The shortlist of the inaugural British Women's Nonfiction Award was announced, and Spielberg spoke out on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Culture Weekly
Interface News Reporter | Intern reporter Li Yanhui Reporter Huang Yue
Interface News Editor | Yellow Moon
Every Saturday, the "Culture Weekly" summarizes and presents to you the major events and small events worth knowing about in the foreign literary and art circles, publishing circles, and bookstore industry in the past week. This week we take a look at the announcement of the shortlist for the inaugural British Women's Nonfiction Prize, director Spielberg's views on antisemitism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Gaza Strip, and the 50th anniversary edition of Stephen King's debut book, Carrie the Witch.
01 The shortlist of the first British Women's Nonfiction Award was announced
On March 27, local time, the shortlist of the first British Women's prize for nonfiction was announced, and the six shortlisted works have different themes, covering religion, history, artificial intelligence, social media, etc. Historian Suzannah Lipscomb, chair of the jury, said that despite the diverse themes of the shortlisted entries, they all "offer a unique and original perspective."
Three of the six writers shortlisted for this time are media professionals. Guardian columnist Naomi Klein's Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World tells the story of a writer who discovers that a person with the same name and surname as herself, but with a very different worldview, is mistaken for herself. In search of answers, Klein follows his "alter self" into an alternate bizarre mirror world—an online world of conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxxers, and public sentiment stirrs. Klein "invites" readers to join her in observing her "reflections" in a mirror world and exploring conspiracy theories and far-right politics.
Author Madhumita Murgia, who is also a journalist and editor in the field of artificial intelligence at the Financial Times, was shortlisted for her book Code Dependent: Living In The Shadow Of AI, which delves into the complexities of AI and automated decision-making, and the impact of powerful technology on individuals, The impact of the community and society as a whole. Observer art critic Laura Cumming's Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death discusses the relationship between art and life.
Code Dependency: Living in the Shadow of Artificial Intelligence
Also among the finalists are: "All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake" by Harvard University historian Tiya Miles, an object that traces the inheritance of three generations of Black women. A cotton bag, a mundane household item is also silent speech, and Myers recounts a unique history of black slavery in the United States that has been documented outside the archives. The book was shortlisted for last year's Baillie Gifford Award.
Author Noreen Masud was shortlisted for A Flat Place, a book that connects the British landscape to the trauma of her childhood. Poet Safiya Sinclair was shortlisted for "How to Say Babylon: A Jamaican Memoir," which reminisces about growing up in Jamaica and breaking free.
Flat Land
The Women's Nonfiction Award is a new prize announced by the Women's Prize Trust in February 2023, which is awarded annually to all female writers who write in English and have published their works in the UK, with a prize of £30,000 (about 270,000 yuan). The foundation also established the Women's prize for fiction in 1996, which is the same as the nonfiction prize, and has been shortlisted by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood and Chinese-American writer Tan Enmei.
The Women's Nonfiction Award was created after a survey by the foundation, which showed that only 35 per cent of the seven British nonfiction awards over the past decade had been won by women. The author, Kate Mosse, has said that the award was "not to take the spotlight off talented male writers, but to bring women in." Moss notes that when it comes to nonfiction, readers have a stronger desire to hear "neutral" and "professional" voices, but such voices are tacitly assumed to belong to men, and that "women are writing a lot of amazing nonfiction that is not getting the attention it deserves." This will make the reader miss (the work of female writers). ”
The final winners of the Women's Nonfiction Award will be announced on June 13 local time, and the winners of this year's British Women's Fiction Award will also be announced on the same day.
02 Director Spielberg gives his views on antisemitism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Gaza Strip
On March 26, local time, Steven Spielberg, the director of "Schindler's List", condemned the global upsurge of antisemitism in his speech commemorating the 30th anniversary of the USC Shoah Foundation in the United States, and for the first time expressed a direct view of Israel's military operation in the Gaza Strip. Spielberg, one of Hollywood's most prominent Jews, has previously tried to avoid speaking out publicly about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that erupted in the Gaza Strip last October.
