Quote:
Originally Posted by caleb72
For my part, I may have taken back the nomination Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. I determined "literary" mainly by the reputation of the author and the fact that some of her other books have won literary awards including a Pulitzer Prize. However, on reading it I felt in the end that it was more historical fiction/drama.
This can often be a case of 20/20 hindsight as, for the most part, I don't nominate a book I've already read.
So is there something wrong with our process? Do we need to apply a more rigorous filter somehow? Perhaps have some kind of justification for nomination? Eg. this won the blah blah literary award, or this has been classified as "literary" by the following resources etc..
Must be difficult to apply such a scheme to non-fiction though I would think.
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I'm minded of Justice Potter Stewart's famous comment on pornography, "I know it when I see it." I think that's probably best. Reasonable people can disagree, of course, but I think thoughtfulness combined with a gut reaction might be the best litmus test.
Frankly, I think winning a prize is a dreadful test. There are so many undeserving prizewinners, IMO, and so many factors including hot topics, political correctness, connections, etc, etc, that winning a prize means very little in terms of literary quality.