TENTH OF DECEMBER
BY GEORGE SAUNDERS
WINS INAUGURAL FOLIO PRIZE 2014
“The best short story writer in English – not ‘one of’, not
‘arguably’, but the Best.” Time
George Saunders is tonight, Monday 10 March, announced as the winner of
The Folio Prize 2014 for Tenth of December, published by Bloomsbury. The
Folio Prize is sponsored by The Folio Society, the celebrated publisher of
beautiful editions of the world’s greatest books.
The Folio Prize 2014, worth £40,000, aims to recognise and celebrate the best
English-language fiction from around the world, published in the UK during a
given year, regardless of form, genre or the author’s country of origin. It is the
first major English-language book prize open to writers from all over the
world. This is the inaugural year.
MacArthur Fellowship winner George Saunders is an award-winning writer of
short stories, essays, novellas and children's books. Selected from a ‘hugely
impressive shortlist’ (David Sexton, Evening Standard) Tenth of December is
a dazzling and disturbing collection of short stories that illuminate human
experience and explore figures lost in a labyrinth of troubling preoccupations.
Announcing the winner, Chair of the Judges Lavinia Greenlaw,
said:
“George Saunders’s stories are both artful and profound. Darkly playful, they
take us to the edge of some of the most difficult questions of our time and force
us to consider what lies behind and beyond them. His subject is the human self
under ordinary and extraordinary pressure. His worlds are heightened
versions of our own, full of inexorable confrontations from which we are not
easily released. Unflinching, delightful, adventurous, compassionate, he is a
true original whose work is absolutely of the moment. We have no doubt that
these stories will prove only more essential in years to come.”
Andrew Kidd, Founder of The Folio Prize says:
“From start to finish the five inaugural Folio Prize judges have been heroic.
Reading with acuity, dedication and compassion to identify the best Englishlanguage fiction published in 2013, they offered up a shortlist of astonishing
quality and range: eight books that will be read with intense pleasure for
decades to come. In the winner, George Saunders's Tenth of December, they
have recognised one of the great writers of our age, and one of the undisputed
masters of his form. It's a brilliant choice which boldly affirms the aims of the
prize: to celebrate the most perfectly realised and thrilling storytelling of our
time.”
The Folio Prize
44 Eagle Street
London WC1R 4FS
info@thefolioprize.com
@thefolioprize
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Registered Charity Number 1151069
Toby Hartwell, Managing Director, The Folio Society says:
“The breadth and range of the shortlist for this first Folio Prize was stunning
and I don’t know how the judges were able to choose just one book to win. The
Folio Society is immensely proud of what the Folio Prize stands for in seeking
to bring to public attention the best new fiction of our time. With Tenth of
December George Saunders has given us an exceptional first winner and I am
delighted for him.
Every one of the authors shortlisted for the prize has proved that great fiction
writing is in rude health. They have also abundantly demonstrated that
literature can be taken in new and exciting directions and that has to be good
for readers everywhere.”
George Saunders was presented with the winner trophy by Toby Hartwell,
Managing Director of The Folio Society, and with a cheque for £40,000. Two
of the UKs greatest designers, product designer Sir Kenneth Grange and
graphic designer Mike Dempsey, both Royal Designers for Industry (RDI),
collaborated to create the award which takes the form of a hand-bound,
leather-embossed presentation case, which holds a letterpress certificate,
taking inspiration from the beautiful books produced by The Folio Society.
The ceremony at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel in central London was
attended by leading publishers, agents and writers, many of whom are
members of The Folio Prize Academy.
The judging panel for The Folio Prize 2014 consists of the poet, novelist and
critic, Lavinia Greenlaw (Chair); Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and essayist
Michael Chabon; multi-award winning writer, Sarah Hall; writer Nam Le and
Pankaj Mishra, winner of the LA Times Art Seidenbaum award.
The Folio Prize is sponsored by The Folio Society and administered by The
Literature Prize Foundation.
About Tenth of December:
George Saunders’ most wryly hilarious and disturbing collection yet, Tenth of
December illuminates human experience and explores figures lost in a
labyrinth of troubling preoccupations. A family member recollects a backyard
pole dressed for all occasions; Jeff faces horrifying ultimatums and the
prospect of DarkenfloxxTM in some unusual drug trials; and Al Roosten hides
his own internal monologue behind a winning smile that he hopes will make
him popular. With dark visions of the future riffing against ghosts of the past
and the ever-settling present, this collection sings with astonishing charm and
intensity.
“Riotously imaginative… Saunders has Kurt Vonnegut’s gift of combining
antique, high-flown ideas with a strong empathy.” Daily Telegraph
“Dazzlingly surreal stories about a failing America.” Sunday Times
About George Saunders:
At one point a geophysical engineer, MacArthur Fellowship winner George
Saunders is an acclaimed writer of short stories, essays, novellas and children's
books. His work includes the story collections CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, a
finalist for the 2006 PEN/Hemingway Award, Pastoralia and In Persuasion
Nation, one of only three finalists for The Story Prize in 2006. He has also won
prizes for his bestselling children's book The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip,
has written a book of essays entitled The Brain-Dead Megaphone and his most
recent collection, Tenth of December, is a New York Times bestseller, was
shortlisted for the 2013 National Book Award and won The Story Prize 2014.
He currently teaches Creative Writing at Syracuse University, New York, and
writes regularly for GQ, Harper's and The New Yorker, who in 2002 named
him one of the 'Best Writers Under 40'. George Saunders was named in Time
magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2013.
He lives in New York with his family.
