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 ]
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Patrick Ness has warned against writing “adjective novels” while giving the inaugural... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-08-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Illustrator Paul Kidby will be giving away copies of a print showing his design for one of London... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-08-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The next book from YA author Patrick Ness, The Rest of Us Just Live Here, will be published by... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-08-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Celebrities like Hillary Clinton have been sharing some of their favorite reading locations. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-08-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Celebrations include karaoke and a film contest that will enable the winner to go on his or her own Tsukuru Tazaki-like pilgrimage. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-08-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hundreds of people queued at bookshops which staged midnight events or early openings for the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-08-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Penguin imprint Hamish Hamilton is publishing Ali Smith's Man Booker longlisted How To Be... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-08-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Japanese bookstore chain is adding western comics and graphic novels at its New York City store with plans to also host events and add related pop culture merchandise. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-08-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Karen Brodie is joining literacy charity The Reading Agency as head of publisher partnerships.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-08-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins is launching a new digital-first crime and thriller list, which will begin... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-08-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Parents complained about Green's books 'Looking for Alaska' and 'Paper Towns,' but a school committee in Wisconsin decided not to remove 'Alaska' and 'Towns' was taken off a reading list in Florida, then restored. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-07-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sorry guys, I can't tweet this picture of a cat wearing a party hat right now, because I'm #amwriting. I'm in a coffee shop, you see, with my laptop and notebook proudly displayed so that anyone who walks past will know that I'm #amwriting a novel.... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2014-07-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'The Wake,' by Paul Kingsnorth was reportedly published by the website Unbound, which funds the publishing of books through donations. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-07-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Literary agent Marly Rusoff is re-releasing, through her publishing imprint Maiden Lane Press, a debut novel by Jonathan Odell. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-07-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Headline is to publish a novel by "The X-Files" actor David Duchovny. Publishing... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-07-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tinder Press has acquired a “smart, brilliantly written” novel by Australian author... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-07-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon has chosen D.M. Pulley of Shaker Heights, Ohio, as the grand prize winner in its seventh annual Breakthrough Novel Award contest. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-07-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon's new subscription ebook plan includes more than 600,000 titles, but no major publishers. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2014-07-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon already gives Prime customers access to a Kindle lending library, allowing the user to "borrow" books each month. But for some of the more voracious types, this may not provide enough material for a month's worth of entertainment. For those customers, the retail giant has unveiled Kindle... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2014-07-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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These may be grim times at Microsoft, but co-founder Bill Gates seems to be having a good time in his semi-retirement (he resigned as chairman in February, though he retains a technical-advisor role). Lately, he's been posting entertaining videos to his personal YouTube channel, thegatesnotes,... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2014-07-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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