With the announcement of the winner of the Pulitzer Prize rapidly approaching,  the Toonari Post has begun speculating who will come home with the prize. Another website has put up their own list of predictions, and Toonari Post is reviewing seven of them to judge their likelihood of winning.

Two short story collections seem to have a good chance at getting the prize: The Angel Esmeralda by Don DeLillo and Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman.

Don DeLillo, more than any other author on the list, has received critical recognition. Literary Critic Harold Bloom said,” he is one of four current American authors to have touched the sublime” (the others being Philip Roth, Cormac McCarthy, and Thomas Pynchon.) Despite this, he still has not won a Pulitzer prize for his work.

The Angel Esmeralda consists of nine stories written from 1979 to 2011. Though some are much better than others, all are memorable thanks to DeLillo’s masterful prose. The settings stretch across the world, from New York to a high security prison in the Canary Islands, from Greece to outer space; however; there is one unifying theme throughout all of them: communication. It may take different forms in all of the stories, but an examination of how people pass thoughts and ideas from one another is always present.

Some of the earlier stories come off as a bit weak as the later ones seem like they were meant for critical analysis rather than pleasure reading, but the middle ones are amazing. The title story is almost unreal, and it is worth picking up the book based on that alone.

DeLillo is incredible with prose, and it shows.

“The old nun rose at dawn, feeling pain in every joint. She’d been rising at dawn since her days as a postulant, kneeling on hardwood floors to pray. First she raised the shade. That’s the world out there, little green apples and infectious disease.”

DeLillo has had a shot at the Pulitzer before with other nominated novels and this time around he has potential to add to his awards collection.

In contrast, Edith Pearlman is a small, lesser-known novelist, writing only short stories that have only made a small splash—until now. Binocular Vision won the National Book Critics Circle award last March and is currently ranked #1 on PPrize.com as ‘most likely to win’ the award. The book is split into two parts: the first consisting of selected stories previously published and the second being made up of new narratives. Pearlman’s prose at times reads bizarrely, but from the beginning onward is very effective:

“The town square was a bare knoll. A church faced the square. Its stucco walls seemed to be unraveling. The one-storied inn sagged towards its own courtyard. Robert was shown to a rear bedroom. From his window he could see oxen.”

Some of the stories are weak and forgettable, while others are strong. Though the book is excellent and is definitely in the running for the Pulitzer, it suffers from two problems. First, Pearlman has the uncanny ability to make even the most fantastic location seem banal, rendering what should be exciting stories into dull excursions.

Second, often the stories only come together and are worthwhile in the end, which at times works, but other times makes you wonder why you are even reading the story, and if the ending is messy or poor, the whole story comes off as unsatisfactory. While not all too many stories fall into this last category, enough do that the book at times seems disappointing.

Though the book itself is worth reading and definitely deserves the accolades it has already received, it does not exactly come across as Pulitzer material.

Stay tuned for the last installment of Pulitzer Prize speculation, as the Toonari Post takes a look at some of the novels nominated for the award.

The article 2012 Pulitzer Prize: The Speculations #2 appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

The 5th edition of the Lisbon & Estoril Film Festival (LEFF), happening in Portugal from November 4th to 11th, opened up last weekend with the presentation of several awards in its inauguration gala, attended by most of the festival guests, including actor Paul Giamatti, directors Luc Dardenne and Leos Carax, cinematographers Peter Suschitzky and Christopher Doyle and jury members and writers J.M. Coetzee and Don Delillo.

A “Life Achievement Award” was given to William Friedkin by festival director Paulo Branco. Friedkin, director of The French Connection and The Exorcist, is the subject of a tribute in this year’s festival and his most recent film, Killer Joe, was the festival’s opening movie. A ‘Tribute Award’ was also given to Wes Anderson, who thanked the audience and the festival in a video clip made specifically for the occasion.

Tribute awards were also given to Leos Carax by Sophie Calle and to Peter Susuchitzky by Paul Giamatti. A festival “Best Friend Award” was also given to Nobel Literature Prize winner J.M. Coetzee by Paulo Branco.

Most sessions for the weekend’s movie premieres — such as Killer Joe, from William Friedkin, Restless from Gus Van Sant, The Ides of March, from George Clooney and A Dangerous Method from David Cronenberg sold out, as well as masterclasses with actor Paul Giamatti, cinematographers Christopher Doyle and Peter Suschitzky, directors Luc Dardenne, Leos Carax and JR and writer Peter Handke.

One of the highlights of the weekend was the masterclass Working with David Cronenberg, that reunited in Estoril director David Cronenberg, actors Paul Giamatti and Sarah Gadon, producer Paulo Branco, cinematographer Peter Suschitzky and rapper K’Naan.

The audience that crowded the Estoril Congress Center auditorium, and that included jury members Don Delillo, J.M. Coetzee, Paul Auster and Siri Hustvedt, was able to watch, in a worldwide premiere, a trailer of the David Cronenberg’s movie Cosmopolis, based on the novel by Don Delillo.

A lively discussion of both movies, A Dangerous Method and Cosmopolis, followed. Several exhibitions were also inaugurated. “Work in Progress” presents Spanish famous artist Miquel Barceló’s latest works in a much awaited world premiere.

And photo exhibitions such as “Observations of Life” and “Nudes”, by cinematographer Peter Suschitzky, ”Drive by Night”, by cinematographer Darius Khondji and “Gaza 2010”, by photographer Kai Wiedenhöfer (winner of the Carmignac Gestion Prize for photojournalism) offer the public different views of life from behind the camera lenses.

