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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Penguin and W H Smith have partnered for a new summer reading campaign, which will raise money... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-05-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Aurum Press has bought a narrative history of how the British beer industry came to flourish... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-05-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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J.K. Rowling and other authors are selling first-edition copies of their books with annotations, written thoughts on the book, and/or illustrations to benefit the writers' organization English PEN. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-05-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Little, Brown's Blackfriars digital-only imprint will publish a novel created by authors... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-05-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Salman Rushdie and Jenni Fagan are among the authors shortlisted for the £10,000 James Tait... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-05-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In a move to bump up physical book sales, Stephen King will not release an ebook version of his new novel, "Joyland," the Wall Street Journal reports.In a move to bump up physical book sales, Stephen King will not release an ebook version of his new novel, "Joyland," the Wall Street Journal reports. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-05-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Century has acquired a crime novel set in 1990s Washington DC by US author Neely Tucker. Jack... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-05-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The growth in children’s digital reading is an “opportunity for publishers rather... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-05-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Dotdotdot imagines its users as one big book discussion group, with everyone wielding the same highlighter. Instapaper and Readability have both found success offering a simple, core interaction: save an article online to read somewhere else later. With both you can also follow what friends... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2013-05-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Cortina Butler, currently m.d. at BookBrunch and formerly global editor-in-chief of Reader’... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-05-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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More than half of the pupils taking part in the National Literacy Trust's Premier League... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-05-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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If you're still balking at the cost of download-to-own ebooks, and would rather stick to the tried-and-true library lending system, then this Hachette news is for you. Come next Wednesday, the entirety of Hachette's ebook catalog -- over 5,000 titles -- will be made available to nonprofit... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2013-05-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Why isn’t this book more famous?” asked the writer C.P. Snow about John Williams’s Stoner in 1973, eight years after it was first published by Viking Press. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-04-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Looking to provide info to retailers, librarians, and consumers interested in its book-format comics, DC Comics is publishing the DC Entertainment Essential Graphic Novels and Chronology 2013, a 121-page reading guide and index to the publisher’s extensive backlist of collected and original... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-04-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The New York Times is one of the initial major publishers to unveil a Google Glass app, which will allow the currently scant number of users of the wearable device to access stories on the go. The app's audio component reads headlines and story summaries aloud and provides breaking news alerts. ... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2013-04-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Based on the pre-college reading lists, freshmen syllabi, and core programs of more than 100 US colleges and universities, here are 60 books the experts believe that you should have read by sophomore year of college. How does your own literary experience stack up? Take our quiz and find... Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-04-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Egyptian journalist and bestselling author Ibrahim Issa believes the Arab Spring has added religious oppression to the existing political hardships of the region. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-04-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It has become a truism that “men don’t read women.” The assertion is taken as self-evident by feminist publications like Salon (“while women read books written by men, men do not tend to reciprocate”) and shown anecdotally by blogs. It is also perpetuated by male bastions like Esquire, which... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2013-04-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperFiction has signed a novel from author Miranda Beverly-Whittemore following an auction.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Author Iain Pears and publisher Faber displayed the work in progress of Pears’ latest novel... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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