Two U of A fiction writers vie for international literary prize

Writers Thomas Wharton and Greg Hollingshead have been nominated for the Impac Dublin Literary Award, an international prize worth $140,000.

Though the initial list of nominations from around the world includes 132 books, Wharton, who teaches creative writing in the University of Alberta's Department of English, says it still feels good to be recognized. His book, Logogryph, and Hollingshead's Bedlam, are among 11 Canadian books on the list, the most ever.

"It's pretty great, there's no doubt about it," said Wharton. "It's a long, long list, but when you hear about how many books are published every year it's still pretty great to be on that list.

"I remember a few years ago people used to joke and call it the 'no-impac' award because it didn't do much for sales, but I think it's become more well-known since then."

Seven Canadian books were nominated in 1998 and six in 2002. Alistair McLeod won for No Great Mischief in 2001. The list of nominations for the award, open to novels in English or in English translation, was announced by Lord Mayor of Dublin, Catherine Byrne on Nov. 22.

"It's the first time I've had any kind of international notice, so that's pretty exciting," said Hollingshead, a professor emeritus of English who won the Governor General's Award in 1995 for The Roaring Girl. "Once I found out it was the Edmonton Public Library that nominated me, I was strangely moved...and it's nice that Tom, who took over my job, is also nominated."

Libraries from 124 cities put forward titles for the award, which are then read by a jury whose members will read all 132 books on the list. Other Canadian titles include:

• Miriam Toews' A Complicated Kindness
• Michael Winter's The Big Why
• Robert Hough's The Stowaway
• Trevor Cole's Norman Bray in the Performance of His Life
• Joel Hynes' Down to the Dirt
• Beth Powning's The Hatbox Letters
• Russell Smith's Muriella Pent
• Wayson Choy's All that Matters
• Richard Wright's Adultery

Wharton describes Logogryph as "not really a novel," but rather a "collection of short fiction," the title referring to a particular kind of riddle. "But I decided to turn it into a word for a mythological creature of my own invention, which represents the mystery that's in books, the mystery of reading, and how when you read a book you enter a different world."

The frame story, he says, is about a boy growing up in Jasper who is given a suitcase of old books, which stimulates a fascination with reading. He says the book is largely about the process, or what he likes to call the "alchemy" of reading.

Bedlam is the story of three characters in eighteenth-century London during the aftermath of the French Revolution. It is partly based on the true story of James Tilly Matthews, an inmate of Bethlem Hospital, a home for the insane, at Moorfields in London.

"While exercising some fictional licence, I am doing my best to be faithful to the characters, their voices, their experiences and the times," Hollingshead said.

The short list for the Impac Dublin Award will be announced April 5, and the winner will be named June 14.