Growing Up Modern – Fitzcarraldo Editions’ Prize

An early version of the book I’m working on GROWING UP MODERN made the shortlist for Fitzcarraldo Editions’ Prize. This thrills me for a bunch of reasons. 1) Fitzcarraldo Editions is just out and out great. They are one of my favorite publishers. And if you’re not reading their books you should. (They publish Svetlana Alexievich, Dan Fox and Eula Biss, while its publisher Jacques Testard is also one of the people behind the very excellent literary magazine The White Review). 2) It’s an early version of my still-incomplete ms – and the competition is limited to British residents and I am a quasi-sometimes resident. And, the book is really American, about American ideologies – or the uses to which America has put modernism, neoliberalism, individualism while asking questions about morals in the wake of the isms of our age... Add to all this I’m very excited too about the winner and his project exploring faith, doubt and radical religious beliefs...