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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Random House UK has launched stage one of its online narrative gaming project, Black Crown, as... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-05-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The digital publishing platform will let fans write, publish, and sell the stories they've written based on popular books, TV shows, and more. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 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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Amazon's taken a number of steps to bring different types of content to the Kindle Store, and it's now venturing into an area that has a long history with the internet: fan fiction. The company's today announced Kindle Worlds, a new publishing platform that promises to pay writers royalties for... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2013-05-22 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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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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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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The Guild of Food Writers Awards shortlists include a “wonderful diversity of subject... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-05-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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WH Smith is soon to open a new store in Cardiff University Union selling a small book range of 20... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Journalist killed in Syria is shortlisted for Orwell Book Prize, which celebrates political writing. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2013-04-18 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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Book sales at W H Smith dropped 6% like-for-like in the six months to 28th February, according to... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Scholastic has made two senior appointments in newly created roles. Samantha Smith has joined... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Australian-born novelist Monica McInerney has signed a global publishing deal with Penguin for... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-03-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The death of novelist Chinua Achebe has been confirmed. A statement from The Wylie Agency... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-03-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Little, Brown is celebrating the 15th anniversary of Alexander McCall Smith’s The No 1... 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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Amazon's Little A imprint will release novels, memoirs, and story collections, while Day One will focus on short stories and new writers. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-03-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Reference publisher Ilex Press has created what it describes as a "proving ground" for... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-03-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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