Self-Published Author Makes PEN/Ackerly Short List
For the first time a self-published author has been shortlisted
for the PEN/Ackerley prize for memoir and autobiography Who Is It That Can Tell Me Who I Am? by Jane Haynes. The book is a journal of Haynes' experiences as as psychotherapist.
The other four titles in the running for the £1,000 prize are Ed Husain's account of his involvement in radical fundamentalism in The Islamist; Miranda Seymour's memoir of her father's tyrannical eccentricity, In My Father's House; Dannie Abse's memoir of his 50-year marriage written in the wake of his wife's death, The Presence; and John Lanchester's investigation of family secrets, Family Romance.
The annual award, which has been running since 1982, was established in memory of JR Ackerley, journalist and author himself of a famously candid autobiography, My Father and Myself.
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[Chairman Peter] Parker said of the shortlist: "One of the strengths of this list is that there is no common thread between the books, apart from the fact that they are all well-written, and marked by a kind of fearless, even ruthless honesty".
This is an important honor and a big boost to self-published authors.