For up-to-date information please visit www.thefolioprize.com or follow
@thefolioprize
George Saunders is available for interview. Please contact Fiona
McMorrough, Sam Evans or Annabel Robinson at FMcM Associates
on 0207 405 7422 or email fionam@fmcm.co.uk /
same@fmcm.co.uk / annabelr@fmcm.co.uk
Notes to Editors:
The 2014 shortlisted titles were:
Red Doc> by Anne Carson (Random House/Jonathan Cape)
Schroder by Amity Gaige (Faber & Faber)
Last Friends by Jane Gardam (Little, Brown)
Benediction by Kent Haruf (Picador)
The Flame Throwers by Rachel Kushner (Random House/Harvill Secker)
A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride (Galley Beggar Press)
A Naked Singularity by Sergio De La Pava (Maclehose Editions)
Tenth of December by George Saunders (Bloomsbury)
Panel of Judges, Biographies
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Lavinia Greenlaw (Chair) is a poet, novelist and critic. Her awards
include a NESTA Fellowship, a Wellcome Fellowship, France’s Prix du
Premier Roman Etranger, and the 2011 Ted Hughes Award. Her latest book is
A Double Sorrow: Troilus and Criseyde.
Michael Chabon is an acclaimed and bestselling novelist and essayist whose
major works include the 2001 Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Amazing
Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.
Sarah Hall has won numerous awards for her books, including the 2003
Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Novel, the 2006/07 John
Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the James Tiptree Jr. Award and a Lakeland Book of the
Year prize.
Nam Le’s first book, The Boat, translated into fourteen languages, received
over a dozen major awards in Australia, America and Europe, and was selected
as a book of the year by over thirty publications around the world.
Pankaj Mishra won the LA Times Art Seidenbaum award for First Fiction
for The Romantics: A Novel, and was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize in 2013
for From the Ruins of Empire. This January he was received the prestigious
Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding.
The judges were drawn by lot from THE FOLIO PRIZE ACADEMY, a unique body
of highly respected, award-winning writers and critics from across the globe. The
expertise and experience of Academicians reflects The Folio Prize’s aim to encourage a
consistent focus on excellence. Lots were drawn by The Literature Prize Foundation,
until the panel consisted of no more than three members of the same gender, with
three judges based in the UK and two internationally. Writers and critics are invited to
join the Academy by the Foundation, supported by The Folio Prize Advisory
Committee. There are currently 187 members of the Academy. Members of the
Academy can nominate up to three titles each from which the top sixty books are put
forward to the judges. Publishers are then invited to write to the judges in support of
up to five titles not selected through the nomination process and from these the judges
select a further twenty titles. The judges read a total of eighty titles. Books published in
the UK during the 2013 calendar year are eligible for the inaugural Prize.
For further details please see: www.thefolioprize.com/the-academy
The Literature Prize Foundation
The Literature Prize Foundation is a registered charity committed to bringing the most
outstanding works of English language fiction to public attention through the
awarding of The Folio Prize. Overseen by its trustees, and in cooperation with The
Folio Society, the Foundation will seek to engage readers and writers throughout the
English-speaking world in cultural debate and in the celebration of the art of
literature, which it believes has the capacity to enrich and change people's lives.
The Folio Society
For over 65 years The Folio Society has been publishing beautiful illustrated
editions of the world's greatest books. We believe that the literary content of a book
should be matched by its physical form. With specially commissioned illustrations,
many of our editions are further enhanced with introductions written by leading
figures in their fields: novelists, journalists, academics, scientists and artists.
There are hundreds of The Folio Society editions currently in print covering fiction,
biography, history, science, philosophy, children's literature, humour, myths and
legends and more. Exceptional in content and craftsmanship and maintaining the very
highest standards of fine book production, The Folio Society editions are created to
last for generations.
The Folio Society titles can be bought from www.foliosociety.com, by telephone on
0207 400 4200, by visiting The Folio Society Bookshop, 44 Eagle Street, London,
WC1R 4FS, or from selected retail partners.
The Folio Prize Management Committee
Andrew Kidd (Aitken Alexander Associates, Managing Director); Kate Harvey
(Picador, Editorial Director); Suzy Lucas (Prize Administrator); Toby Hartwell (The
Folio Society, Managing Director); Jean Marc Rathé (The Folio Society, Brand
Director); Simon Toombs (The Folio Society, Head of Business Development); Fiona
McMorrough (FMcM Associates, CEO).
The Folio Prize Trustees
Liz Calder, Publisher, Full Circle Editions and former Founding Director of
Bloomsbury Publishing; Cecily Engle, Publishing Consultant and former Legal
Director of Penguin Books; Toby Hartwell, Managing Director of The Folio Society;
Kate Harvey, Editorial Director, Picador; Andrew Kidd, Founder, The Folio Prize,
Managing Director of Aitken Alexander Associates; Jonathan Levy, Chartered
Accountant and Chair of Tricycle Theatre
Stephen Page, CEO Faber & Faber; Tanya Seghatchian, Film Producer and former
Head of the Development and Film Fund at the UK Film Council and BFI; Katie
Waldegrave, Executive Director, First Story
Partners and Sponsors
The Folio Prize and The Folio Society would like to acknowledge:
The British Library: Host and Partner for The Folio Prize Fiction festival
Hibrow: The Folio Prize support sponsor
Clays Ltd: The Folio Prize support sponsor
For further information please contact:
Fiona McMorrough, Annabel Robinson or Sam Evans at FMcM Associates on
0207 4057422 or fionam@fmcm.co.uk / annabelr@fmcm.co.uk / same@fmcm.co.uk