The Blog is
Riverbend: Baghdad Burning, and the blogger has been posting from Iraq since August 2003.
This anonymous blog by a young woman in war-torn Iraq has been longlisted for BBC Four's Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction, with prize money of £30 000. The winner will be announced on 14 June.
"Baghdad Burning", a first-hand account written under the pseudonym Riverbend, is one of 19 books in contention. Professor Robert Winston, chair of the judging panel, said this year's longlist contained "an exceptionally wide variety of genres" --- as is evident in some of the books on the list, such as Alan Bennett's Untold Stories, a biography of 19th-Century cook and author Mrs Beeton and a study of post-war US-Soviet relations.
Previous winners of the prize include Like a Fiery Elephant, Jonathan Coe's biography of the author BS Johnson, and Stasiland, Anna Funder's chronicle of the hardships endured by people from the former East Germany.
It is the first time the contents of a blog has been nominated for a literary award -- and most certainly will not be the last. Blogging is 'a different' form of publishing ones writing, and the fact that it is now being recognised as "published/printed writing" should go a long way to develop further recognition of this important medium.
The continuing growth of blogging has also changed the way journalists think about their work, argues technology analyst Bill Thompson. See article
Another first short-list for a literary prize that rewards bloggers has been announced -- this time for bloggers turned bookwriters. Dubbed the Blooker Prize, the contest is for those bloggers who have turned their episodic journals into something more substantial. --The first winner of the Blooker Prize will be announced on 3 April.
British entries on the Blooker short-list include the intimate diary of a prostitute and a guide to the UK's best "greasy spoon" cafes.
The Blooker Prize was first suggested in October 2005 and was the creation of Bob Young, founder of self-publishing site Lulu which sponsors the prize. In the last few years, regularly updated web logs - or blogs - have become a major feature on the internet and now there are believed to be more than 60 million of them in existence. There are blogs on any and every subject and many of the writers behind blogs have found their passions for a particular subject and writing style has won them a regular and appreciative audience. Some blogs or their authors have become so popular that they have turned to traditional print to collect their thoughts or explore their interest at greater length.
One blogger comments: "There's definitely a romance to cafes. Once there you can easily get yourself into the frame of mind that you are about to start a novel" , and as probably the world's expert of cyber cafes, and - having almost finished my novel on cyber relationships, I can most certainly second that!
A total of 89 entries made it to the Lulu Blooker's long-list and this has been whittled down to just 16 that will compete for the prize money. The entries are arranged into three categories - fiction, non-fiction and comics - and the winners of two of these sections get a cash prize of £550 ($1,000). The winner of the grand prize gets a cash prize of £1,100 ($2,000).
The short-list is dominated by US entries but the UK has two strong contenders in the running. One is notorious Belle De Jour, who blogs about life as a prostitute.
The other contender is Russell Davies, who turned his affection for "greasy spoon" cafes into a blog called eggschipsbaconandbeans and a book detailing the 50 best cafes in the UK.
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