Hi Alphas,
Welcome to Alphaday 7, Season XI. This is the halfway mark of the season. We’ve had 6 Alphadays before today, and there are 6 to follow. How does that feel? I hope you’re enjoying the season in full flow. I certainly am and today’s menu is full of tasty treats carefully prepared by a team of brilliant cooks comprising all our active and dedicated members.
As follows:
- This bulletin from me
- The LOG edited by me
- The results of the ‘too many cooks’ challenge from Suzanne
- The collated entries for the ‘anniversary’ challenge from Stephen
- The brief for Challenge 7 from me
- The showcasing pieces with their independent schedule as decided by Suzanne
That should be enough to satisfy even the most demanding writerly taste buds, I think. There might even be something worth commenting on? We’ve had no discussions over the past weeks.
I confess I’ve been busily engaged in getting contributions to our Alpha decade book together. I’m pleased to say that the entries are trickling in – slowly, but steadily. There are still a few members who have not been in touch to say how they’re getting on, but I’m confident that there are entries being polished up for us at this very moment. If there are any queries about our project, I’m only an email away.
General news: The haunting photos from the commemoration in Auschwitz of all those lined faces with harrowing memories stored inside them were a terribly moving spectacle. The atrocities committed there should have taught the world a lesson about what not to do in the name of prejudice, intolerance and fanaticism. If only…
There was writerly news about success as the Costa Prize for the best book of 2014 was awarded to Helen Macdonald. ‘H is for Hawk’ was classed as a biography and beat the best books in the five Costa categories: novel, first novel, biography, poetry, children’s novel.
We’ve discussed the intricacies of genres before, and Costa’s five categories seem broad enough to embrace the entire field. (There’s a short story prize as well.)
Helen Macdonald’s book, however, defies classification, and ‘biography’ doesn’t quite fit.
I’m very impressed with its success because it shows that a book can have an all-encompassing appeal for academic judges and the humble general public alike. I think I’ve mentioned ‘misery lit’ before. ‘H is for Hawk’ is part ‘misery lit’ because it’s about the writer’s grief over her father’s death. That makes it autobiography as well. It’s also the parallel biography of T H White, author of ‘The Goshawk’. (I saw the film and loved it.) Macdonald’s book is also a nature book and a history book about falconry.
It renews my respect for literary judges in these prestigious contests. Narrowly defined genres are an obstacle to artistic expression. ‘H is for Hawk’ rises above all that.
Christine