21st Century Literature discussion

Here's a prize that I don't think we've discussed before -- The Kirkus Prize. The winner receives $50,000, so it's one worth winning!

I'm not sure how the list gets narrowed (all books getting a starred Kirkus review are elibible), but the finalist list for 2014 had books that appeared on the Mann Booker long list, so there is overlap with the better known (to me) prizes. The winner was announced this week and I have it on my shelf -- Euphoria by Lily King. The other five finalists were:
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt
All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu
Florence Gordon by Brian Morton
The Remedy for Love: A Novel Bill Roorbach

King and Roorbach are Maine authors. I heard Roorbach do a book reading a couple of weeks ago at the publication party for The Remedy of Love at Longfellow's Books in Portland, ME. The owner and staff there were pretty psyched that two of the authors they see on a regular basis were on the short list and estatic when King won.

For more about the Kirkus prizes see https://www.kirkusreviews.com/prize/2....

Thx for the heads up, Linda!

I read Euphoria in September. I gave it five stars.