LONDON (AP) — Youth and heft triumphed at Britain’s Booker Prize last Tuesday, as 28-year-old New Zealander Eleanor Catton won the fiction award for The Luminaries, an ambitious 832-page murder mystery set during a 19th-century gold rush.

The choice should give heart to young authors of oversized tales. Catton is the youngest writer and only the second New Zealander to win the prestigious award – and her epic novel is easily the longest Booker champion.

Catton said after accepting the award that she didn’t think about the length of the book while she was writing it, “partly because I was inside it for the whole time”.

“It wasn’t until I received the proof of the book that I thought, ‘Jeepers, this is actually quite heavy,'” she said. “I’ve had to buy a new handbag, because my old handbag wasn’t big enough to hold my book.”

She thanked her British publisher, Granta, for protecting her from feeling the commercial pressures around a tome that could be seen as “a publisher’s nightmare”.

Travel writer Robert Macfarlane, who chaired the judging panel, called The Luminaries ”dazzling,” ”luminous” and “vast without being sprawling”.

“It is beautifully intricate without being fussy,” Macfarlane said. “It is experimental … but does not by any means neglect the traditional virtues of storytelling.”

Catton had been bookmakers’ joint favourite among the six prize finalists, alongside British novelist Jim Crace, for his rural parable The Harvest. She also beat Ireland’s Colm Toibin, Indian-American writer Jhumpa Lahiri, Zimbabwe’s NoViolet Bulawayo and Canada’s Ruth Ozeki.

Catton received her trophy, which comes with a £50,000 cheque, from Prince Charles’ wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, during a dinner ceremony at London’s medieval Guildhall.

The Luminaries centres on a man named Walter Moody who comes to a New Zealand prospecting town in 1866 and finds himself immersed in a web of saloons, seances and skullduggery.

The book’s elaborate narrative is structured according to astrological charts: It consists of 12 sections, each half the length of the last, from a 360-page opener to a final chapter of a single page.

Macfarlane said the novel “takes place in a culture which is utterly capitalised” and focused on money, but also dwells on tenderness and love.

He said the panel of five judges met for two hours – brief by Booker standards – to choose the winner, which was decided without a vote. “No blood was spilled in the judging,” he said.

Catton, who was 25 when she started writing the book and 27 when she finished it, has published just one previous novel. Now she has won a prize that brings a huge boost in profile, publicity and sales, and whose laureates include VS Naipaul, Margaret Atwood, Julian Barnes and Hilary Mantel.

The only previous New Zealand winner is Keri Hulme, who took the Booker in 1985 for The Bone People.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said Catton’s victory was “a hugely significant achievement on the world stage for a New Zealander”.

Macfarlane said Catton’s youth did not influence the judges, and Catton said she felt “honoured and proud to be living in a world where the facts of somebody’s biography doesn’t get in the way of how people read their work”.

This is the last year that the Booker – founded in 1969 and officially named the Man Booker Prize after its sponsor, financial services firm Man Group PLC – will be open only to writers from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth of former British colonies.

Beginning next year, Americans and other English-language writers will be able to enter as well.

The rule change aims to expand the global scope of the Booker even further, although some fear it may alter the delicate chemistry of the prize.

Macfarlane said The Luminaries was a fitting winner – “a global novel that is always intensely local”.

And its sheer size – eight times the length of Toibin’s 104-page The Testament of Mary – had an added benefit for the judges.

“Those of us who didn’t read it on e-readers enjoyed a full upper-body workout,” Macfarlane said.

Creative writing course for kids

Parents who are interested in improving their children’s writing abilities can sign up for a six-week workshop beginning at the end of October for GSAT-age youngsters being convened by Bookends coordinator Sharon Leach.

Call 387-2540 for details or e-mail sharonleach715@hotmail.com

PAGE TWO:

Bookshelf:

>>>COMPETITIONS, CONTESTS, AWARDS, etc

The 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize now open for entries

The 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize was recently launched, inviting writers across the Commonwealth to submit entries for the prize.

The prize is free to enter, and awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2,000-5,000 words) in English. Regional winners will receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives £5,000. Short stories translated into English from other languages are also eligible.

