Our publishing industry seems to champion just one or two black and Asian authors at a time. Lack of diversity is a real problemMonths back I was trudging through the streets of Dalston when I spotted a copy of Simi Bedford's Yoruba Girl Dancing in a charity shop window. It evoked the same emotion that stumbling into an old school friend might – part nostalgia and part wonder at the old magic. I found myself inside the store reaching for it, just as I had done years ago as a teenager. The book is a hilarious, touching read about a Nigerian girl sent to boarding school in England. Back then, it resonated with me deeply. I too had been a young Nigerian girl sent to England at the age of eight to attend boarding school in Norfolk. Its recounting of otherness in an unfamiliar land made me laugh and recall my own experiences. There was something about that dancing silhouette on the cover that seemed hopeful, unburdened somehow, and, though I'd been enamoured of the talents of Roald Dahl and Harper Lee, it was refreshing to see an author who looked like me.As I left the shop, it made me wonder: whatever happened to Simi Bedford? I know she wrote another novel, Not With Silver, but whatever happened not just to her, but to the career trajectories of other black and Asian female British authors?I admire the tenacity of writers such as Andrea Levy, who deserved to garner more attention earlier in their careers. Andrea eventually went on to have great success, but there was little... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2014-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Our publishing industry seems to champion just one or two black and Asian authors at a time. Lack of diversity is a real problemMonths back I was trudging through the streets of Dalston when I spotted a copy of Simi Bedford's Yoruba Girl Dancing in a charity shop window. It evoked the same... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#poetry collections
Abimbola Salami and Diane Ewan have won the inaugural Jericho Prize, a competition for unpublished and self-published Black-British writers. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-27 15:04:19 UTC ]
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The Literary Consultancy is partnering with Ellah P Wakatama, editor-at-large at Canongate, to launch the TLC Scholarship. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-19 14:43:29 UTC ]
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The London Library has joined forces with indie publisher Jacaranda for its #Twentyin2020 project, celebrating black British writers. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-22 11:44:25 UTC ]
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Foyles bookshop has joined forces with indie publisher Jacaranda for its Twenty in 2020 initiative, celebrating black British writers. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-17 20:34:16 UTC ]
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Indie publisher says its #Twentyin2020 initiative will cover fiction, non-fiction and poetry and help ‘normalise’ diverse readersA group of unnamed individuals has donated £25,000 towards an independent publisher’s initiative to publish 20 black British writers in 2020, in the hope it will... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-01-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jacaranda Books, in partnership with Words of Colour Productions, has launched an initiative to publish 20 Black British writers in the year 2020 across adult fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-02-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Independent publisher Influx Press is launching a new fiction prize for Black British women, in partnership with lifestyle platform Black Ballad. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-07-27 19:32:32 UTC ]
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From one girl’s aspiration to Olympic gymnastics glory, to a boy’s stint living in the Idaho wilderness in hopes of fixing his unruly behavior, something that remains a guiding principle in Black storytelling is the breadth of our lives. These stories, a collection of some of EL’s most-loved... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-02-22 12:00:00 UTC ]
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I asked ChatGPT to improve my latest novel and lost no sleep over the results. But I do worry about diverse voices being crowded out This summer two worlds – literature and technology – collided. News stories began appearing about authors suing OpenAI and Meta for using their works to train... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-12-01 06:00:07 UTC ]
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British author A.S. Byatt, who was known for award-winning works including 'Possession' and 'The Children's Book,' has died. She was 87. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-11-17 17:18:21 UTC ]
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Now in its third year, the event stepped up its ambitions and aims not only to spotlight authors but to change audiencesAs a child, Selina Brown had a Saturday routine: her mother would go shopping and leave her at the library, where she would speed her way through novels by Jacqueline Wilson... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-10-20 12:55:16 UTC ]
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This morning, Penguin Press announced that they will be publishing Zadie Smith’s next novel, The Fraud, on September 5, 2023. Here’s how the publisher describes the book: From acclaimed and bestselling novelist Zadie Smith, The Fraud is a kaleidoscopic work of historical fiction set against the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-03-02 14:57:55 UTC ]
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This past summer, an auntie of mine dusted off an old cardboard box of books from a cluttered storage unit, and handed me a slim blue and gold paperback with soft, slightly frayed corners and a creased spine by Octavia E. Butler. I had never read science fiction that featured a Black girl being... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2022-12-28 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Today in extremely niche literary world factoids: in case you didn’t know (I did not) Zadie Smith has a younger brother named Ben Bailey Smith, an actor and standup who goes by Doc Brown, admires Taylor Swift’s writing ability, and features in Netflix’s new adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-07-20 16:07:31 UTC ]
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In this Washington Post Live conversation from May 4, author Danyel Smith explains why she wanted to give Black women their due in “Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop.” Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2022-05-10 10:00:00 UTC ]
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Ali Smith's first novel since her seasonal quartet takes place in our pandemic-inflected world. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2022-05-04 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Authors Ali Smith and Natasha Brown will judge the 10th Goldsmiths Prize, joined by the New Statesman’s Tom Gatti and prize founder Dr Tim Parnell. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-27 01:39:38 UTC ]
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Peepal Tree Press has commissioned a speculative fiction anthology authored by Black British writers and edited by author Leone Ross. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-12-15 06:54:29 UTC ]
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Yomi Sode, Raymond Antrobus and Victoria Adukwei Bulley are among 17 contemporary Black British poets recording their poems for a new collection by the Poetry Archive and Obsidian Foundation. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-11-25 19:40:50 UTC ]
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