According to Deadline, the event also featured more than 30 survivors of the Holocaust by the Nazis in World War II. In his speech, Spielberg expressed his concern about the rise of anti-Semitism around the world, "Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past." I am increasingly worried that we may repeat history – having to fight for Jewish rights again...... At present, the rise of extremist views has created a dangerous environment in which radical and intolerant views of others have led our society to no longer tolerate differences, but to demonize those who are different, even to the point of creating the 'other'. He added, "The creation of the 'other' is the rationalization of prejudices and the deliberate distortion and denial of facts, fueling extremism and illiberalism...... The creation of the 'other' and the 'dehumanization' of a group because of a certain difference is the abuse of fascism. ”
Spielberg
It is reported that since the outbreak of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the division within American colleges and universities has intensified, and some commentators believe that many slogans in colleges and universities have "not solidarity with the Palestinians" but "evolved into anti-Semitism and support for terrorism." Spielberg also mentioned that since last October, more than 50 percent of Jewish students said they had been discriminated against because of their Jewish identity.
Spielberg also spoke directly about the current conflict in the Gaza Strip for the first time, saying, "We have always been a resilient and compassionate group in the face of atrocities and persecution. We can be outraged by the heinous acts committed by terrorists on 7 October last year, or we can condemn the killing of innocent women and children in the Gaza Strip. ”
A few days ago, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip for the first time, but the Israeli side has not relaxed its military strikes on the area. On March 28, the health department of the Gaza Strip issued a statement saying that in the past 24 hours, the Israeli army has carried out six military operations in Gaza, and more than 32,000 Palestinians have died in the current round of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
03 The 50th anniversary edition of Stephen King's debut "Carrie the Witch".
This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of Stephen King's debut book, Carrie, which became a bestseller when it was released in 1974 and continues to resonate with readers half a century after its release.
Carrie the Witch
Written by Stephen King and translated by Li Ningning
People's Literature Publishing House 2021-01
On March 26, local time, publisher Hodder & Stoughtons released the 50th anniversary edition of "Carrie the Witch", which is also the first in a new series of hardcover copies of Stephen King's classic works, and his other classics, such as "The Shining" (The Shining), will be released one after another.
Philippa Pride, Stephen King's UK editor, said Carrie the Witch, which had "changed the landscape of horror fiction and influenced generations of writers" with its innovative themes and unique structure, was thrilled to be launching a fiftieth anniversary edition of Carrie the Witch.
This book is one of Stephen King's classic works, which has been adapted into 4 films. "Carrie the Witch" tells the story of Carrie White, a girl who lives in a single-parent family and has the ability to control things with her mind, her mother is a fanatical Christian, who has restricted Carrie's freedom and growth since she was a child, and in school life, Carrie was teased and bullied by her classmates. Until one day, Carrie can't stand the cruel teasing of life anymore, and she uses her superpowers to turn the whole town into hell on earth in anger and grief.
In this year's 50th anniversary edition, Canadian author and author of The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood, writes a foreword and explains the book's enduring appeal: "What appeals to me about Carrie the Witch? She points out that the book was written in the early '70s, during the second wave of the feminist movement, and that the novel's male and female villains can be seen as a tribute to this movement. Atwood praised Stephen King as a master of detail, and despite the "horror" he wrote, there was a real horror beneath his writing: the real poverty, indifference, hunger, and abuse that exist in America today.
Stephen King (Image source: Douban)
In addition to Atwood, on the fiftieth anniversary of Stephen King's first edition, other cultural figures have also expressed praise for the writer. Actor Tom Hanks mentions that by the end of the '70s, the image of Carrie, covered in blood at a high school prom, had interestingly "become part of the national narrative." George W. Brown, author of A Song of Ice and Fire, R.R. Martin was pretty sure he had read most of Stephen King's novels, "Once I opened [Stephen King's work] and read the first page, I was finished." There are a handful of writers' novels that you can't put on hold once you start reading them. You have no choice but to read, through the night, until the story is told. ”
The Chinese version of "Witch Carrie" was first translated and launched in 1996 (translated as "Kelly"). It is reported that in May this year, King will release his short story collection "You Like It Darker" (You Like It Darker), which will include 12 of his short stories, including some unpublished works.
Resources:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/mar/27/womens-prize-for-nonfiction-shortlist
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/naomi-klein-womens-prize-for-fiction-british-american-english-b2519652.html
https://womensprize.com/announcing-the-2024-womens-prize-for-non-fiction-shortlist/
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/mar/26/steven-spielberg-denounces-antisemitism-and-makes-first-comments-on-gaza
https://deadline.com/2024/03/steven-spielberg-shoah-foundation-speech-1235867405/
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/25/books/review/stephen-king-carrie-50-anniversary.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/27/books/review/stephen-king-carrie-anniversary.html
https://www.thebookseller.com/news/hodder-to-publish-50th-anniversary-of-carrie-with-introduction-by-margaret-atwood