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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There’s plenty of talent among minority ethnic writers in the UK, but their books rarely make it to the shelves – and that’s shamefulUntil this week, I thought that at least we could be consoled by fiction. That we still had the borderless joys of stories to fend off the dark forces of... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-11-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The University of East London is launching a new literary fiction prize for young adults, the CityLife Prize for Fiction for Young Writers. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-11-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon's 2016 Black Friday promotion is set to double the number of deals on offer compared to last year, stretching the promotion out for almost two weeks. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-11-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In addition to launching the Christian Writers Institute (CWI), a website offering classes for writers in a range of formats, literary agent Steve Laube is now publishing books under a new CWI imprint. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-11-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Desrie Thomson-George looks at how the Black Ink Collective provided a crucial role in launching a wave of young black writers. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-11-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Granta editorial director Max Porter is among three debut authors shortlisted for The Sunday Times/ Peters Fraser and Dunlop Young Writer of the Year award. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-11-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Bookseller magazine has published analysis finding a ‘shockingly low’ number of BAME authors in the UK top 500 titles of the yearA writer has more chance of making it into the bestseller charts if their name is David than if they are from an ethnic minority, according to new analysis from... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-11-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Author and illustrator Cressida Cowell is looking to ancient Britain for inspiration for her new three-book children’s series, with the first, as-yet-untitled book due for release in the UK and the US in the autumn of 2017. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-11-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Author Juno Dawson and illustrator Alex T Smith have teamed up to create a YA novel, which will be published by Barrington Stoke in October next year. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-11-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The U.K. Blake Friedmann agency has announced that Carole Blake, co-founder of the agency with her former husband Julian Friedmann, has died. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-10-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Digital-only publisher Bahati Books will release an anthology showcasing the “best in contemporary African writing” to mark Black History Month at the end of the month. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-10-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Self-published writers and digital only publishers will continue to grow their share of the digital content market while traditional publishers over-price ebooks, according to early results of the FutureBook Census, launched ahead of this year’s FutureBook Conference, taking place on 2nd December. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-10-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Responding to what it says is the "new economy of publishing," the Authors Guild has introduced a new membership level that is "open to all devoted writers actively pursuing publication." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-10-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Impress Books has awarded Magdalena McGuire the Impress Prize for New Writers 2016 for her novel, The Shape of Your Song. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-10-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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From literary fiction to middle-grade series, Singapore’s new literary voices are getting louder, and their works finding new homes far away from the tropical city-state. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-10-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Five young writers aged 14-19 are shortlisted for this year’s BBC Young Writers’ Award. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-10-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Proving that everything good and pure in this world will one day be snatched from us, the news broke this week that Mary Berry, the improbably named, immaculately coiffed cookbook author who has served as a judge on “The Great British Baking Show” since its inception in 2010, will be leaving the... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2016-09-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As "The Great British Bake Off" marks its last series on the BBC, ending an era, The Bookseller's charts and data editor Kiera O'Brien takes a look at how much dough books related to the programme have made via Nielsen BookScan. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-09-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Robert Gottlieb in his Midtown Manhattan townhouse. He has mainly spent his career as an editor but has just published a memoir about his life in the world of books. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2016-09-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Winner of the Royal Society Book Prize, Andrea Wulf, is one of four British authors to have made the six-strong longlist for the 2016 Cundill Prize for Historical Literature. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-09-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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