New York-based writer Ceridwen Dovey has picked up two South African literary awards in the same weekend. Dovey, who grew up in South Africa and Australia, won the 2008 Sunday Times Fiction Prize and the 2007 University of Johannesburg Prize for Creative Writing for her debut novel Blood Kin (Penguin South Africa).

The Sunday...

The Penguin Book of Canadian Short Stories, edited by Jane Urquhart, has become the flashpoint for one of the sharpest literary debates Canada has ever seen, reports the Toronto Star. In her introduction, Urquhart confesses to a lack of familiarity with Canadian short stories, having paid more attention in recent years to "the short story...

Clive James and Germaine Greer are both in the running for the inaugural Australian Prime Minister's Literary Awards, which will be judged by prime minister Kevin Rudd himself, reports the Guardian.

The awards will be Australia's richest literary prizes, with tax-free cheques of A$100,000 (£47,000) awarded to both fiction...

Penguin China is to sponsor an Apprentice-style literary prize to find the country's next generation of young writers. The prize, dubbed "The Next – A Search for the New Face of Chinese Literature", was set up by Changjiang Art & Literature Publishing House, fiction journal Top Novel, online literary community Qidan.com...