Shaun Tan wins The Astrid Lindgren Prize

Australian illustrator Shaun Tan has won The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for Children's Literature (basically the Nobel Prize in this field - it doesn't get better than this!)

Tan has illustrated more than 20 books including, The Red Tree, The Arrival, The Lost Thing and, most recently, Tales from Outer Suburbia, which was hailed in the Guardian as possibly "the most beautiful book you'll see all year". At this year's Academy Awards, he won the Oscar for best animated short film for The Lost Thing (voiced by Tim Minchin), based on his book of the same title.

Tan's response on winning the £490,000 prize (yes, that much - that's a LOT of sharp new pencils), was a restrained "OK, OK, thanks very much. That's amazing. I'm going to have to take a little time to get used to it."

Antipodean understatement - how refreshing.

Jo Shapcott wins the Costa - bit of a shock apparently.

In a surprise result Jo Shapcott scores one for poetry and wins the Costa Book of the Year Award for her collection Of Mutability.

This is the second year in succession a poet has won the Costa and it is seen by many as heralding a resurgence of interest in the form.

Here's what the Costa people say -

Poet Jo Shapcott has won the 2010 Costa Book of the Year for her collection Of Mutability, her first new work in over a decade and in part influenced by her experience of breast cancer.

In Of Mutability, Shapcott is found writing at her most memorable and bold.  In a series of fresh, unflinching poems, she movingly explores mortality and the nature of change: in the body and the natural world, and in shifting relationships between people.  By turns grave and playful, arresting and witty, the poems in Of Mutability celebrate each waking moment as though it might be the last and, in so doing, restore wonder to the smallest of encounters.

Click here to read more about Jo Shapcott and hear her read some of her poems.

Ooh, strange feeling of deja vu then!

Derek Walcott wins T S Eliot Prize for Poetry

Derek Walcott has won the T S Eliot Prize for poetry for his collection White Egrets.

Sixty Years After by Derek Walcott

In my wheelchair in the Virgin lounge at Vieuxfort,
I saw, sitting in her own wheelchair, her beauty
hunched like a crumpled flower, the one whom I thought
as the fire of my young life would do her duty
to be golden and beautiful and young forever
even as I aged. She was treble-chinned, old, her devastating
smile was netted in wrinkles, but I felt the fever
briefly returning as we sat there, crippled, hating
time and the lie of general pleasantries.
Small waves still break against the small stone pier
where a boatman left me in the orange peace
of dusk, a half-century ago, maybe happier
being erect, she like a deer in her shyness, I stalking
an impossible consummation; those who knew us
knew we would never be together, at least, not walking.
Now the silent knives from the intercom went through us.

The shortlist for the 2010 T S Eliot Prize was:

Seeing Stars - Simon Armitage (Faber)
The Mirabelles - Annie Freud (Picador)
You John Haynes - (Seren)
Human Chain - Seamus Heaney (Faber)
What the Water Gave Me - Pascale Petit (Seren)
The Wrecking Light - Robin Robertson (Picador)
Rough Music - Fiona Sampson (Carcanet)
Phantom Noise - Brian Turner (Bloodaxe)
White Egrets - Derek Walcott (Faber)
New Light for the Old Dark - Sam Willetts (Jonathan Cape)

Click here to read more about Derek Walcott and hear him read some of his poems.

Costa Book Awards category award winners announced.

Costa has announced the Costa Book Awards 2010 winners in the Novel, First Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book categories.

Costa Novel Award
Maggie O'Farrell -  The Hand That First Held Mine
Judges "A book of grand themes and intimate moments.  This gripping novel is the one we'd unreservedly recommend."
Click here to read more


Costa First Novel Award
Kishwar Desai - Witness the Night
Judges "We were thrilled and exhilarated by this stunning debut. Just like her feisty main character, Desai has fearlessly blown the lid on the problems that simmer under the surface of modern- day India."
Click here to read more 


Costa Biography Award
Edmund de Waal - The Hare With Amber Eyes
Judges "A truly special book.  De Waal is a first-class potter and has proven himself with this book to be a first-class writer - he's able to handle a very serious subject with a delicacy, charm and touch that is rare."
Click here to read more 


Costa Poetry Award
Jo Shapcott - Of Mutability
Judges "These strong poems are rooted in the poet's experience of breast cancer but are all about life, hope and play. Fizzing with variety, they are a paean to creativity and make the reader feel that what matters to us all is imagination, humanity and a smile."
Click here to read more


Costa Children's Book Award
Jason Wallace - Out of Shadows
Judges "For us, this extraordinary debut novel was a unanimous winner. This compelling portrayal of a nation in crisis gripped us from start to finish and has stayed with us since."
Click here to read more

Click on the book titles to see if they're available in your local library.  If you're a library member and know your PIN you can hold (reserve) them online.  If you aren't, then quite frankly you should be - shame on you.  If you don't know your PIN contact us at contactlibraries@cardiff.gov.uk