James Tait Black Memorial Prize Shortlist. The University of Edinburgh Department of English Literature announced its shortlist for the UK’s oldest literary award. The fiction shortlist includes: Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Seven Lies by James Lasdun, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, The View from Castle Rock by Alice Munro, Electricity by Ray Robinson, and The Night Watch by Sarah Walters. The winners will be announced on August 25.
“Wow, it’s a leverite!”–Monday’s Double-Tongued Dictionary entry suitable for geologists, prospectors, and novelists whose characters include geologists and/or prospectors. Best quote using leverite (also, leaverite) comes from Joe Doggett in the Feb. 13, 1985 edition of the Houston Chronicle: “Leaverite, as in ‘leave-her-right.’ Leave her right there. It’s just another damn rock, and if you tourists keep toting them home, the Yukon will be flat as Dallas.”