Aslam shortlisted for Warwick Prize for Writing
Nadeem Aslam’s 2008 lyrical novel, The Wasted Vigil, has been shortlisted for the Warwick Prize for Writing 2011.
The biennial prize was launched in 2009 and is unique in that it “involves global competition and crosses all disciplines”, altering its theme each time; the theme for 2011 is “Colour”.
The Wasted Vigil, which is Aslam’s third novel, entwines the lives of diverse and global characters—a Russian, a Brit, an American and Afghanis—in present-day Afghanistan.
Aslam, in his portrayal of Lara, a Russian woman searching for her missing brother who defected from the Red Army during the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, and Marcus Caldwell, a British doctor and convert to Islam who is mourning the tragic loss of his wife and daughter, paints a heartbreaking portrait of love and loss against a backdrop of war.
Aslam himself is a Pakistani-born writer whose family moved to the UK and settled in Huddersfield in Yorkshire. His previous works include the widely acclaimed Season of the Rainbirds and Maps for Lost Lovers, both of which have won him several awards and accolades.
The shortlist, which was announced last week, only includes one other work of fiction: The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna, which is a tale about the aftermath of civil war in Sierra Leone.
Other shortlisted titles include Peter Forbes’ Dazzled and Deceived: Mimicry and Camouflage; The Literature Police: Apartheid Censorship and its Cultural Consequences by Peter D McDonald; and What Color is the Sacred by Michael Taussig.
The sixth book to be shortlisted is a collection of poetry by Derek Walcott, titled White Egrets.
The Prize will be judged by a panel of five, and is chaired by prominent writer and broadcaster Michael Rosen. Other judges include Professor Nigel Thrift of Warwick University, literary editor of The Times Erica Wagner, author Jenny Uglow, and Baroness Lola Young, a professor of Cultural Studies.
Rosen said of the shortlist:
“We have chosen six excellent books across poetry, anthropology, science and fiction. Each in their own way, the books explore colour either on its own terms or as a prism through which the writing emerges. I’m looking to some tough arguing over choosing the winner.”
The Warwick Prize awards the winner a hefty £50,000 as well as a short placement at Warwick University. Winner of the inaugural price in 2009 was Naomi Klein for The Shock Doctrine, under the theme “Complexity”.
The winner will be announced in London on 22 March 2011.
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