British Book awards balance art and selling power to decide best writer in 30 years

Novelists rub shoulders with presidents, chefs, comedians and thriller megastars on longlist to define the title with the biggest impact on the book worldIt could be almost the setup for a joke, but a former president, a Booker winner and an erotic fiction superstar have walked on to the British Book awards’ longlist, and one of them could be crowned the best writer of the past three decades.Barack Obama, Hilary Mantel and EL James are three of the bestselling writers on an eclectic list drawn up to celebrate the awards’ 30th anniversary.A Year in Provence, Peter Mayle (Penguin) | 1990Delia Smith’s Christmas (BBC Books) | 1991Wild Swans, Jung Chang (William Collins) | 1992The Art Book (Phaidon) | 1995Longitude, Dava Sobel (Fourth Estate) | 1997Northern Lights, Philip Pullman (Scholastic) | 1997Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling (Bloomsbury) | 1998Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding (Picador) | 1998Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernières (Vintage) | 1998The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson and Nick Sharratt (Doubleday) | 2000White Teeth, Zadie Smith (Penguin) | 2001Sahara, Michael Palin (Weidenfeld Nicholson) | 2003Brick Lane, Monica Ali (Transworld) | 2004The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Mark Haddon (David Fickling) | 2004The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (Picador) | 2004The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (Transworld) | 2005The Gruffalo’s Child, Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (Macmillan) | 2005The Sound of Laughter, Peter Kay... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2020-02-14 06:01:23 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "British Book awards balance art and selling power to decide best writer in 30 years"

Obama’s Memoir Is a Chance to Finally See Our Sanest President

Critical responses to Barack Obama’s memoir suggest less what’s in the book than what we’ve always wanted from him. Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2020-11-20 20:45:30 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Douglas Stuart Wins the 2020 Booker Prize for ‘Shuggie Bain’

One of four debut novelists among the six writers shortlisted this year, Stuart wins for 'Shuggie Bain,' also a National Book Award finalist. The post Douglas Stuart Wins the 2020 Booker Prize for ‘Shuggie Bain’ appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-11-19 20:23:21 UTC ]
More news stories like this

50 notable works of fiction in 2020

The novels that captivated us include James McBride’s “Deacon King Kong” and Hilary Mantel’s “The Mirror and the Light.” Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-11-19 13:30:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Obama Memoir Sells 887,000 Copies on Day One

Barack Obama's first presidential memoir, 'A Promised Land,' sold more than 887,000 units in all formats and editions in the U.S. and Canada on its first day on sale, its publisher said. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-11-19 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Hilary Mantel’s next book will be a short story collection about her childhood.

This morning, Publishers Marketplace reported that two-time Booker Prize winner and historical fiction supremo Hilary Mantel has a new short story collection on the horizon. Learning to Talk, which will be released by Holt at some point next year, is billed as “a collection of loosely... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-18 18:07:12 UTC ]
More news stories like this

7 of the Year’s Best Debut Novelists on Their First Literary Loves

Every year, we ask The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize Finalists to reminisce about the first book they fell in love with. This year, we asked Finalists to reflect not just on the first story that stole their heart, but the story that seeded curiosity and empathy for the plight of others... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-17 09:48:30 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Review: Barack Obama's memoir is a masterful lament over the fragility of hope

"A Promised Land," out Tuesday in a worldwide release, eloquently and ruefully documents the first two and a half years of Obama's presidency. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-11-16 21:30:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

PRH's Obama UK media campaign kicks off this weekend

With Barack Obama's memoir out from Viking on Tuesday (17th November), PRH's UK media campaign will kick off this weekend. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-13 00:35:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Barack Obama and Duchess of Cornwall join Booker Prize ceremony

Barack Obama, the Duchess of Cornwall and Kazuo Ishiguro will be among the star speakers at this year's Booker Prize ceremony. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-12 16:38:03 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Colm Tóibín: How Rules of Craft Inhibit Creativity

Colm Tóibín gives the third installment to the Words Ireland Lecture Series. This modern master discusses the craft of James Joyce—and the idea of craft itself. Is craft a concept more suited to poetry? Could strict ideas around craft actually be a hindrance to novelists and short story writers?... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-04 09:48:28 UTC ]
More news stories like this

10 books to read in November

This month’s book sales will undoubtedly get a boost from Barack Obama’s memoir, among other promising titles. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-11-01 13:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Can a Video Game Express Modernist Values?

AS AN EXPRESSIVE MEDIUM, video games have a strange way of reducing central concepts of modernist art and theory to basic operational elements. The technical specifications of “point of view” that have preoccupied novelists since the turn of the 20th century are crudely literalized within game... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-10-31 17:00:02 UTC ]
More news stories like this

16 New Books to Watch For in November

Barack Obama’s memoir is landing. So is a biography of Adrienne Rich and buzzy fiction from Jo Nesbo, Nicole Krauss and Susie Yang. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-10-29 09:00:34 UTC ]
More news stories like this

What Barack Obama's memoir reveals about his long battle for healthcare reform

In an excerpt from his upcoming memoir published by the New Yorker, former President Barack Obama recalls the long battle for healthcare reform. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-10-26 19:52:09 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Crime novelists dish on writing about cops in a moment of reckoning

Writers Rachel Howzell Hall, Attica Locke and Ivy Pochoda talked with Times reporter James Queally for a 2020 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books event. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-10-24 16:06:42 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Monkey Island is getting a $160 anthology release this month

It’s no three-headed monkey, but if you’re a fan of classic adventure games, you’ll definitely want to turn around and take a look at this. In honor of Monkey Island’s 30th anniversary, Limited Run Games is releasing a massive collector’s edition tha... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2020-10-19 20:28:16 UTC ]
More news stories like this

What We're Reading - October 2020

Love in Colour by Bolu BabalolaEvery story in this collection of love stories by Bolu Babalola has been adapted from ancient folklore from all around the world. Babalola chooses to centre women in these stories, giving the women unique and passionate perspectives on love. While the original... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2020-10-01 09:59:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Booker Prize announcement delayed to avoid Obama clash

The announcement of this year's Booker Prize winner is being postponed for two days until 19th November to avoid clashing with the publication date of Barack Obama's memoirs. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-29 16:18:43 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Whistleblowers and the cacophonous sounds of America

A year ago today, the Washington Post reported details about a whistleblower complaint filed from someone in the US intelligence community, vague word of which had been swirling below the news cycle for days: Trump had made a “troubling” promise to a foreign leader. The Post’s story accelerated... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review

[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2020-09-18 12:26:23 UTC ]
More news stories like this