Longlist announced for Guardian First Book Award 2009


The longlist for the Guardian First Book Award 2009, in association with Waterstone's, has been confirmed. The longlisted books are:

The Secret Lives of Buildings, by Edward Hollis, Portobello (non-fiction)

Direct Red, by Gabriel Weston, Cape (non-fiction)

The Strangest Man, by Graham Farmelo, Faber (non-fiction)

A Swamp Full of Dollars, by Michael Peel, IB Tauris (non-fiction)

The Rehearsal, by Eleanor Catton, Granta (novel)

The Wilderness, by Samantha Harvey, Cape (novel)

The Girl With Glass Feet, by Ali Shaw, Atlantic (novel)

The Selected Works of TS Spivet, by Reif Larsen, Harvill (novel)

An Elegy for Easterly, by Petina Gappah, Faber (short story)

The Missing, by Sian Hughes, Salt (poetry)

Over the coming weeks the longlist will be whittled down to a shortlist of five by a celebrity judging panel, including Martha Kearney and Nadeem Aslam, as well as by regional reading groups, which have been recruited by five Waterstone's branches around the UK.

Guardian literary editor, Claire Armitstead, who will chair the judging panel, said: "As in previous years, the longlist for the Guardian First Book Award 2009 is extremely diverse, which is what makes the award so unique. In particular this year it reflects the way in which the divisions between genres are shifting and collapsing, and shows the energy and imagination with which the best new writers are confronting a world in transition. I'm very much looking forward to hearing what the Waterstone's reading groups make of the longlist, and am sure there will be much debate among the judging panel when we meet to come up with the final five books."

Stuart Broom from Waterstone's said: "The reading group process is traditionally very intense: the readers have to get through 10 books in eight weeks, but the sheer variety of genres that traditionally make it to the longlist make that process feel a lot lighter. Our readers tend to have overwhelmingly strong responses to the books selected, but the fact that people defend or attack the books on the longlist with such passion points to a conviction that good writing must be supported. It's another very rich selection of books this year."

-ends-

Notes to Editors:

The Guardian First Book Award is open to all ﬁrst-time authors writing in English, or translated into English, across all genres. Established in 1999, the award aims to recognise and reward the ﬁnest new writing talent, awarding a £10,000 prize plus an advertising package in the Guardian and the Observer for an author's ﬁrst book published in 2009.

Previous winners of the Guardian First Book Award have included Zadie Smith and Jonathan Safran Foer.

The five shortlisted books will be announced in November and the overall winner will be announced in December.

Waterstone's reading groups to help judge the longlist have been set up from their branches in Oxford, Bath, Leeds, Covent Garden and Edinburgh West End.

The 2009 judging panel: Claire Armitstead (Guardian literary editor), Martha Kearney (BBC presenter), Tobias Hill (poet and novelist), Nadeem Aslam (award-winning author), John Gray (political philosopher and author), Katharine Viner (Guardian deputy editor), Stuart Broom (representing the views of the five Waterstone's reading groups).

For further information contact:
Hayley Dunlop, Press Office, 020 3353 3818 / 07879 430474
https://www.theguardian.com/gnm-press-office/guardian-first-book-award-longlist-2009
www.theguardian.com
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