January 20, 2021

Ep. 74: Judging the Aspen Words Literary Prize with Sara Hildreth (@FictionMatters) + Book Recommendations

54 minutes

In Episode 74, Sara Hildreth from @fictionmatters and the Novel Pairings Podcast shares her experience judging the Aspen Words literary prize.

This post contains affiliate links, through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!).

Highlights

Whether publishers stuck to the stated mission of the prize when they submitted books.
The role of the Reading Committee and how it works with the judges.
How Sara was approached to do this and if she got paid.
The types of people that are able to take on a role like this given the time commitment and small payment (and some ways the process could be streamlined to open up a role like this to a larger subset of people).
Sara’s personal process for reading, rating, and ranking the 185 submissions.
Whether Sara was allowed to DNF and what guidance the Prize gave her about DNF’ing.
How Sara balanced her personal enjoyment of a submission with the book’s literary merit.
How Sara handled books where her personal views on the issue being highlighted differed dramatically from the viewpoint put forth in the book.
The book Sara would choose as the winner if she was the sole judge.
The impact judging the prize had on Sara’s reading life (including what she read when she wasn’t reading Prize submissions, things she learned through this process that she’ll integrate into her reading life moving forward, and it she’d ever do something like this again).

Sara’s Book Recommendations [34:52]

Two OLD Books She Loves

Two NEW Books She Loves

One Book She DIDN’T LOVE

One NEW RELEASE She’s Excited About

Last 5 Star Book Sara Read [50:02]

The Autobiography of Carson McCullers by Jenn Shapland | Buy from Amazon [50:02]

Other Books Mentioned

54 minutes

In Episode 74, Sara Hildreth from @fictionmatters and the Novel Pairings Podcast shares her experience judging the Aspen Words literary prize.

This post contains affiliate links, through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!).

Highlights

Whether publishers stuck to the stated mission of the prize when they submitted books.
The role of the Reading Committee and how it works with the judges.
How Sara was approached to do this and if she got paid.
The types of people that are able to take on a role like this given the time commitment and small payment (and some ways the process could be streamlined to open up a role like this to a larger subset of people).
Sara’s personal process for reading, rating, and ranking the 185 submissions.
Whether Sara was allowed to DNF and what guidance the Prize gave her about DNF’ing.
How Sara balanced her personal enjoyment of a submission with the book’s literary merit.
How Sara handled books where her personal views on the issue being highlighted differed dramatically from the viewpoint put forth in the book.
The book Sara would choose as the winner if she was the sole judge.
The impact judging the prize had on Sara’s reading life (including what she read when she wasn’t reading Prize submissions, things she learned through this process that she’ll integrate into her reading life moving forward, and it she’d ever do something like this again).