Sherry Chandler

Doris Lessing has won the Nobel Prize for Literature:

Doris Lessing, the Persian-born, Rhodesian-raised and London-residing novelist whose deeply autobiographical writing has swept across continents and reflects her deep feminist engagement with the major social and political issues, won the 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature today.

…

Ms. Lessing, who turns 88 later this month, never finished high school and largely educated herself through her voracious reading. She had been born to British parents in what is now Iran, was raised in colonial Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and now lives in London. She has written dozens of books of fiction, as well as plays, non-fiction and an autobiography. She is the 11th woman to win a Nobel Prize in literature.

And Natasha Trethaway has won the 2007 Pulitzer in poetry for Native Guard (Houghton Mifflin):

Growing up in the Deep South, Natasha Trethewey was never told that in her hometown of Gulfport, Mississippi, black soldiers had played a pivotal role in the Civil War. Off the coast, on Ship Island, stood a fort that had once been a Union prison housing Confederate captives. Protecting the fort was the second regiment of the Louisiana Native Guards — one of the Union’s first official black units. Trethewey’s new book of poems pays homage to the soldiers who served and whose voices have echoed through her own life.

And, via I See Invisible People, here’s a list of finalists for the National Book Awards. And the nominations in poetry are:

Linda Gregerson, Magnetic North (Houghton Mifflin Company)
Robert Hass, Time and Materials (Ecco/HarperCollins)
David Kirby, The House on Boulevard St. (Louisiana State University Press)
Stanley Plumly, Old Heart (W.W. Norton & Company)
Ellen Bryant Voigt, Messenger: New and Selected Poems 1976-2006 (W.W. Norton & Company)

Sherman Alexie is nominated in the category of children’s literature for his work The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. You should go and read Terry’s portrait of Alexie. I admire Alexie’s poetry a lot, but I’m never sure I understand what’s going on in the short stories. Terry’s observations may go some way to explaining why.

Busy weekend for the family.

The Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen Fall Fair takes place this weekend, October 13 & 14, at Memorial Park on Jefferson Street in Berea, Kentucky. Saturday hours are 10 - 6, Sunday 10 - 5. Admission $5.00, Seniors $4.00, under 12 free.

My husband T.R. Williams will be there, as he has been every fall since 1981.

I, on the other hand, will be attending the Kentucky State Poetry Society’s 41st Annual Awards Weekend at the Blue Licks Battlefield State Resort Park. This year’s presenter is Mary E. (Ernie) O’Dell, President and co-founder of the Green River Writers, and author of Living in the Body and Poems for the Man Who Weighs Light. Reservations are closed for the banquet and awards presentation but you can still attend the afternoon workshop, “The Path of the Poet,” for the amazingly low cost of $15.