Reel Politique: Prize Beat: Everyone She Knows
In the arts, it’s not what you do, sometimes, but whom you know. And the much fêted Miranda July knows a lot of helpful people. In large part Ms. July’s success is dependent less upon people like you or me and more on everyone she knows.
Miranda July is the current darling of the Eastern cultural elites. Whatever she does, be it performance art (The Swan Tool, in which this author, weirdly, had a walk on), short films (Nest of Tens, one of many works that led to an embarrassing and incomprehensible rave in Film Comment), music videos (for Sleater-Kinney), websites, feature films (You and Me and Everyone We Know), or a collection of short stories, the doe-eyed brunette shortly thereafter lands on the covers of numerous slacker lifestyle magazines simultaneously. Critics and profilers tend to swallow whole what she has to offer, beguiled by what is inevitably called her fragile beauty and knack for the delicate admission. For example, Angela Ashman in the May 8th Village Voice reveals that the short stories in Ms. July’s new book, No One Belongs Here More Than You, are “often inspired by her own life and the people she sees around her (she’s an obsessive note-taker),” adding that “July is drawn to sad, heartbreaking scenes that get the better of her emotions. ‘My boyfriend,” she says, “is always stunned at how easily I’ll be crying at something.’”
One could be forgiven for thinking that Ms. July is a cunning self-marketer. But, then, it’s part of the family business. Her parents, Lindy Hough and Richard Grosinger, ran North Atlantic Book, a New Age publishing company. Now, as reported in the Guardian, Ms. July is the happy recipient of the 2007 Frank O’Connor award for achievement in short story writing. The prize comes with a cash award of some $42, 000 dollars American. Pat Cotter, the jury chairman, is described as having “defended” the shortlist (which also included Israeli writer Etgar Keret and New Zealand scribe Charlotte Grimshaw, reduced from a list that also originally included Alice Munro and David Malouf ) as a demonstration of the judges’ independence. The judges included American novelist Rick Moody.
Is one permitted to wonder out loud, however, at how objective Mr. Moody was in advocating this award? After all, it was Ms. Ashman who, back in May, wrote that, “It was author Rick Moody, a ‘family friend of a friend,’ who encouraged July to write.” It is a glorious day in literature indeed when a mentor can watch his little duckling finally reach maturity, and all he has to do is serve on the Frank O’Connor jury. One also wonders if Ms. July was taking notes as she received her bounteous check, weeping all the way to the bank.
September 26th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
Wow! I had no idea that nepotism played such a huge role in the indy scene. It’s disgraceful!
September 27th, 2007 at 11:15 am
She’s so phony. Everytime I look at her on that cover of Filmmaker magazine I throw up a little in my mouth.
September 29th, 2007 at 8:31 am
i like miranda july. i feel more like creating things after i read/watch her things.
September 29th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
Too bad this review is so laced with envy. The book is good, there is no doubt about that, and indeed could have been worthy of the prize. But there is a good point to be made, independent of that, which is that no judge has any place giving $50,000 to someone who has worked under his tutelage (and is acknowledged at the end of the prize-winning book). It’s impossible to be impartial for too many reasons…Moody has a vested interest in seeing one of his friends succeed. It’s simply called “Conflict of Interest” and forbids many professionals, such as journalists, doctors, lawyers, and so forth from doing this sort of thing. If he knew July’s book was in contention, he should have bowed out from judging the prize.
September 30th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
Yes, I’m DYING of envy over here. If only I were pretty enough to be an author. Then my Dad’s friends could give ME things too!
Having well connected parents is supposed to get you things like the US presidency, not literary success. Have we gone too far?
October 1st, 2007 at 11:34 am
I don’t find DK’s review “laced with envy” at all, Maureen. The point of his rant, as you commented, was to call out the questionable ethic of Moody remaining on the judge’s panel after realizing that his protégé’s book was in the mix, and to wonder aloud (as it were) whether the book would have been deemed as deserving of the award had he not participated in the voting process. In that regard, you and DK and everyone we know (sorry, couldn’t resist) seem to be in agreement.
December 3rd, 2007 at 8:59 pm
how many people were on the jury for this award? how many of them are you accusing of being bribed or blackmailed by Rick Moody into voting for a story other than the one they liked the most?
December 4th, 2007 at 11:33 am
As can be discovered easily via a Google search, there were three judges on the panel for the third Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. Besides Rick Moody, they were Nigerian writer Segun Afolabi and Galway resident Nuala Ni Chonchuir. Not to put too fine a point on it, but Mr. Moody’s international status clearly brings more weight to the judge’s private proceedings than that of another less known regional writer. According to the standards of the award-giving body, the judges are selected “by the director of the Munster Literature Centre” from among “published short-story writers, academics with a track-record of involvement with the short story and from time to time any other special category person.” The provisions of the O’Connor Award do not make it plain if the judges are required to disclose personal connections to any of the candidates.
The long list of finalists consisted of 34 names. I am unaware of how many of those authors were personal friends of Mr. Moody, but they included such writers as Olaf Olafsson of Iceland, the American writers Mary Gordon and Alice Munro, and international authors Ken N. Kamoche of Kenya, David Malouf, and Georgi Gospodinov of Bulgaria. My query about the incestuous-seeming back-scratching of the Frank O’Connor Award process is no more outrageous than the inquiries that the late, lamented website Foetry.com made into the background of some of the national poetry prizes given out, such as those awarded by juror Jorrie Graham, who had a tendency to award prizes when it was in her power to do so to ex-students.
If some day Mr. Moody is recipient of yet another of among many prizes from a panel that includes Miss July, then the circle of mutual literary back-scratching will be complete — until, at least, the next round of awards mania begins.
February 23rd, 2008 at 7:18 am
bitter bitter little jealous school children.
Grow up. Its not her fault you’re a shit writer you pathetic cunt.