Winner of Man Booker Prize 2016!
Han Kang has won the Man Booker Prize for her book, The Vegetarian. Kang is a South 
Korean novelist, and will be sharing the 50,000 British pound prize (about $72,000) with her English translator, Deborah Smith.
Richard Flanagan Lambasts Australian Government
Author and 2014 Man Booker Prize winner Richard Flanagan made his opinion very clear about proposed changes that are being considered to Australian copyright law. During the keynote address at the Australian Book Industry Awards on May 19th, Flanagan railed against changing the copyright protection for authors to only 15-25 years after publication. I will not say my opinion on the headline in the story in the clickable link…but it might provide some context, and an even heavier weight, to his words.
I actually saw Richard Flanagan speak, and read from his prize-winning book, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, at the Decatur Book Festival in 2014— he was a very engaging speaker. I can imagine the emotion in this speech was surely something to behold.
From the Mouths & Pens of Celebrities
In my search of the news this week, I came across some very clickable celebrity news. Not ‘literature news’, per se, but I couldn’t resist.
- David Byrne from the Talking Heads is writing a musical based on Joan of Arc.
- Jodi Foster talks candidly about how women in film have historically been written by male screenwriters.
- Yes, the picture below is real. The basketball legend is really doing this.
Literary Fests Across the Globe
Continuing our effort to highlight literature from all corners of the world, here are a few recent literary festivals that brought out large crowds of readers, writers and pros in the business of books!
Palestine Festival of Literature
Barcelona and Catalan literature were highlighted as special guests at the fair, which was held May 19-22. Here is a clip from the Catalan News Agency.
Read the world!
Laurel Dowswell is the Features Editor at Change Seven. Her short story “I Am theEggman” was nominated for the 2016 Pushcart Prize. She was a copy editor for an independent feminist newspaper in Santa Fe, NM, after being raised and educated in Florida. She lives and writes in Georgia, just outside of Atlanta with her son. She is currently working on a novel filled with oil paintings, family drama, and the spectrum of sexuality. Follow her on twitter @laurels_idea.
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