Music is also very much a part of this festival. Rapper K’Naan made a presentation of the impressive videos he did while returning to his native homeland Somalia and afterwards he performed some of his songs to a crowded theater, making several breaks to talk with the public and answer several questions.

Randall Poster, the famous movie music supervisor, was DJ for one night at a LUX, the most famous Lisbon club. And virtuosos Gidon Kremer and Giedre Dirvanauskaite enchanted the audience with a wonderful concert that featured pieces from Poleva, Kancheli, Bach and Sofia Gubaidulina.

cinemafestival / Shutterstock.com

The article LEFF ’11 Celebrates Both Screen, Books, Photography and Music appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

The International Symposium fully dedicated to the Copyrights within the Internet era, that the Lisbon & Estoril Film Festival brings to the Centro de Congressos do Estoril on November 11th and 12th, will be a pluridisciplinar gathering, of universal reach, artists, academics, economical agents and institutional decision-makers around a rather important theme now-a-days.

Through three roundtables, dedicated to Music, Cinema and Literature, the International Symposium will seek to confront different, and even opposite opinions, but mainly complementary about the copyrights within the Internet era.

Writers Paul Auster and Don Delillo, Harvard University teachers and Berkman Centre director Willizm W. Fisher, State Secretary for Culture Francisco José Viegas, playwriter Yasmina Reza, French National Library Director Jean-Mare Compte, singer Sophie Auster, writer and French Deputy Aurélie Filippeti, music producer Fréderic Junqua and the DJs and internationally renown DJs Para One and LOGO will be some of the participants of this Symposium.

The limelight of this symposium will be fully handed to the artists themselves, so they can finally share and express their view points without the media and political haste. And so that new and conscience perspectives can be found.

This gathering with international ambition is organised in collaboration with the Sciences Po Paris and its Ecole de Arts Politiques, together with think tank Jeune République and the public forum platform Création, Public, Internet. The content and conclusions of this symposium will be published under the Creative Commons licence.

Program:

Friday, November 11th, Centro de Congressos do Estoril

11am-1pm: Music — with the presence of Frédéric Junqua (producer, music editor), Jim Griffin (founder of Choruss), Jean Baptiste de Laubier (Para One), Hugues Tonnet de Parrel et Thomas Desnoyers (LOGO), Paulo Furtado (The Legendary Tiger Man), Sophie Auster.

Chaired by Jérémie Zimmermann (La Quadrature du Net)

3pm-5pm: Cinema – with the presence of Éric Garandeau (CNC President), Yasmina Reza (playwriter, director), Bertrand Bonello (director), Haden Guest (Harvard Film Archive director), Joaquim Pinto (producer and director).

Chaired by Paulo Branco.

6pm: Special session — Exclusive Interview with Jean-Luc Godard - L´ogre et le petit poucet, 50’ – presented by João Lopes (film spoken in French with Portuguese subtitles and with instant translation in English).

Saturday, November 12th, Centro de Congressos do Estoril

11am: Opening Speech by Guilherme d’Oliveira Martins (National Centre for Culture President and Court of Auditors President)

11.30am – 1pm: Literature – with the presence Don Delillo (writer), Paul Auster (writer),
Aurélie Filippetti (French deputy, writer)  Jean-Marie Compte (National French Library), João Rodrigues (editor), Siri Hustvedt (writer).

Chaired by Philippe Aigrain.

3 pm: Opening Speech by Professor William W. Fisher (Harvard) – Alternate compensation systems

4 pm: Final debate

4.30pm: Final Speech by State Secretary for Cultura, Dr. Francisco José Viegas

Get to know the full Festival programme on  www.leffest.com

The article LEFF ’11 Presents International Symposium: Copyrights Within The Internet Era appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Four of today´s most important writers in English language gather together in an extraordinary and not- to-be missed event taking place at Museu de História Natural e Ciência today at the Lisbon and Estoril Film Festival (LEFF) 2011.

J.M. Coetzee, Don Delillo, Paul Auster and Siri Hustvedt will gather at the Lisbon & Estoril Film Festival and read excerpts from their works to the festival public.

Distinguished with the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003, J.M. Coetzee is one of the most acclaimed English language writers and also one of the most respected internationally, the author of very famous books such as “Disgrace” or “Life and Times of Michael K”, with which he won the Booker Prize.

Don Delillo is a colossal figure from the current North American literary panorama, having already won the National Book Award and the Prize PEN/Faulkner. Works such as “Americana”, “Falling Man”, “Mao II”, “White Noise” and “Cosmopolis” are part of the world’s literary panorama.

One of the most brilliant fiction writers today, Paul Auster is responsible for bestsellers such as “The Brooklyn Follies” and “Leviathan”. In 2006 he won the prize Príncipe das Astúrias das Letras, the most prestigious award of Spanish literature.

Poet and romance writer widely praised by international critique, Siri Hustvedt is a remarkable personality of American literature, and her works have been translated to more than 30 languages.

According to the LEFF’s press release, Singer and composer Sophie Auster, the daughter of writers Paul Auster and Siri Hustvedt, will make her debut concert in Portugal through the Lisbon & Estoril Film Festival. The concert of the New York artist will take place at the Lisbon famous club LUX today, at 23:30 local time.

Sophie Auster is currently preparing a new album, with a team that gathers some of the most acclaimed musicians of today, such as guitar player Adam Levy and drummer Andrew Borger – both former musicians of prize-winner singer Norah Jones.

Image courtesy: http://www.leffest.com/pt/fotos_ano

The article LEFF ’11 Lectures; Four Writers Gather in Lisbon appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.