Here's a great opportunity for future literary opinionators. You know the Guardian First book award.....well, here's the opportunity to be on a judging panel.
See below.... the deadline is Sunday, so get on this quickish (sorry for the late notice, but I only just learnt about this recently myself). I urge the literary minded south Londoners among you to strongly consider this.
Thanks
x
Dear Reader,
Thank you for your interest in participating in one of the Guardian First Book Award judging groups. The award is now in its 14th year and Waterstones have been proud associates for eight of those years. Being the only British literary award to be judged by members of the public creates a unique and rewarding experience. Past winners of the award include Zadie Smith, Jonathan Safran Foer and Robert Macfarlane, who all received the award for their respective first books and then went on to become very prominent figures in the literary scene. This means that this year’s winner, whom you have the opportunity to help choose as a member of a judging group, may well become one of the best-known literary names of tomorrow.
This year there will be five Waterstones branches involved with the award: Bath, Birmingham New Street, Edinburgh West End, Leeds and London Clapham. Each of these groups will be comprised of seven members of the public who will help select a shortlist of five titles from among a longlist of ten books drawn up by The Guardian.
• What will the seven members of the Clapham reading group have to do?
- Read the 10 books! It is worth mentioning that the schedule is certainly not for the casual reader. Each member will be required to read 10 books in 8 weeks. Some of the books may contain over 500 pages and some fewer than 100. Even if you are an avid reader, it’s definitely a big undertaking and you need to be sure that you will be able to do it before committing to it. Despite all this, previous participants have described it as a hugely gratifying experience and, for dedicated readers, pure joy.
- Attend 8 weekly meetings, where we will discuss the books (normally one per week, although due to the tight schedule, there will be two meetings where we will be discussing two). In the last meeting, we will rank the ten books that we have read and will pass our list to Stuart Broom (Waterstones Events Programmer), who will receive another four lists from each of the other four reading groups. Along with the votes of the Guardian First Book Award judging panel, a shortlist of five books will be drawn up. Stuart Broom will represent the views of all the reading groups at the final meeting of the panel of judges (who include Jeanette Winterson and Kate Summerscale) in November.
• What is the schedule for the Clapham reading group?
- 31st July – 12th August: Application forms available for collection from the Waterstones Clapham branch.
- Sunday 12th August: Deadline for applications. The application forms can be handed in to the shop, scanned and e-mailed to claphamreadinggroup@gmail.com or posted to: Waterstones Clapham, 70 St John’s Road, London SW11 1PT. Whichever the method, please make sure that your application is with us by 12th August. Applications received after the deadline won’t be able to be considered for the selection process.
- Applicants will be told if they’re successful by Friday 17th August. The selection of the seven members will be based solely on the answers given in the application form. The succesful candidates will be contacted by e-mail and will have to confirm their place in the reading group by Monday 20th August.
- The longlist will be announced by The Guardian approximately a week after the reading group members have been contacted (Thursday 23rd or Friday 24th August) and the books will be dispatched by The Guardian to our branch around the same date. The seven members of the reading group will be contacted by phone as soon as the books are ready for collection from Waterstones Clapham. This is a rather tight turnaround period and members of the reading group are requested to collect the books from the branch as soon as possible after being contacted, in order to have time to read the first book before our meeting on Tuesday 28th August (see below). The ten books are provided gratis to all members of the reading groups by The Guardian.
- Tuesday 28th August, 7pm: First meeting of the reading group. The meetings will always take place at 7pm on Tuesdays in the Clapham branch and will last approximately 1 ½ hours. The eight weekly meetings will be held on the following dates:
28th August
4th September
11th September
18th September
25th September
2nd October
9th October
16th October
The order in which we will read the ten books and the date on which each book will be discussed will be announced at a later date.
NOTE: Attendance to the meetings is essential. If you already know that there is one or more meetings that you can’t attend due to other commitments, please make this clear on your application form. Preference will be given to applicants who can commit to reading the ten books and attending the eight meetings.
- Early December (date TBC): Book prize ceremony. The members of all the reading groups will be invited to attend the book prize evening, usually held at a grand London venue, where they will have the opportunity to meet the winner and the shortlisted authors, the judges and the members of the other reading groups. Every year it has been a very special evening and one which has become renowned in the literary calendar.
• What are we looking for?
Due to the nature of the Guardian First Book Award, members should have a diverse reading interest. The only genre which is not eligible for the award is children’s books, which means that the longlisted books can be drawn from any genre: for example, from fiction, history, music, popular science, biography, poetry – anything! Regardless of age, gender, previous experience etc. an open literary attitude is of paramount importance and members should be individuals who enjoy reading and feel comfortable discussing all sorts of books.
Here at Waterstones, we believe this is a wonderful chance for our customers - only 35 readers in the country are able to be part of the judging process! - and we really hope that all who get involved are sincerely able to make the commitment required to make the most of this opportunity.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me on claphamreadinggroup@gmail.com or 0207 978 5844.
