Key Highlights :
The world’s oldest literary prizes, the James Tait Black Prizes, have shortlisted a reworking of a classic Charles Dickens novel as one of the four books in the running for the fiction section. Demon Copperhead, a reimagining of David Copperfield set in the Appalachian Mountains of the United States in the late 1990s, is one of the titles vying for the £10,000 prize.
The other books in the running for the fiction prize include Bitter Orange Tree by Jokha Alharthi, translated from Arabic by Marilyn Booth, Bolla by Pajtim Statovci, translated from Finnish by David Hackston, and After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz. All the books have links to America, Denmark, Finland and Oman.
The shortlisted books are judged by literature scholars and students. Dr Benjamin Bateman, of Edinburgh, who is a judge for the fiction prize, said of the shortlist: “The only thing more impressive than the historical and emotional range of these works is the way they centre their storytelling in elegantly and movingly rendered characters.”
The biographies that have been shortlisted include Homesick by Jennifer Croft, A Line in the World: A Year on the North Sea Coast by Dorthe Nors, translated from Danish by Caroline Waight, Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-Seventh Street, Manhattan by Darryl Pinckney and A History of Water: Being an Account of a Murder, an Epic and Two Visions of Global History by Edward Wilson-Lee (William Collins).
Dr Simon Cooke, of Edinburgh University and a judge for the biography prize, said: “Absorbing, resonantly voiced, and beautifully realised, these life-writings open fascinating and various worlds, and searchingly inquire into the transformative relations between literature and life.”
The winners of the James Tait Black Prizes will be announced by the University of Edinburgh in July. The prizes, which have been awarded by the University of Edinburgh since 1919, are the only major British book prizes which are judged by literature scholars and students.
Demon Copperhead is a modern reworking of a classic Charles Dickens novel and is a testament to the timelessness of Dickens’ writing. It is an exciting prospect to see how the reimagining of David Copperfield is received by the judges and how the work of the other shortlisted authors is evaluated. The James Tait Black Prizes are sure to be an interesting and exciting competition.