The 2016 Shadow Panel of bookbloggers have started to share their thoughts about this year’s shortlist…
“What’s interesting to me about the shortlist is that each book is a different form. An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It is a short story collection; Physical is a poetry collection; Grief Is the The Thing with Feathers is an experimental fiction novella, and The Ecliptic is a novel. Deciding how these different forms can be compared to each other is going to be a fascinating part of the judging process.” – Naomi Frisby, The Writes of Women
“With two more books to read I can’t yet make a prediction – neither personal nor overall vote can be estimated – but if Greengrass’s and Wood’s books are anywhere near the same literary quality as McMillan and Porter, which is very likely, it’s going to be close.” Charlie Place, The Wormhole
“What I can say about them as a collective is a) they are all rather marvellous b) they all do some really innovative (a marmite word I know but true) things with their form be they poetry, a novel, a collection of short stories, or in one case a mix of them all c) the judges are going to have a very difficult time choosing one of these winners… and so are the shadow panel, of which I am one.” Simon Savidge, Savidge Reads
“How to pick a winner between books which are so wildly different in content and form? There’s an epic novel about the creative process; poetry which gives a radical slant on masculinity/the body; creative, heartfelt, funny & philosophical short stories and… however you choose to define Max Porter’s deeply moving novella/poetry/dramatic monologue/literary criticism/self help book!” Eric Karl Andersen, Lonesome Reader
“There are just four titles in contention for the £5,000 prize — and each one is deliciously different from each other. The shortlist comprises a chunky novel, a poetry collection, a short story collection and a novella — which is going to prove a rather interesting judging challenge, I must say, for how can you compare apples with oranges?” Kim Forrester, Reading Matters
You can follow along with the Shadow Panel‘s thoughts on twitter with #YoungWriterAwardShadow.
