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1. Orange Broadband Prize shortlist

The £30,000 Orange Broadband Prize shortlist has been announced at the London Book Fair. Novelists on the list include Kiran Desai for The Inheritance of Loss, which won the 2006 Man Booker Prize, Jane Harris for The Observations, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for Half of a Yellow Sun, Xiaolu Guo for A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, Rachel Cusk for Arlington Park and Anne Tyler for Digging to America. The winner will be announced on 6 June at the Royal Festival Hall. Details of the shortlist.

2. International IMPAC Dublin Literature Award 2007 shortlist

The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is the largest (€100,000) and most international prize of its kind. It involves libraries from all corners of the globe, and is open to books written in any language. The judges include author Hanan al-Shaykh and poet Gerald Dawe. The winner will be announced 14 June 2007. For the full shortlist please click here.

3. National Short Story Prize

Beheadings, suicide and a Catholic orphanage all feature in the finalists for the National Short Story Prize. Hanif Kureishi is nominated for Weddings and Beheadings, a story about an ambitious cameraman who ends up filming terrorist beheadings. Jackie Kay is nominated for How To Get Away with Suicide and Julian Gough is shortlisted for The Orphan and The Mob. David Almond and Jonathan Falla complete the five-strong list. The winner will be announced on 23 April. For more information please click here.

4. List of Contenders for the second Man Booker International Prize

15 authors have made it on to the Judges’ List of Contenders for the second Man Booker International Prize. The writers come from ten countries and four are writers in translation.  The Judges’ List was announced by the chair of judges, Professor Elaine Showalter, at a press conference held at Massey College, Toronto. The winner will be announced in early June.

5. Samuel Johnson Prize

Memoirs from Iraq and Iran have been nominated for the BBC Four Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. Iran Awakening by Shirin Ebadi and Nabeel’s Song by Jo Tatchell are two of the 20 books on the longlist for the £30,000 annual prize. Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Rory Stewart have also been nominated for their diaries based on life in Iraq. The shortlist will be announced on 3 May, followed by the final awards ceremony on 18 June. Please click here for more information.

6. London Book Fair (16-18 April 2007, Earls Court )

London Book Fair attracts thousands of publishers and agents from all over the world and acts as a forum for information exchange and networking opportunities. We work closely with the organisers to provide visitors from developing and emerging markets within the publishing industry with the opportunity to forge new relationships with their counterparts in the UK.

International Welcome Point (IWP)
The IWP environment reflects both our and London Book Fair’s commitment to welcoming overseas publishers to the UK. IWP provides space for business meetings, internet access and information services.

International Young Publisher of the Year (IYPY) award
This initiative is an innovative collaboration between us and London Book Fair to identify and nurture the international publishing industry’s next generation of leaders. Central to this concept is the belief that the UK – both at and beyond London Book Fair – is a fertile ground for international networking.

More details about the 2007 award are available here. The winner of the 2006 award was Joanna El Mir from Lebanon. Find out more about Joanna and the other finalists. 'It’s a wonderful opportunity to come to a country with such a strong publishing industry and to learn the way the publishing sector works here.' Eduardo Rabasa, IYPY winner 2004 (our first winner)

UK Young Publisher of the Year (UKYPY) award
This new award, again a collaboration between us and London Book Fair, recognises the potential of an individual to be a future leader of the publishing sector in the UK and, indeed, internationally. The award is a British Book Industry Award (Nibbie). Further details about the award, including the prize of a placement in India, can be seen here. Further details about making a nomination are available on the Publishing News website. The closing date for submissions is 24 February 2007.

Wicked Issues
2007 will see the continuation of our successful Wicked Issues programme. Co-hosted by the Arts Council, Wicked Issues is a series of panel discussions led by key members of the UK publishing industry. Details of the programme can be viewed here.

Contact: lbf@britishcouncil.org