The 2014 judging panel will be chaired by Ellah Allfrey, Deputy Chair of the Council of the Caine Prize, and previously Deputy Editor of Granta and Senior Editor at Jonathan Cape, Random House. The judges are: Doreen Baingana, Michelle de Kretser, Marlon James, Courttia Newland and Jeet Thayil.

“My hope is that writers from across the Commonwealth will be encouraged to send us stories that bring us news of wherever they are, in the wide variety of voices and accents that make up the English language. It would be wonderful to see submissions from bold stylists and stories that experiment with the form as well as more traditional approaches to the short story. This prize celebrates the power of the short story to spin a tale that concentrates experience and character in such specificity that the local is transformed to significance far beyond its borders. This is the magic of good writing, and this is what I hope we will find,” said Allfrey.

Commonwealth Writers is continuing its partnership with Granta Magazine to give the overall and regional winners of the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize the opportunity to have their story edited and published by Granta online.

This year Commonwealth Writers also announces a new association with the London-based literary and media agency Blake Friedmann, which will work with selected writers identified through the Prize.

2013 BBC World Service International Radio Playwriting Competition [pic: angella]

Meanwhile, the 2013 BBC World Service International Radio Playwriting Competition is also now open for entries. In partnership with the British Council and Commonwealth Writers, the competition offers a unique opportunity for writers from all around the globe to use the immense power of radio drama to tell the stories that matter to a world audience. Now in its 24th year, it is expanding to include an additional prize, the Georgi Markov Prize in collaboration with the Open University, which will honour the script from the shortlist that shows most promise.

The free competition welcomes scripts from anyone outside the UK, whether established or new writers. The dramas need to be 53 minutes long on any subject.

CAP: Angella Emurwon, 2012 BBC World Service International Radio Playwriting Competition winner

>>>AUTHOR NEWS

Jamaican author Gwyneth Harold Davidson collaborates with JIS for Young Lives of National Heroes [pic: young heroes]

JIS – During National Heritage Week, October 14 to 21, the Jamaica Information Service (JIS), through its radio department, will be taking a bold new look at the young lives of the National Heroes, in a seven-part series.

Titled Young Heroes, the series focuses on fictional stories about the lives of Nanny of the Maroons, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, George William Gordon, Samuel Sharpe, Paul Bogle, Norman Washington Manley and Alexander Bustamante, as children and young adults.

The stories are written by local author Gwyneth Harold Davidson, who describes them as “a coming together of traditional stories and imagination”.

Harold Davidson has used verses from the National Anthem as the starting point in the development of each episode. “I was inspired by the National Anthem … and I applied each National Hero a virtue from the National Anthem,” she said.

So, for example, the line ‘justice, truth be ours forever’ inspired the story of Norman Washington Manley, who was a lawyer and strong advocate for the people.

“Nanny, we know her as a Maroon and the maroons live very close to the land, so our anthem, ‘Eternal Father, bless our land’, I just thought that was a natural fit for Nanny,” she continued.

Sam Sharpe the Baptist deacon’s story was inspired by the theme ‘grant true wisdom from above’; while the theme for George William Gordon, the son of a white planter and a slave mother, was shaped by the line, ‘teach us true respect for all’.

Harold Davidson casts Paul Bogle as a beacon for his people, helping to chart their way into a better society and used the theme ‘be our light through countless hours’, as inspiration for his story.

In the case of Alexander Bustamante, the author relied on stories that she heard about his kindness and affinity to help people, to shape his character through the theme ‘strengthen us the weak to cherish’.

For Marcus Garvey, Jamaica’s first national hero, Harold Davidson used one of his quotes as inspiration. “Marcus Garvey, we know him to be a visionary. He saw what the society could be like in the future. He has a famous quote, ‘Chance never satisfies the hope of a nation’, and that’s what I built on for his story,” she explained.

The series was recorded in the JIS radio studio under the direction of Radio Manager Lorraine Mendez, who is very excited about the project.

Mendez informed that members of the public can catch the series on their favourite radio stations throughout the week. It will also be available on the JIS website up to December 31.

CAP: The audio series Young Heroes, which was inspired by the lives of Jamaica’s seven national heroes, was recorded featuring the voices of children and young people. From left: Abram Marrett, Mikael-Lee Toyloy, Rushad Thames, JIS studio engineer Joel Samuls. The series was jointly produced by author Gwyneth Harold Davidson and the JIS.

