Fear not though, you can catch Julia again at her event with poet and Costa winner Adam Foulds at the Edinburgh Internation Book Festival in August.
But other members of our Telegram family have been in the media too. Aamer Hussein was reviewed in the TLS as having 'precise, poetic prose'. The Independent said 'Aamer Hussein shows that he has the rare gift of expressing enduring and radiant happiness'. The FT calls it a 'slender delight'.
Moris Farhi was reviewed in the Independent as being 'a roar of a book, a novel bursting with an uplifting generosity of spirit and lust for life'. The TLS said 'The writing in A Designated Man has warmth, energy and a generosity of spirit.'
And finally the wonderful blogger Lizzy Siddal gives a gob-smacking review of Spain's best contemporary novelist, Eduardo Mendoza. Discover Eduardo now for some 'literary Prozac'.
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