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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Garth Risk Hallberg's City on Fire described by publisher as 'best American novel I've ever read'Fresh from selling film rights to Scott Rudin and signing a $2m publishing deal in the US, the novelist Garth Risk Hallberg has struck a "substantial" six-figure deal with Jonathan Cape in the UK for... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-11-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pan Macmillan has acquired the debut novel of comedienne Helen Lederer, titled Losing it.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-11-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mobile devices are increasingly being used for social reading and recommendation sites, the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-11-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishers in 36 countries snap up book about modern witches in Britain by Sally Green, who only began writing three years agoAfter JK Rowling's wizards and Stephenie Meyer's vampires, publishers and producers have now been spellbound by a first novel about witches written by a former... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-11-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The chaos brimming at the heart of Robert Stone's finest works surfaces in his latest book set on a New England campus.Robert Stone has long been a big-picture novelist. "Dog Soldiers," which won a 1975 National Book Award, involves a "journalist of sorts" who tries to smuggle three kilos of... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-11-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In a comics-loving country like Spain, local talent is beginning to make its mark in graphic novels, a genre in which the ebook has much to offer both authors and readers. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-11-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Closures were up 42% over the previous year, according to the Guardian. The companies that folded included the 26-year-old healthcare publisher Panos London and Evans Brothers.Ninety-eight British publishers closed their doors in the year ending August 2013. The cause? E-books and online discounts. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-11-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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An interview with Gene Luen Yang, whose linked novels Boxers and Saints envisions the Boxer Rebellion from two sides and has been nominated for the National Book Award. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-11-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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An audiobook version of Morrissey's Autobiography will be read by actor David Morrissey.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-11-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The World Book Night project is to be run by The Reading Agency (TRA), with WBN chief executive... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-10-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Vintage Classics will publish a third book by Stoner author John Williams in January 2014.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-10-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Little, Brown has bought world rights to a novel inspired by ITV crime series "Broadchurch... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-10-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The intriguing 007 story isn't beholden to the Bond mystique, both its main strength and biggest weakness.There is no big set piece to open "Solo," the new James Bond novel by British author William Boyd. The secret agent best known as 007 doesn't launch the story with an extravagant car chase,... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-10-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Forty-five US states have adopted the Common Core, a set of standards that spell out what US public school students learn in each grade, from kindergarten to graduation. How would you match up? Test yourself on everything from Dickens to Dirda to see how familiar you are with the novels, poems,... Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-10-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It was just more than a year ago that Ev Williams and Biz Stone created the publishing platform Medium. The Internet officially met the site in August 2012, and since then, Medium’s popularity has grown enough for even the most ske ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-10-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In what is rumored to be a deal worth $500,000, Jennifer Brehl at HarperCollins’s William Morrow imprint bought North American rights to Tina Seskis’s novel, One Step Too Far. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-10-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Two more books drawing buzz at the fair include a debut novel by Joshua Ferris's wife, and a co-authored book about friendship and the Iraq war. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-10-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Muse pulls from Galassi's own life and follows a book editor who, Knopf explained, "is caught in the middle of the decades-long rivalry between two publishing lions over the work of a beautiful, iconic female poet." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-10-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In the wake of the government shutdown, Baltimore-based breathe bookstore café is offering a 10 percent discount to furloughed workers. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-10-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Thriller writer David Baldacci is to publish fantasy novel The Finisher with Pan Macmillan... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-10-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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