Late Night With Jan Harayda – The Man Booker Prize Judges’ Blog

This is the first in an occasional series of brief posts that will appear after 10 p.m. Eastern Time, particularly during the literary-awards season. The “Late Night” posts will not include book reviews, which will continue to appear earlier in the day, but will comment on literary or related events.

The best part of announcement of the 2008 Man Booker Prize shortlist: reading the judges’ blog, a porthole onto the selection of the finalists www.themanbookerprize.com/news/blog-judges-08. Of course, the panel can’t tell us the half of what went on. But the blog is revealing in its own way and, at times, amusing. Novelist Louise Doughty writes of the meeting at which the panel chose the finalists: “It was mostly civilized, although there was the moment when one of my fellow judges told me he could envisage himself waking screaming from a nightmare in which he was married to me.” Hmmm. I wonder if any men had thoughts like that about me when I was a judge of the National Book Critics Circle awards? Could this explain why I’m not married?

Tomorrow: Another Gusher Award for Achievement in Hyperbole in Book Reviewing.

Saturday: A review of President Pennybaker, a new picture book about a boy who decides to run for president of the United States, written by Kate Feiffer and illustrated by Caldecott Honor artist Diane Goode www.dianegoode.com.

© 2008 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.