Six authors in running for top award

THE SHORTLIST for the 2018 JQ Wingate Literary Prize has been announced with six authors vying for the £4,000 award.

The contenders are Linda Grant for her novel The Dark Circle, about Jewish twins being treated for tuberculosis; Michael Frank for his account of his Los Angeles childhood, The Mighty Franks; and Mya Guarnieri Jaradat whose The Unchosen: The Lives of Israel’s New Others examines how Israel responds to its minorities.

The other nominess are Joanne Limburg for Small Pieces: A Book of Lamentations

Stranger in a Strange Land: Searching for Gershom Scholem and Jerusalem is a biography of the founder of modern kabbalah; and Laurence Rees, author of The Holocaust featuring previously unpublished firsthand testimony from both survivors and perpetrators.

The prize, now in its 41st year, aims to demonstrate the “depth and diversity” of Jewish fiction and non-fiction writing globally.

The judging panel will be led by TLS fiction and politics editor Toby Lichtig and will comprise journalist, broadcaster and Booker Prize Foundation trustee Bidisha; author and critic Amanda Craig; and London School of Jewish Studies Teaching Fellow Maureen Kendler.

Mr Lichtig said the shortlist demonstrated “the depth, vitality and diversity of Jewish writing across genres, generations and continents.

“While all of these books reflect in some important way on specifically Jewish experience, so too do they all shine a light on matters of universal human importance.”

The winner will be announced on February 15 at a ceremony at the JW3 community centre, in North-West London, hosted by Emily Kasriel, a senior executive at the BBC World Service Group.