>>> NEW IN BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS

My Mommy is a Stock Trader, by Jennifer Pioli, available now [pic: mommy is stock]

Recently released, and available on amazon.com, My Mommy is a Stock Trader, by Jennifer Pioli, introduces children as young as five years old to the “colourful” world of investing. My Mommy is a Stock Trader is an educational colouring book that will teach children new and exciting facts about the stock market. It aims to expose children from an early age to the endless possibilities of investing in the stock market. Encouraging early education can lead to a lifelong interest in money management. My Mommy is a Stock Trader proves that one is never too young to introduce the beginnings of what can eventually become a richly rewarding career path.

PAGE THREE:

Photo Story:

Meet Me In Asilah [pics: asilah1-6 – carry like polaroids]

It turned out to be the perfect getaway – the small beautiful town in northern Morocco that my travelling companion and I stumbled upon. For me, it was the end of an extremely rewarding but long school year. I was looking for somewhere calm and cool, in the middle of a hot summer, to gather my thoughts and plan my next move. It so happened that I had to be in Rabat, the capital city of Morocco – where I have extensive ties having lived in the city for more than a year on a Fulbright fellowship – to plan an exhibition.

But as much as I love Rabat, with its amazing ruins, intricately designed gardens, and small blue taxi cabs rapidly darting about, I wanted to be somewhere more low-keyed and quieter. So my travelling companion and I boarded a train and headed north.

The first thing that strikes you on entering the town of Asilah is just how white everything is; the houses are in fact almost blindingly white and it takes a moment for your eyes to slowly start noticing the blue on the doors and ceilings of the houses. In Asilah all the houses are bright white while windows and doors are sky-blue. The blue and white colours are also reminiscent of the open skies and the ever-present ocean. There is an undeniable Andalusian feel to the city.

This is the kind of laid-back place, the kind of laid-back town, where you will need no guide, no map, or even a watch; all you need to do is let yourself wander the amazing, maze-like white narrow streets of the old city. All the streets lead effortlessly to the coastal cobble rampart.

Rumour has it that the fortress, one of the highlights of the city, is where the Portuguese king Dan Sebastian spent his last night in 1578, before his death in the War of the Three Kings. Today the Tower is an art gallery hosting prestigious exhibitions of art works of national and international artists. As you walk through the town you will see the continuing evidence of the Portuguese, who ruled the city for a while, in the canons that still can be found on the ramparts.

The history of Asilah began some 3,500 years ago, when the Phoenicians made the city a harbour for their maritime trade. Many other dynasties were seduced by the strategic placement of the city including Carthaginians and Romans before the Portuguese occupied the city in 1471. It was in 1691 when Amir Mly Ismail annexed Asilah to unify Morocco. Today Asilah is a favoured vacation spot of Moroccans, but the word is slowly getting out about this beguiling place. Indeed, in the 1920s and 1930s when the Jamaican writer Claude McKay came to town, he decided that he should settle in the region permanently, and he wrote several notable poems about the beauty of Northern Morocco.

Asilah (Arcila in Portuguese) is known in Morocco as the city of art and culture, the artist’s city, the intellectual’s city, the city of Arab culture. Most public places are named after intellectuals and artists. In Asilah you can buy rugs woven right there, stop in the medina and chat with crafts people hard at work, eat some sweet delicious green figs, or simply stare in wonder at the cool dark interior of a large family house. Farther afield you might come across two shells, left by the lovers Fatima and Hassan. You should not leave this enchanting place without purchasing a painting made from the distinctive blue dye of the region.

Next time you happen to be in Morocco, get on the train from Rabat and take that three-hour ride to spend a few amazing days in this beautiful city by the bay, which, in a strange kind of way, reminds me of the charms of Port Antonio. Trust me, it will be well worth your time.

Text: Jacqueline Bishop

Photos: Lhouceine Aamar

PAGE FOUR:

Fiction:

A man of vision

By Hazel Campbell [pic: man of vision]

“Wake up! Wake up!” David nudged his companion.

“Tief! Tief!” Daggerman responded as he struggled to get from under his rags and cardboard cover.

