On the Media

Who Cares About Literary Prizes?

This holiday season, book store displays — and Christmas stockings — will be filled with novels minted with gold and silver medals. Those gilded stamps denote recognition by literary prizes like the National Book Award, which was announced just last month. <a href="https://www.mcgill.ca/english/staff/alexander-manshel">Alexander Manshel</a> is the author of <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/writing-backwards-historical-fiction-and-the-reshaping-of-the-american-canon/20097526">Writing Backwards: Historical Fiction and the Reshaping of the American Canon</a>. With <a href="https://www.publicbooks.org/what-35-years-of-data-can-tell-us-about-who-will-win-the-national-book-award/">Melanie Walsh</a>, he recently wrote a piece about how literary prizes have changed over the past few decades, leading to the recognition of more authors of color, for one. This week, Brooke asks Manshel how much these prizes actually matter. And according to <a href="https://www.publicbooks.org/who-cares-about-literary-prizes/#:~:text=While%20Booker%20boosters%20may%20claim,mutual%20back%2Dscratching.%E2%80%9D%201">another study</a> he co-authored (with J.D. Porter and Laura B. McGrath, titled "<a href="https://www.publicbooks.org/who-cares-about-literary-prizes/#:~:text=While%20Booker%20boosters%20may%20claim,mutual%20back%2Dscratching.%E2%80%9D%201">Who Cares About Literary Prizes?</a>"), the influence of literary awards is undeniable...
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The Peabody Award-winning On the Media podcast is your guide to examining how the media sausage is made. Host Brooke Gladstone examines threats to free speech and government transparency, cast a skeptical eye on media coverage of the week’s big stories and unravel hidden political narratives in everything we read, watch and hear.