The Elegant Variation: BELLWETHER PRIZE AWARDED

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January 25, 2006

BELLWETHER PRIZE AWARDED

The Bellwether Prize, funded by Barbara Kingsolver to promote novels of "social responsibility" has gone to Marjorie Kowalski Cole's debut novel Correcting the Landscape.

The Bellwether Prize for Fiction, awarded in even-numbered years, consists of a $25,000 cash payment to the author of the winning manuscript, and guaranteed publication by a major publisher. The Bellwether Prize is the only major North American endowment or prize for the arts that specifically seeks to support a literature of social responsibility. Its intent is to advocate serious literary fiction that addresses issues of social justice and the impact of culture and politics on human relationships. The prize is awarded to a previously unpublished novel representing excellence in this genre. The Prize was founded and is fully funded by Barbara Kingsolver.

Now, we're usually not the types to pick on this sort of thing because heaven knows it's scarcely a level playing field out there - but apparently, at least as far as the brief history of the Bellwether Prize is concerned, men are not writing about social justice. Yes, we know three awards is scarcely dispositive but we're just saying ...

Posted at 12:19 AM in Prizes, Prizes and More Prizes | Permalink

Comments

Uh-oh, hope I didn't set off a chain reaction. Though looking at the picture, I can't help but add it's not only men who apparently aren't writing about social change. Maybe next year the photo will look like one found in a college brochure: four white faces surrounding one that is black or brown, as if these Caucasian plans to smother the minority with their multi-cultural love.

Posted by: WittyName32 | January 25, 2006 at 04:12 AM

Sadly, writing first-person accounts of one's penis, specifically its prodigious past adventures and current woeful idleness, do not qualify as "social justice."

Posted by: Pete | January 25, 2006 at 07:11 AM

I just saw Barbara Kingsolver speak at Duke last night, and she said they choose the prizewinners completely blind, not based on gender or any other personal details. They select the winning manuscript without knowing a single thing about the author. In fact, this year's winning book featured a male protagonist, and Kingsolver stated that she was almost certain the writer would be male, because of how convincing the character was.

Posted by: Emily Dorn | April 28, 2006 at 09:47 AM

hate to tell you but heidi durrow, who won for 'the girl who fell from the sky' is mixed race. don't make assumptions.

Posted by: lisa | May 15, 2011 at 12:31 PM

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The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

January 25, 2006

BELLWETHER PRIZE AWARDED

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

January 25, 2006

BELLWETHER PRIZE AWARDED

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism