Well-known Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, who has been much in the news lately for his freedom-of-speech struggles in his homeland, has won this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature. Given the cries of who? that often accompany a Nobel announcement, Pamuk’s win is good news for booksellers, who can now start stacking those displays of Snow and My Name Is Red without having to do a few hours of research and sourcing first. The Guardian has the story, as well as links to several recent Pamuk-related items.

In other award news, the U.S. National Book Awards shortlists were announced yesterday. There’s kind of an edgy feel to the fiction list, which includes 9/11-themed books like Jess Walter’s The Zero and (Quillblog fave) Ken Kalfus’s A Disorder Peculiar to the Country as well as Mark Z. Danielewski’s experimental Only Revolutions.

Related links:
Click here for the Guardian‘s Orhan Pamuk coverage
Click here for the full National Book Awards shortlists