‘Tis the season for awards. British book review site Omnivore has one of the most unusual prizes around–the Hatchet Job of the Year award.
The honor will be awarded to the “angriest, funniest, most trenchant book review published in a newspaper or magazine in 2011.” British journalists Rachel Johnson, Suzi Feay, Sam Leith and D.J. Taylor will judge the competition.
Anna Baddeley, editor of The Omnivore, stated: “‘Hatchet Job of the Year is a crusade against blandness, deference and lazy thinking. It rewards critics who have the courage to overturn received opinion, and who do so with style. Most of all, it is a public celebration of that most underpaid and undervalued form of journalism: the book review.’”
The shortlist of nominations will be released January 13, 2012 and the winner will be announced on February 7, 2012 at the Coach & Horses in London. The prize is nothing to scoff at. The winner gets a year’s supply of potted shrimp (an omnivore), from The Fish Society.