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The National Book Critics Circle has announced its 30 finalists in six categories - autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry - for the best books of 2013. Sir John Eliot Gardiner's definitive biography of Johann Sebastian Bach, Music in the Castle of Heaven , joins Scott Anderson, Leo Damrosch, Linda Leavell and Mark Thompson on the short-list for the Bigraphy category. The National Book Critics Circle Awards, founded in 1974 at the Algonquin Hotel and considered among the most prestigious in American letters, are the sole prizes bestowed by a jury of working critics and book-review editors. The awards will be presented on March 13 at the New School, in a ceremony that is free and open to the public.

Olivia Laing has written a piece in the latest issue of Granta ?do you remember?. An excerpt of the story can be found on Granta's website. Olivia will be participating in launch events for the issue, alongside her US tour to promote the American edition of The Trip to Echo Spring, published by Picador US this month to much accolade,and was featured on the cover of the New York Times Book Review. The tour dates can be found on her website.

Caroline Criado-Perez has been awarded the Human Rights Campaigner of the Year Award at the Liberty Human Rights Awards. Her award was presented by actor Benedict Cumberbatch. Criado-Perez led a campaign which called for the reinstating of a well-known female figure on UK banknotes after Elizabeth Fry was removed from the ?5 note. Jane Austen will appear on banknotes in 2017. Liberty campaigns for the promotion of fundamental rights and freedoms in the UK. Each year, it rewards outstanding human rights heroes at the annual Liberty Human Rights Awards. Granta will publish her debut Do It Like A Woman in 2015.

Audible have commissioned M.J. Arlidge to write an audio exclusive thriller series for release summer 2014. The 10-part series, entitled SIX DEGRESS OF SEPARATION, is a political assassination thriller and will be told in 30 minute episodes. Arlidge has worked in television for the last 15 years, specialising in high end drama production. He has produced a number of prime-time crime serials for ITV In the last five years, and is currently working on a major adaptation of The Last of the Mohicans for the BBC. This year Penguin will publish his debut crime novel, EENY MEENY, the first in a planned series featuring DI Helen Grace.

Some great early press coverage for Season To Taste (or How To Eat Your Husband) by Natalie Young in the papers this weekend: "Set to be one of the most talked about - and most gruesome - books of 2014" said The Sunday Times, and follow this link to read the Daily Mail review in full. With publication by Headline due early next year, we are sure there will be more to come.

Jonathan Jones's The Loves of the Artists chosen in 3 Book of the Year Lists this week: the Observer, the Telegraph and the Spectator. 'What was the quest that inspired the Renaissance? In his refreshing and original... Jones proposes that it was not linear perspective so much as sexual intimacy. Nudes and portraits, often modelled by people close to the artist, led to a new image of humanity'- Martin Gayford, Books of the Year, The Spectator.

Following her shortlisting for the Costa Biography Award, and her strong showing in Christmas round-ups of ?Books of the Year? for The Trip to Echo Spring, Olivia Laing has been shortlisted for the Salon London Transmission Prize. Launched in 2008, Salon London showcases passionate experts from the worlds of science, psychology and the arts with a focus on fresh perspectives and new experiences.This award is given in recognition of the value of certain ideas and the work that speakers do to get them to an audience. The 2013 shortlist has been selected by a panel which includes Salon founders Helen Bagnall, Juliet Russell and Diccon Towns, with author and artist Ella Berthoud, Theoretical Physicist Prof. David Tong, QI writer and author Stevyn Colgan and Associate Director of The Literary Platform, Joanna Ellis.

Outstanding success across the press for DB Miller's Norwegian by Night in the end of year editor's picks: Economist (6 Best Fiction Titles of the Year) 'Not many authors succeed in being funny about dementia. This unusual thriller, with its memorable octogenarian hero, introduces a bold new voice in fiction that deserves to become better known.' Guardian Crime Thriller Roundup Norwegian By Night, winner of the Crime Writers' Association John Creasey Dagger, is the funny, moving and gripping story of cantankerous 82-year-old widower and ex-marine Sheldon Horowitz, uprooted from his native New York to Oslo, who finds himself on the run with the six year-old son of a murdered neighbour and the ghosts of his past.' Kirkus Top 10 Favourite Crime Novels 'Ripe with memories of wars long ago fought and regrets insurmountable, this is a remarkably moving, memorable debut thriller.' Barry Forshaw, Financial Times 'Miller's discursive but richly written novel introduces us to 82-year-old Sheldon, a Jewish-American anti-hero who worries about senility and chafes in his new country, Norway - until Balkan villains and a cross-country chase change his life.' It was also crowned Crimefictionlover's #1 Debut of the Year.

We are thrilled to announce that S.J. (Fanie) Naud? has been awarded the Jan Rabie & Marjorie Wallace Bursary for 2014. The much sought after bursary of R350,000 (approx ?20,600) is the largest of its kind in support of creative writing projects in Afrikaans, and the competition was duly intense. After thorough consideration Naud?s application was unanimously chosen by the Bursary Committee, comprising of Ingrid Winterbach, Anastasia de Vries and Prof Steward van Wyk, the chairperson of the department Afrikaans en Nederlands at UWC. The award will allow Naud? to focus his attention on writing his d?but novel, to be set against the background of diaspora in a cosmopolitan world and aimed at exploring uncharted domains within Afrikaans.

We are thrilled to announce that Olivia Laing, author of The Trip To Echo Spring: Why Writers Drink, has been nominated for The 2013 Costa Biography Award. The Costa Book Awards recognise the "most enjoyable books" in five categories ? Novel, First Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children?s Book ? published in the last year by writers based in the UK and Ireland. Olivia joins Thomas Harding, Lucy Hughes-Hallett and Gavin Francis on the short-list, and the winner will be announced at an awards ceremony in January. Photo Credit: Chris Boland (www.chrisboland.com).

Claudia Hammond, psychologist, presenter and author of Time Warped, will join Brian Cox and David Ince as a guest on the BBC's The Infinite Monkey Cage. Listen in as they take us on a walk through the doors of perception; the nature of consciousness, the secret messages hidden in pop songs and the problem of objectivity. Monday 25th at 4.30pm on Radio 4, repeated on Tuesday at 11pm.

The Bord G?is Energy Irish Book Awards 2013 shortlist, announced in Dublin today, features a diverse array of acclaimed writers including Roddy Doyle, Colum McCann, Michael Harding, Darina Allen, Donal Ryan, Frank McGuinness and, our very own, Gavin Corbett for his stunning novel about a modern-day Traveller born to a powerful, mythic inheritance, This is the Way. The awards will be formally presented at the Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony to be held in The DoubleTree Hotel on Tuesday, November 26th. Voting is open from October 31st to November 21st. Follow this link to vote for your favourites.

Rebecca Stott?s Ghostwalk is one of the Independent?s top ten ghost stories: "Intelligent and unnerving, this tale of the friend of an academic investigating her death focuses on the dead woman?s obsession with Sir Isaac Newton and his alchemic past. A feat of historical fiction." Follow this link for the full article.

Chris Lintott has been awarded the 2013 Internet and Society Award by the Oxford Internet Institute, in recognition of his exemplary effort to use the Internet for the public good.His book on crowdsourcing will be published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 2015.