OBVERSEBOOKS.CO.UK

Launched yesterday, 29 July 2010, by Paul Magrs, the Man Fooker Prize is a literary award  for works of fiction and memoirs by gay men.

As it says on the official website

It was literary award season again and longlists were getting bandied about like crazy. And it’s annoying because those lists seem a bit ready-made, middlebrow, monotonous and obvious. Anyway, late July 2010 and there’s the usual palaver about the Booker Longlist. It was obviously going to be the same old gubbins and some of the same old names. And the same nonsense about ‘literary’ fiction being a separate, rarefied preserve, quite apart from other genres.  Anyway, we thought – wouldn’t it be fun and great to do something a bit different?

Fun and different is something we’re very keen on here at the Obverse Towerblock – it’d be great if this prize took off a bit…

http://manfookerprize.wordpress.com/

[ETA: Apparently, due to a terrible horse frightening incident, the prize is now to be called The Green Carnation]

Some reviews of the latest Iris Wildthyme book from Obverse.
First off, a cut and paste from the Goodreads website (which requires membership to read, I think)

“Four linked novellas from the world of transtemporal adventuress Iris Wildthyme. Unlike the last two books from Obverse, only the last of these stories star Iris and her sentient stuffed panda friend Panda, and the first three give centre stage to other characters from her previous adventures. The first, Jim Smith’s The Found World is something of a literary mash-up, featuring several characters from the works of Stoker, Conan Doyle, and so forth. Working out who is who is part of the fun, and it’s a bouncy, surprising tale that opens the book in fine spirits. Nick Wallace’s The Irredeemable Love is a stranger beast, a disorientating mystery in the true sense, that forces you to pay attention and do some of the investigating yourself – my favourite story in the book, for the same reason. Cody Schell’s Elementary, My Dear Sheila, is a primary coloured, over-the-top Mexican murder mystery featuring the masked wrestler Senor 105, and is such exuberant fun you can’t help but enjoy it. Finally, as mentioned, Stuart Douglas closes the collection in considerable style with The Shape of Things, giving us a full glass of Wildthyme in contemplative mood, and Panda at his pretentious best. Easily the best of the Wildthyme books from Obverse Books – she and her friends seem to suit the novella length perfectly.” Four Stars out of Five

And links to three other more extensive reviews:

Doctor Who Reviews

Finn Clark’s Reviews

War Arrow’s Paperback Reviews

All positive in one way or other (who wouldn’t be pleased with comments like

“The standard of writing is extraordinarily high”

and

“playful and rich in ideas”

and

“the four novellas are linked enough to satisfy, and are individually distinct enough to provide the variety we’ve come to expect from the short story collections”

All very satisfying, frankly…