“No! No!” David reassured him. “Is not thief. I get the dream! I get the dream at last!”

“Dream?” Daggerman sighed.

David poked the others lying on similar improvised beds around him, but they only mumbled and shifted positions, so he blew his whistle. The shrieking yanked them from sleep and they hurriedly prepared to flee, for the whistle was the ultimate warning of – Gunman! Police! Thief! – the enemies which caused them to huddle together at nights for protection.

“Calm down,” David’s voice still held the authority of his university lecturer days. “I get the vision!”

The others grumbled as they remade their beds, for David was a man of many visions.

“Listen nuh! I know what to do now.”

“Is midnight, man. Tell we later.”

“The real problem,” David persisted,” is that nobody never claim this island for black people!”

“What?”

“Don’t you see? When Columbus came, he stuck a flag in the ground and claimed the island for Spain. Penn and Venables planted the Union Flag and claimed the island for England. When we say we get Independence in 1962 them just string up a flag and never claim nothing. Them even use the same flag pole that the British used. Them never plant the flag. Them never claim nothing for us. So how we expect anything could change? If things to change, we have to plant a flag and claim the island for the sufferers who make up the majority of this country.”

“What kinda flag?” Daggerman asked. He was resigned to losing the rest of his night’s sleep. When David got one of his brilliant ideas, he could talk for hours. “What kinda flag?” he asked again.

“The same one, but with red in it.”

“I see it in my vision. Red in the middle for all the blood that fatten the land for the oppressors.”

“Where we gwine get a flag?” Maudie grumbled.

“Plenty flag pon the pole them. Nobody no tek them down at night.”

“You have red cloth?” Maudie asked, knowing that she would be the one chosen to alter the flag.

David grew impatient. “Details! Details!’ He started giving orders. “Daggerman, go raid a flag pole. Wildman go find a good long stick. Maudie, tear off piece of your blouse…”

Later that August morning, a small band of street people trudged single-file up Duke Street. A ragtag bunch of idlers soon joined the procession as it made its way past Gordon House, the seat of Parliament, past other government buildings and into the National Heroes Park. The park was the site of the monuments for others who in their day had also sought to make things better for the majority and were now honoured as heroes.

David and his band stopped in front of Marcus Garvey’s shrine. David solemnly unfurled his flag, a large one taken from a ministry building. The centre where the black, green and gold met was covered with a rough red circle torn from Maudie’s red blouse and tacked on with the few common pins she could find.

“We are here this morning to plant a new flag and claim this land for black people,” David began his oration. “We’re claiming it for all who have to beg to get something to eat; for all who have to capture land because them can’t rent or buy house; for all who can’t get work; who can’t send them pickney to school; who cyaan drive big car…….”

His rabble audience interrupted him with loud clapping and cheers. The cheering attracted more people and the crowd quickly swelled to a mob. The park began to assume a carnival air with hastily assembled food and other vendors hustling business. Some people were ridiculing David and his decrepit followers; but some were listening. The noise irritated David, but he pressed on with his mission.

“Poor people pay for this land with them sweat and blood. This land and its riches belong to us. Let us claim it NOW!”

The cheering and jeering continued as Daggerman and Wildman ceremoniously dug a hole and planted the flag.

“I, David Traffico, Defender of the Rights of Poor People, Rejecter of Every Colonial Connection, Anointed Visionary of the New Millennium for Jamaica now claim this land for the people of Jamaica and you are all witnesses to this act this Day of our Lord August, in the year two thousand and one.

Inspector Whitmannore grumbled as he gave his orders. “I tell unoo long time that that mad ass David Traffico was going to mek big trouble one of these days. Who let him out again?”

The persistent squawking of the sirens began to irritate the crowd even before the team of police cars raced to a halt at the entrance to the park. Stones and bottles materialised in frustrated hands fanned to fury by David’s garbled rhetoric. Popular discontent which had been smouldering for some time flamed into rebellion. Amidst the barrage of makeshift weapons, jeers and taunts a frightened rookie reached for his tear gas canister.

The crowd fled leaving David’s flag to be ripped from its lopsided stance by an indignant policeman. But David’s speech had settled in fertile soil. The mob regrouped and spread out through the city angrily destroying the very inheritance David had sought to claim for them. One madman with a vision had started the revolution.