Art Connects Us: Sarah Odedina

As a recipient of the Arts Connects Us Grant I travelled to Ghana and Sierra Leone to meet with writers and publishing professionals working in the field of books for young readers to foster creative and collaborative exchanges between those contacts and publishing professionals and readers in the UK. This blog post is by necessity a focus on very specific meetings and conversations and is only a fraction of the encounters and connections I made. I planned my visit to Ghana to coincide with the PaGya! Festival which is organised by Writers Project Ghana and the Goethe Institute. Over the course of three days writers and publishers gathered to talk about everything from poetry to narrative non-fiction, memoir to books for younger readers.  There was a packed programme from morning until night with simultaneous events happening making the festival a positive and vibrant event. Speakers came from all over the world and their backgrounds, interests and perspectives ensured a well rounded and broad look at the world of writing with roots in West Africa. Prior to the festival I had arranged several days of meetings with people involved in the world of children’s literature to talk about their work as writers and publishers and also to get to grips with the market in Ghana.  It soon became very clear that not only is there a thriving publishing scene in Ghana it is one that is self-sufficient both in terms of talent and audience.  I was told often that what readers in Ghana need... Continue reading at 'British Council global'

[ British Council global | 2019-03-19 11:10:28 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "Art Connects Us: Sarah Odedina"


What does Obama really think about Biden? His memoir doesn’t say.

The former president offers familiar praise without delving deeper into their relationship. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-11-18 13:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Orion to run 'demystifying publishing' webinars

Orion is offering webinars "to demystify the publishing industry", starting this month.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-18 12:50:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this


A Trump Memoir Would Sell. Will Publishers Buy It?

Some publishing executives worry their authors and staff might rebel, but they say their bigger concern would be ensuring the book’s accuracy. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-11-18 10:19:13 UTC ]
More news stories like this


‘Britain’s loneliest shepherdess’ finds love in new book with Sphere

Sphere will publish My Farming Life, the new memoir from shepherdess Emma Gray. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-18 10:05:06 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Use the 'great power' of comms to reach more readers, industry PRs advise

The publishing industry should trust and listen to its communications teams to see greater change and audience growth, PR professionals said at The Bookseller's FutureBook conference on Tuesday (17th November). Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-18 06:55:46 UTC ]
More news stories like this


'Strong' first-day sales of Obama memoir online, says Waterstones

Waterstones has seen "strong" online orders for A Promised Land (Viking), with the title also at number one in Amazon's bestseller charts. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-18 06:17:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Barack Obama’s complicated media-criticism tour

As you may have noticed, Barack Obama has a book out today. It’s a memoir, titled A Promised Land, that runs to more than seven-hundred pages and is still only a first volume—covering the period from Obama’s childhood to the raid, in 2011, that killed Osama bin Laden. Originally, Obama planned... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review

[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2020-11-17 13:29:32 UTC ]
More news stories like this


“Hillbilly Elegy” Is the Last Thing America Needs in 2020

My first novel was released within six months of Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance’s memoir of Appalachian roots and a youth spent in a Rust Belt community with a dearth of jobs and resources. Vance’s book came out just before the 2016 election; mine was released just after. Donald Trump’s victory had... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-11-17 12:01:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this


An Epic Week for the Books Desk

In the coming days, the team will cover two major awards and reveal two year-end lists. There’s also a certain presidential memoir coming out. Two editors discuss an industry that hasn’t slowed down. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-11-17 10:00:11 UTC ]
More news stories like this


How the Problem of ‘Waste’ Affects the Rural Poor

Catherine Coleman Flowers’s memoir chronicles her advocacy for improved sanitation systems in rural America and her own education as an activist. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-11-17 10:00:08 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Obama Bio Selling Briskly at Indies

Independent booksellers reported solid first-day sales of former President Barak Obama's 'A Promised Land.' There was a downside, however, as many store owners reported some cartons of the memoir arrived damaged. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-11-17 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Transworld buys doctor's memoir of 'unwavering resilience'

Transworld has bought a memoir by Dr Waheed Arian, billed as "the powerful story of a boy who dreamed about helping others, a tale of courage, ambition and unwavering resilience against all odds". Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-17 03:40:20 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Review: Barack Obama's memoir is a masterful lament over the fragility of hope

"A Promised Land," out Tuesday in a worldwide release, eloquently and ruefully documents the first two and a half years of Obama's presidency. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-11-16 21:30:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Lit Hub Daily: November 16, 2020

“The temptation to hide the word because the reality of rape is so horrific only made it more critical that it stood front and center in my book.” Memoirist Michelle Bowdler on saying the unsayable. | Lit Hub Memoir “Like poetry, flash often relies on the tiny detail, the single image, or some... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-16 11:30:28 UTC ]
More news stories like this


When Your Memoir Has the Word ‘Rape’ in the Title

I wanted to write a beautiful book, a book about hope, love, optimism and resilience. I wanted to show readers the life I had built, slowly and with intention. The fact that everything had been only aspirational for too many years, and hard-won in the end, only deepened my need to share. As joy... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-16 09:48:18 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Oprah's Interview with Obama Airs on Publication Day

Oprah Winfrey's interview with Barack Obama premieres on Apple TV+ on Tuesday morning, just as copies of the hotly anticipated former president's memoir lands on bookstore shelves around the world. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-11-16 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


PRH's Obama UK media campaign kicks off this weekend

With Barack Obama's memoir out from Viking on Tuesday (17th November), PRH's UK media campaign will kick off this weekend. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-13 00:35:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Christie Tate Wrote a Best Seller About Group Therapy. Fellow Members Approved.

She tried her hand at fiction, to no avail. So she wrote a memoir about a circle of strangers instead. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-11-12 10:00:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Has Donald Trump already landed a $100m book and TV deal?

While books about the outgoing US president have been bestsellers for the last four years, Trump might be a step too far for some publishersFact-checkers are quaking in their boots amid reports that Donald Trump could be being “courted for a new tome on his time in the White House”. The... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-11-11 14:24:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Review: Celia Paul is finally her own muse in the dazzling memoir 'Self-Portrait'

The painter known to many as Lucian Freud's one-time muse writes of her own muse, her mother, and provers herself a masterful writer as well. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-11-10 18:28:13 UTC ]
More news stories like this