Interviews Weina Dai Randel burst onto the literary scene a number of years ago with her duology about Empress Wu Zetian, China’s first woman leader. After winning the prestigious Rita Award in 2017 and seeing her novels translated into seven languages, she is back now with a new historical novel set in 1940s Shanghai. Keeping with her love of strong women characters, her new book, The Last Rose of Shanghai, centers on a nightclub owner named Aiyi Shao who falls for a Jewish refugee who had recently escaped Nazi Germany. Through their love of jazz, they develop a forbidden bond set during one of Shanghai’s most volatile and exciting eras. Randel is the first Chinese American author to write about Shanghai Jewish refugees, although there have been dozens of memoirs, narratives, and novels about this phenomenon from Jewish authors. We recently spoke over Zoom about what made Shanghai so special and why it matters now, along with the reasons Jews escaped to Shanghai during World War II and how Chinese and Jewish traditions are so similar. Susan Blumberg-Kason: It seems that the popularity of 1930s and ’40s Shanghai rose both in China and the US about twenty-five years ago. Can you talk about the appeal of this time and why it’s so special, both to people in the US and China? Weina Dai Randel: I think many aspects of Old Shanghai appeal to us today. From the late 1920s to the early 1940s, the period of Old Shanghai was a symbol of... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2022-01-20 14:33:49 UTC ]
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The 2016 Shanghai Children's Book Fair is issuing calls for applications to its Visiting International Publishers program, children's illustrated books awards and more. The post Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair Announces 2016 Details appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2016-05-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When 15-year-old Alex Cooper told her Mormon parents she liked girls, she expected a bad reaction- but not eight months of captivity and abuse at the hands of a couple practicing ‘gay conversion therapy.' Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-03-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In her new book, ‘Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion,’ Jacoby uses history to make a case for why religious conversion is rarely based on spiritual beliefs alone. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-02-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In Confessions of a Book Reviewer, George Orwell wrote that even the harried and poverty-stricken literature critic was nonetheless “better off than the film critic, who cannot even do his work at home, but has to attend trade shows at eleven in the morning and, with one or two notable... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2016-02-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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“The way people buy books today is completely different from how they bought them five or 10 years ago,” Martin Lindstrom says. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As part of his Sunday morning presentation, consumer expert Martin Lindstrom, author of the soon-to-be-published Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends, selected five booksellers for an onstage business review. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Three years ago Amy Cuddy, a social psychologist and associate professor at the Harvard Business School, garnered a lot of attention for a TED Talk on body language and power posing. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The focus was on deal-making on the second day of the Shanghai International Children's Book Fair. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-11-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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At the just-concluded Shanghai International Children's Book Fair, held from November 13 to 15, first-time exhibitors and seasoned participants were afforded yet another close-up look at the booming Chinese children's market. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-11-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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UK publishers exhibiting at the third Shanghai International Children's Book Fair last week reported very busy schedules, with Chinese publishers looking overwhelmingly for series, in either fiction or non-fiction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-11-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The impact China's new two-child policy may have on the children's book market was a hot topic at the fair that runs through November 15. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-11-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ahead of the Shanghai International Children's Book Fair, which runs November 13–15, the winners of the first Chen Bochui International Children's Literature Award were announced today at the Baoshan International Folk Arts Exposition. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-11-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Nearest Thing to Life is the latest collection from James Wood, the English literary critic and New Yorker writer. The book consists of several of Wood’s lectures; it is less focused on the specific novelists and essayists whom Wood is famous for evaluating and instead serves as an... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2015-08-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It's been a year since the death of Michael Brown. We'd like to hear from you about the books you feel are moving the conversation around race and racism forward. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-08-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Brooklyn comics collective Hang Dai Studios is releasing books by three founding members, including the late Seth Kushner, via a new distribution deal with Alternative Comics. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-07-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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With the third China Shanghai International Children's Book Fair four months away, the fair organizers have been busy expanding the program to reflect a growing Chinese market for international titles. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-07-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Waterstones has more than tripled sales of its Fiction Book of the Month in volume terms in the past two years, the company’s head of events and PR Sandra Taylor revealed. She said its Book of the Month choices were “consistently making bestsellers because we are hand-selling better”. Giving... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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After working for exactly 20 years at John Wiley & Sons (joining and leaving the company on June 1), Susan Spilka faced an uncertain future in her professional life. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Veteran literary agent Susan Golomb, whose clients include Jonathan Franzen and William T. Vollmann, will be starting at Writers House on March 1. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-02-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Susan Lamb, m.d. of Orion Fiction, is to leave the company at the end of this week. Jon Wood, m.d. of Gollancz and deputy group publisher, will assume Lamb’s publishing responsibilities, and will report to Orion Group publisher Malcolm Edwards. In a letter sent to authors and agents today... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-02-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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