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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W H Smith will invest £48m in stores this year as the business marks its 225th anniversary, its c.e.o. Steve Clarke has said. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-01-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Virago has acquired one of the first titles publishing under Oprah Winfrey’s new book imprint at Flatiron Books in the US: The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis by New Yorker Maria Smilios. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-01-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Broadcaster Jonathan Fryer and columnist and human rights campaigner Joan Smith have been re-elected to the board of the Authors’ Licensing and Collections Society (ALCS). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-01-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Jhalak prize lines up 12 titles – taking in fiction, history, politics and YA fantasy – showcasing ‘the strength, range and promise’ of UK writers of colour A debut novel about inherited identity, a dystopian fantasy from a former children’s laureate, a study of Indian healthcare and radical... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-01-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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African-American self-publishers are using Kickstarter to meet the demand for comics with diverse stories and characters. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-12-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Scottish Book Trust has opened applications for next year’s What’s Your Story?, a writing programme for teenagers aged 14-17. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-12-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Freedom of expression magazine Index on Censorship has negotiated rights to translate a short story from Haroldo Conti, an Argentine writer who was "disappeared" by the state in the 1970s during the Argentine military dictatorship. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-12-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Faber & Faber has acquired The City That Fell of a Cliff by historian Matthew Green following a "heated" nine-way auction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-12-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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W H Smith is “very ambitious” about its new dedicated Bookshop store and is keen to roll the format out to other travel locations, The Bookseller can reveal. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-12-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sarah Smith has joined Amazon as editorial director for print and Kindle books, where she will oversee the books editorial team. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-12-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A hit two holiday seasons ago has spawned a cozy cottage industry in a vaunted setting: The British Library is ready to stuff your stockings with crime. The post Holiday Whodunnits for Book Lovers: The British Library’s Crime Classics appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2016-12-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Weidenfeld & Nicolson has paid tribute to journalist and critic A A Gill as "one of the finest writers of our time", following his death. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-12-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Salman Rushdie has put his name to an open letter, alongside J M Coetzee, Margaret Atwood and Neil Gaiman, calling on Chinese president Xi Jinping to reverse his state crackdown on dissidents. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-12-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Max Porter has won the Sunday Times/Peters Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year Award 2016 for his "extraordinary" debut Grief is the Thing with Feathers (Faber). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-12-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A children’s book that combines maths and design activities has won this year’s Educational Writers Award. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-12-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Black Friday damages high street sales for weeks before the event, a report from KPMG has revealed. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-12-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Debut thriller The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena (Transworld) has been named as W H Smith's Book of the Year for 2016. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-12-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Crook's Corner restaurant in Chapel Hill has sponsored a literary award since 2013, and recently increased the prize to $5,000 for the best debut novel about the South. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-12-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sunny Singh, author and chair of judges for the Jhalak Prize, has called the efforts of British publishers "pathetic" due to the "shockingly low" submissions to the prize created to celebrate British BAME writers. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-11-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Eason c.e.o. Conor Whelan talks to Lisa Campbell about how the Irish retailer rediscovered its mojo—and profitability. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-11-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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