The Booker-winning novelist is relaunching a series of neglected novels by black British writers. She explains why they deserve a new readership In today’s culture, it’s as though black British literary history began relatively recently, and new books are published without reference to or knowledge of what has gone before. This is not the case with white writers. Publishers, critics and readers will often understand where books sit within their literary contexts and cultural ecosystem. We can trace the literary lineage of Douglas Stuart’s Booker-winning Shuggie Bain back to the works of James Kelman and Irvine Welsh. Ghosts by Dolly Alderton is in conversation with Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones series and all the novels that were published in its wake, just as Ali Smith’s postmodern novels are descendants of Virginia Woolf’s modernist oeuvre. And we know that today’s historical novels have antecedents in their earlier counterparts.Our appreciation of literature is deepened when we understand the foundations from which each new generation creates literature anew, but because so much of the body of black British literature hasn’t been taught in schools or universities, or immortalised on television and film, or even been widely or seriously reviewed in the media and academia, it’s as if each new book is published out of a void. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2021-01-30 11:00:07 UTC ]
Alongside Richard Osman and JK Rowling, figures show huge successes for relative unknowns Ellery Adams and Brenda ChapmanThe UK’s library users are widely seen as a traditional bunch when it comes to choosing their next read, but while Richard Osman might have topped the list of the year’s... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-12-08 16:34:37 UTC ]
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Literary imprint and film production company Cheerio is hosting a free two-day Francis Bacon exhibition featuring a live poetry showcase, alongside a ticketed in conversation event with Dolly Alderton and author James Birch (pictured). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-11-30 19:55:34 UTC ]
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Authors including Elizabeth Day, June Sarpong and Dolly Alderton are among those supporting a new T-shirt initiative to spotlight iconic female writers, launched by the Women's Prize Trust. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-11-14 18:47:39 UTC ]
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I am struggling to condense everything that troubles me about recent events in our industry; things I have read from writers and columnists but, most of all, the silence from white writers and industry professionals that has ensued in the face of deeply troubling language and high-level... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-10-06 00:14:54 UTC ]
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Merve Emre’s “The Annotated Mrs. Dalloway” highlights the many reasons Woolf’s book is a masterpiece. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-09-15 13:00:00 UTC ]
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American writer Janice Deal’s “Lost City” has won the Moth Short Story Prize 2021, judged by Ali Smith, while Stratford-upon-Avon butcher Kathy Stevens has scooped second prize. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-01 16:38:23 UTC ]
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“Ghosts” considers the difficulty of finding Mr. Right while taking care of an ailing parent. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-08-05 15:44:54 UTC ]
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Ali Smith has won the inaugural Pleasure of Reading Prize, in recognition of her body of work. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-07-01 20:56:05 UTC ]
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Ali Smith and Joshua Yaffa have won this year's £3,000 Orwell Prizes for Political Fiction and Political Writing respectively. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-06-25 03:14:57 UTC ]
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Paul Mendez, Kae Tempest and Douglas Stuart are among the authors who have been longlisted for this year's Polari Prizes, the UK's dedicated awards for LGBTQ+ literature. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-06-24 10:50:56 UTC ]
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Book Reviews Matthew Goode and Teresa Palmer in the TV adaptation of A Discovery of Witches (2018) / IMDB Deborah Harkness’s All Souls trilogy has taken a new life through the Sundance dramatic series, A Discovery of Witches. The novels... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-05-27 13:42:23 UTC ]
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New figures from the Publishers Association show fiction and audiobooks did particularly well, with value of consumer sales up 7% on 2019 despite bookshop closuresFiction sales in 2020 soared by more than £100m for UK publishers, as readers locked down at home made their escape into books, with... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-04-26 23:01:49 UTC ]
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This year's Booker Prize-winning novel, Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, is to be translated into Turkish, Serbian, Portuguese and Arabic, following grants from the Publishing Scotland Translation Fund. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-19 02:04:43 UTC ]
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The Booker-winning novelist is relaunching a series of neglected novels by black British writers. She explains why they deserve a new readership In today’s culture, it’s as though black British literary history began relatively recently, and new books are published without reference to or... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-01-30 11:00:07 UTC ]
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Douglas Stuart, the 2020 Booker Prize winner, is among confirmed speakers for Brighton & Hove’s LGBTQ+ literature festival, The Coast is Queer, returning after its inaugural year in 2019 in digital form from 5th-7th February 2021. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-10 21:17:07 UTC ]
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Quercus is launching a one-month internship programme in collaboration with the MA Black British Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London, co-founded by Professor Joan Anim-Addo and Dr Deirdre Osborne. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-10 05:30:33 UTC ]
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Last week, Douglas Stuart’s Shuggie Bain was announced this year’s Booker Prize winner. It’s no small feat for any writer, but what makes this win so spectacular is the fact that Shuggie Bain is a debut novel. (It’s only the fifth debut novel to win in the Booker’s 51-year-old history.) During... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-24 09:51:08 UTC ]
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The Shuggie Bain author grew up in a culture that discouraged boys from reading. His debut novel just won the Booker Prize. The post Douglas Stuart on Writing in Secret appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2020-11-20 21:30:09 UTC ]
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“Memorial Drive,” by Natasha Trethewey, and “Shuggie Bain,” by Douglas Stuart are among our top picks. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-11-19 13:30:00 UTC ]
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Douglas Stuart's Booker-shortlisted novel Shuggie Bain (Picador) has been named Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year 2020. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-16 08:27:33 UTC ]
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