An Irish consultant neurologist, Suzanne O'Sullivan, has won the Wellcome Book Prize 2016 – worth £30,000, or almost €39,000 – for It's All in Your Head, which explores psychosomatic illness. O'Sullivan, a consultant at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, beat five other candidates, including The Outrun, by Amy Liptrot, a memoir of alcohol addiction and recovery, and Neurotribes, by Steve Silberman, which delves into autism.
Now in its seventh year, the prize was set up to celebrate books that engage with medicine, health or illness. Joan Bakewell, the chairwoman of the judging panel, said of It's All in Your Head, "It sounds funny to call a medical book a page-turner, but you want to keep going. You really get into the stories, and as they unfold you realise you're learning a lot about neuroscience along the way – and this is only possible because Suzanne is such a clear, remarkable writer."
Marrying her clinical experience with patient case studies, O’Sullivan attempts to highlight an area of medicine that is often subject to stigma. “Psychosomatic disorders are really, really common, but for some reason people don’t talk about it. Psychosomatic illness is rarely dangerous – people don’t usually die from them – but they can still destroy people’s lives, or steal their lives in other ways,” said O’Sullivan. Winning the prize “is a mark of respect for the patients I’m looking after”.
It's All in Your Head, which is just out in paperback, will be reviewed here next month by Brian Dillon, author of Tormented Hope: Nine Hypochondriac Lives.
Congratulations also to Barry McCrea, named by the American Comparative Literature Association as this year's winner of the René Wellek prize for Languages of the Night. The Wellek is generally considered to be the most prestigious US literary-studies prize. Past winners include Umberto Eco and Edward Said. This is the first time that an Irish writer or a book about Irish material has won.
The citation says, “This meticulously researched book, rendered in a haunting, lyrical style, juxtaposes a set of cases in which vanishing vernaculars inspired the linguistic strategies of literary modernism in the early 20th century. On the basis of linguistic exegesis and close readings, Barry McCrea uncovers the longings of lost language inscribed in the poetry and prose of such modernists as Seán Ó Riórdáin, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Marcel Proust and James Joyce.”
Paul McVeigh has been shortlisted for the Authors' Club's Best First Novel Award for The Good Son. Previous winners include Brian Moore, Kevin Barry and, last year, Carys Bray.
The Chocolat author, Joanne Harris, is to add her voice to those calling for fair payment and treatment of writers and illustrators at Irish festivals in a keynote speech at WordCon, a conference organised by Words Ireland (wordsireland.ie) for literary-industry professionals on May 19th at the National Library of Ireland.
After pulling out of a high-profile, corporate-sponsored festival in Britain, Harris has called for the introduction of industry-wide standards.
Leading festival directors and programmers will discuss the ideal literature festival, from both the audience and the speakers’ perspective. They’ll elicit ideas and principles on which a “minimum standards guidelines” document can be drawn up and implemented, so that writers and illustrators know what to expect in terms of payment and treatment at festivals.
The Irish authors Nuala Ní Chonchúir, Louise O’Neill and Pat Boran will share their experiences of literature festivals, good and bad, at home and abroad.
