Blog makes headlines

2006-03-27 15:07

London - An anonymous Iraqi woman was nominated on Monday as a contender for a major literary award for her internet blog-based account of the Iraq war and its deadly impact on ordinary Iraqi people.

Baghdad Burning by the university graduate, who uses the pen name Riverbend, is longlisted for the £30 000 Samuel Johnson prize - the world's richest for a piece of non-fiction.

She is up against 18 other books out of 168 entries.

Among fellow nominees are established names including Alan Bennett and his offering Untold Stories.

Using the internet as her outlet, the Iraqi author, who is in her late twenties, chronicles her anger and fear during "three years of occupation and bloodshed" in Baghdad.

She also calls for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

Riverbend began the blog on August 17 2003. She wrote: "I'm female, Iraqi and 24. I survived the war. That's all you need to know. It's all that matters these days anyway."

Blog has been bought

Through her postings at www.riverbendblog.blogspot.com, readers learn how she worked as a computer programmer before the invasion but then lost her job because it became too dangerous for Iraqi women to travel to and from their workplace alone in an increasingly lawless society.

Small literary publisher Marion Boyars bought out Baghdad Burning last year, according to The Guardian newspaper, classifying it under the genre of biography and memoir.

The publishing house said it knows Riverbend's identity but respects her wish to remain anonymous.

Professor Robert Winston, who chairs the Samuel Johnson Prize judging panel, applauded the quality of this year's list of entrants.

"It is hardly surprising that drawing up a longlist was a very tough undertaking. But we have read and chosen really excellent books - all outstandingly well-written - and the longlist contains an exceptionally wide variety of genres from modern to ancient history, politics, philosophy, science and art, biography and autobiography," he said.

The winner of the literary award will be announced at a dinner at the Savoy Hotel in London on June 14.

It is unlikely Riverbend will attend.

- AFP