The Folio Prize's First Shortlist

    

Remember two years ago? A group of lit Brits led by Andrew Kidd of the Aitken & Alexander agency got upset about the Booker judges championing "readability" and promised to create a better, truer, more literary literary award, the Folio Prize, which today announced its first-ever shortlist featuring... Kent Haruf? The plainspoken Colorado novelist is the choice of the anti-readability crowd?

Anyway, very happy to see Anne Carson and longtime favorite Jane Gardam honored on the shortlist:

• Red Doc> by Anne Carson
• Schroder by Amity Gaige 
• Last Friends by Jane Gardam
• Benediction by Kent Haruf
• The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner
• A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride
• A Naked Singularity by Sergio De La Pava
• Tenth of December [Kindle] by George Saunders

On March 10 in London, judges Lavinia Greenlaw, Michael Chabon, Sarah Hall, Nam Le, and Pankaj Mishra will announce the £40,000 winner.

Comments

[Jack M]

Why would "readability" ever be in conflict with truly good literature?