And while we are on things Gaiman, here’s two-for-the price-of one, with Terry Pratchett thrown in for good measure. Alas the free audio download is not for us down under, but the interviews with the voices behind the Gaiman / Pratchett audio readings give us a different perspective on their work.
Although not an occasion widely celebrated in Australia, Hallowe’en later this week does give the opportunity for the telling of spooky tales. And what spookier, yet what more literary than The Graveyard Book? Since its publication just over a year ago, it has garnered many awards, and Neil Gaiman has become the must-have author at any literary event. Fortunately for us, Australian readers caught him before Gaiman-fever really took off, with Neil being a guest at the 2008 Children’s Book Council of Australia National Conference in Melbourne, All the Wild Wonders. Once seen, once heard, never forgotten. He will be appearing at the Singapore Writers Festival on November 1, talking about graphic novels and fantasy.
Yesterday’s news that Neil Gaiman won the Newbery Medal, America’s most prestigious award for children’s literature, was a welcome surprise for a number of reasons. There was Gaiman’s high-spirited, profanity-laced reaction to the news on his Twitter feed – two qualities not commonly associated with children’s book authors of yore. There was the more measured and amusing take on his blog (Merrilee-my-agent: “You didn’t start swearing, did you?” Me: “No.” Her: “Oh good.”). But Gaiman’s win for The Graveyard Book, about a boy raised by ghosts who faces the wonders and terrors of the worlds of both the living and the dead, also appears to put to bed the notion that the Newbery Medal is out of touch with what people are reading.
Imagine Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman in the one room! This is as close as we are likely to get as Neil talks to Terry in this penetrating interview that honours the 25 years of Discworld and the 24-year friendship of the two. It does not shy away from talking about Terry’s recent diagnosis with Alzheimer’s disease, nor would Terry Pratchett want it to – his advocacy has created enormous media interest in the condition, and therefore public awareness. The good news is that he still has books to write.
Neil Gaiman was the guest on the Radio National’s Book Show yesterday. In conversation with Michael Sherrifs, he talks about graphic novels, his two-decade-long collaboration with Dave McKean and classic YA literature.
It is for online listening only, but the transcript is also available.
Speaking of books of a bygone era, the Fine Lines blog revisits some loved titles of the ’70s and ’80s with a more critical eye. The latest post is about Paul Zindel’s The Pigman, now an astonishing 39 years old! This weekly blog is worth a nostalgic visit.
All at the CBCA Conference last Sunday morning were transfixed by Neil Gaiman’s readings of his own poetry scattered throughout his keynote speech. Wonderful, dark and moody, the poems revisited fairytales and cast new light on familiar landscapes. Nothing can match Neil’s own telling, but Fiction Focus has received permission to link to the text of three of these poems that appear in the online Journal of the Mythic Arts, published by Endicott Studio.
So if you were there, reimagine the morning and Neil’s beautifully paced readings. If you weren’t there, you are bound to enjoy the poems in their own right.
The Fiction Focus Blog is published by Curriculum Materials Information Services (CMIS), Department of Education and Training, Western Australia. It is designed to provide news about current events, resources and research to assist teachers and teacher librarians engage teenagers with books and reading.
No surprise that it’s The Graveyard Book. The award is The Booktrust Teenage Prize, announced last night.
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authors, awards | Tagged: awards, NeilGaiman | 
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