Sir Terry Pratchett launches prize for debut fantasy novels

Fantasy novelist Sir Terry Pratchett and Transworld Publishers are launching a new literary award for debut Commonwealth novelists called the Terry Pratchett Anywhere but Here, Anywhen but Now Prize. Despite its odd name, the award comes with a hefty £20,000 advance and Transworld Publishing contract.

Sir Terry offers this slightly confusing overview of the award on his website:

Anywhere but here, anywhen but now. Which means we are after stories set on Earth, although it may be an Earth that might have been, or might yet be, one that has gone down a different leg of the famous trousers of time (see the illustration in almost every book about quantum theory).

We will be looking for books set at any time, perhaps today, perhaps in the Rome of today but in a world where 2000 years ago the crowd shouted for Jesus Christ to be spared, or where in 1962, John F. Kennedy’s game of chicken with the Russians went horribly wrong. It might be one day in the life of an ordinary person. It could be a love story, an old story, a war story, a story set in a world where Leonardo da Vinci turned out to be a lot better at Aeronautics. But it won’t be a story about being in an alternate Earth because the people in an alternate Earth don’t know that they are; after all, you don’t.

The award will be judgeby Pratchett, Tony Robinson, Michael Rowley, and two senior members of the Transworld editorial team. The deadline for submissions is Dec.31, 2010, and a shortlist of six entries will be announced by March 31, 2011.

New book re-examines JFK’s death via letters to Jackie

When U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, the nation – and the world – expressed its grief by sending over one million letters to his wife, Jackie – some even came from Canada. Although there were far too many letters to sift through at the time, many were preserved in Boston’s John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Now, historian Ellen Fitzpatrick has collected 240 of those letters in Letters to Jackie: Condolences From a Grieving Nation (HarperCollins). From The Globe and Mail:

The notes reveal how many Americans perceived the first television president – as a war veteran and family man, a leader who endured relatively little public criticism by today’s standards, Prof. Fitzpatrick says.

“People really took delight in following the activities of a lot of this young family,” she said. “This collective grief response represented a change in America.”

To avoid copyright issues, Fitzpatrick had to seek out each of the letter writers or their surviving family members for permission to print their letters. The writers vary widely, from widows who felt empathy for Jackie, to the doctor who assisted in John Jr.’s birth and later attended the president’s inauguration ceremony. The presidential library still holds about 200,000 pages of letters – the rest had to be destroyed because of storage limits.

Miniature books get maximature exhibition

The Grolier Club in New York is currently hosting an exhibition of miniature books. The collection of teeny tiny tomes numbers in the hundreds, with three inches being the top trim size. Included in the collection are, according to the Grolier’s website:

• A 40-volume set of Shakespeare’s works, two inches high and easily readable.
• John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address in miniature.
• The first book on contraception, originally published as a miniature, and responsible for a 19th century decline in the British birthrate.
• The Emancipation Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln, first printed in book form as a miniature.
• A minature book that flew to the moon and returned.
• A book from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s substantial miniature book collection.
• The world’s two smallest books, each less than one millimeter tall.

Wow, a miniature book that flew to the moon and returned – that is impressive. And why would they print the first book on contraception in miniature form? To fit in a wallet?