The National Book Foundation has named its “5 Under 35” for 2010. Just for jollies, I went and checked which of these writers had gotten an MFA. Answer: 4 out of 5 (University of Iowa, California Institute of Arts, Cornell University, and the University of Houston). Paul Yoon, the only author whose work I’ve read (and was greatly impressed by), did not get an MFA.
via The National Book Foundation:
The National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” Fiction, 2010
Leslie Shipman, Director of Programs at the NBF, comments, “In the five years of 5 Under 35, we’ve been thrilled to see many of our honorees go on to receive great acclaim. We’re delighted that 5 Under 35 provides us with an opportunity to recognize these young writers early in their careers, with the help of past National Book Award Winners and Finalists.”
*
Odds are being posted on this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature. I’d put money on Cormac McCarthy, especially after the embarrassment of Horace Engdahl, the permanent secretary of the Nobel prize jury, saying of American literature that, “The US is too isolated, too insular. They don’t translate enough and don’t really participate in the big dialogue of literature …That ignorance is restraining.”
via Galleycat:
Cormac McCarthy Has Updated 3/1 Odds to Win Nobel Prize in Literature
As U.K. gamblers adjust the odds for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Cormac McCarthy has lept to the top of the heap with 3/1 odds of winning the world’s most prestigious literary prize.
Akopos 