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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Writer Thom Donovan says he was sent a cease-and-desist letter by Yoko Ono's lawyers after he published a graphic novel about the life of John Lennon that included some rarely seen photos. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-04-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Debut novelist Taiye Selasi, whose tale of a fractured family Ghana Must Go was published by... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A previously unpublished writer has won the inaugural Historical Novel Society International... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Parents struggle to create time to read at home and view reading largely as a skill rather than... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ebury has acquired the first novel based on ITV drama series "Doc Martin". Fiction... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new venture to offer digital short stories and long-form journalism to readers through a... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#long-form journalism
HarperCollins imprint Blue Door has signed an adult novel by children’s author Alex Shearer... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A list of teachers’ favourite books compiled by the Times Educational Supplement (TES) has... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Libraries across the country are taking part in a high-tech treasure based on Simon Mayo’s... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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We've come a long way since an IBM 704 first croaked its way through Daisy Bell. Now we've got Siri copping an attitude when we ask a stupid question and Google Now feeding information in an incredibly realistic sounding voice. AT&T has its own initiative, dubbed Natural Voices. At this... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2013-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It is one of the eccentricities of American publishing that James Salter has not been widely embraced as a great writer. His books are as good as those of post-war novelists like John Updike, Philip Roth, Richard Ford, and critics have often said so, and yet he is nowhere near as beloved or... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2013-03-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Veteran comics writer Paul Kupperberg—who created the wildly popular issue of the Life with Archie magazine in which Kevin Keller, Archie Comics’ groundbreaking gay character, marries his partner—is releasing a new prose novel, Kevin, through Penguin’s Grosset & Dunlap children’s imprint on... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-03-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hodder & Stoughton imprint Mulholland Books has acquired the first novel for adults by Marcus... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-03-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A start-up is hoping to create a new digital publishing platform for independent authors that... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-03-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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US independent publisher Melville House is to open a London office with the aim of forming a... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The next instalment in Sue Townsend's bestselling Adrian Mole series will be arriving a year... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Last night something strange caught my attention, nearly enough to post a late-day story. Then this morning I got a little email nudge from Amazon PR, and thought: "Yeah. Why not?" The timing and broader ecosystem implications are interesting for service "Send to Kindle". Just as Google whacks... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2013-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Citing Mexico's tradition of pictorial storytelling and penchant for the surreal, publisher Editorial Resistencia makes the case that the graphic novel is the ideal format for Mexican readers. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-03-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon's got a new Kindle promotion vehicle, thanks to the National PTA, which wants to boost kids' reading with their families. Amazon's Kindle is the exclusive sponsor of the new Family Reading Experience program that the National PTA wants to roll out across the U.S. to boost kids' reading... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2013-02-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sphere has acquired a book based on the Twitter feed Very British Problems following a “... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-02-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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