CONGRATULATIONS: Odyssey Books [04.06.2012]
Odyssey Books, is celebrating Stanford University Libraries’ announcement of the shortlist for the fifth William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. Tales from a Mountain City: A Vietnam War Memoir by Quynh Dao is one of twelve titles shortlisted in the non-fiction category in 2012.
The award is intended to encourage new or emerging writers and honour the Saroyan literary legacy of originality, vitality and stylistic innovation.
“Stanford is thrilled once again to honor the literary legacy of William Saroyan by awarding The William Saroyan International Prize for Writing,” said Michael A. Keller, Stanford University Librarian. “However, the prize not only allows us to recognize the talents of an author whose archive we are pleased to hold but as well to engage with new authors, whose works are often found to be of wide interest and significance.”
Tales from a Mountain City is a blend of history and memoir told by a young Vietnamese girl growing up during the last years of the war and the communist regime. This is a poignant account of the innocence of a child, the innocence of a people, shattered again and again by the cruel tides of power and dogma, clinging tenaciously to their traditions, their home provinces, their hometowns, until the sheer pervasiveness of a communist value system drives them to suicide or exile.
The winners will be announced in September.
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