Nigerian Times

Julian Barnes on Tuesday night. London based writer Julian Barnes, 65, has won the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for his novel The Sense of an Ending . The announcement was made the evening of Tuesday 18 October, 2011. The Sense of an Ending went straight into the bestseller list on publication by Jonathan Cape. The novel is the eighth Man Booker Prize winner to be published by Jonathan Cape, a Random House imprint. Barnes has been shortlisted on three occasions without him winning the prize and said "as much relieved as delighted to be receiving the prize." He was previously shortlisted in 1984, 1998, and again in 2005. He is the author of ten previous novels with translations in over 30 languages so far. Barnes is the only writer to have won both the Prix Médicis (for Flaubert's Parrot) and the Prix Femina (for Talking it Over) in France. His other important awards include the Austrian State Prize for European Literature and the David Cohen Prize. Amazon's...

Kingsolver crowned Orange winner Barbara Kingsolver wins Orange Prize for Fiction Barbara Kingsolver has won this year's Orange Prize for Fiction with her sixth novel The Lacuna . The US author beat favourite, Booker prize-winner Hilary Mantel, and four other writers, to take the £30,000 prize at a central London ceremony. The award, which recognizes the work of fiction written by women from around the world, is now in its 15th year. Author and TV producer Daisy Goodwin, chair of the judges, praised the winning book's "breathtaking scale". Kingsolver was presented with her award by Her Royal Highness, the Duchess of Cornwall, at an awards ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall on Wednesday. Click here for more details . Click here to buy The Lacuna .

The shortcomings of the Nigeria Prize for Literature The Nigeria Prize for Literature, endowed by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited is a great thing. It is an unprecedented initiative of immense benefit to Nigerian writers and the society for the appreciation of our literary culture. I have been following the progress of the Nigeria Prize for Literature without any objection to the administration, but not impressed by the impact on the sustainable development of Nigerian literature. There is too much emphasis on the cash prize of $50,000 when the focus should be on promoting the revival of our reading culture for the intellectual development of the Nigerian society that is presently breeding philistines. The Nigerian Prize for Literature has made the lucky winners richer, but it has failed to make us wiser, because many of the prizes winning books have not reached the majority of the Nigerian society, except the intelligentsia. The Man Booker Prize, Orange Prize, Pulit...