I read only non-white authors for 12 months. What I learned surprised me | Sunili Govinnage

Reading science fiction, chick lit and fantasy novels by people of colour for a year brought home to me just how white my reading world wasIn 2014, I managed to read 25 novels. All of them were written by people of colour. That was the result of a small challenge I set myself: not to read books by white authors for a year. The things I learned in my year of selective reading made me pretty glad to have persevered. Rather than restricting myself, my decision to be conscious about what I read introduced me to books I ordinarily would not have bothered with. Instead of my usual crime/procedural/legal thrillers, I actually read some science fiction. And some fantasy. And I loved it. Saladin Ahmed’s Throne of the Crescent Moon and Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death are now two of my favourite books. I would never have heard of them had I not deliberately sought them out.One difference that my book list made is that it ever-so-delicately altered the way I looked at the world. It was slow at first, but opening myself up to a variety of female perspectives made me more aware of the female lives around me … Feminism, as bell hooks pointed out, is for everyone. And when we become more aware of the small injustices and tiny everyday tragedies around us, we become better people. Reading women’s voices helped me to hear them more loudly in my daily life. Our culture is getting better and better at encouraging women to speak, but it’s not doing enough to listen to what they say when they... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2015-02-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Just The News That's Fit to Read: Summify Launches an iPhone App

Sometimes keeping up with the Internet can seem like an endless assignment. The tweets and Facebook posts scroll infinitely, the email piles up, and news sites and blogs publish around the clock. That's why Summify seems so different. Continue reading at AllThingsD

[ AllThingsD | 2011-07-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Academic sales decline in first six months

Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 07/07/2011 - 14:31 Sales of print books in the academic, specialist and higher education publishing market have slumped in the first half of the year, with one publisher seeing a decline of 22% in print sales. But academic publishers pointed to... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Little "disappointed and surprised" by Rowling exit

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 04/07/2011 - 09:50 Christopher Little is "disappointed and surprised" about Neil Blair's move to set up The Neil Blair Partnership, and J K Rowling's defection to the new company. As reported on Thursday, Rowling has now "terminated her... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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US e-reader ownership doubles in six months

Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Tue, 28/06/2011 - 09:15 E-reader ownership in the US has doubled over the past six months, the first time ownership of e-readers has reached double digits among US adults. According to a report carried out by the Pew Internet Project, the share of... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tony Blair picks Trotsky biography among his Desert Island Reads

Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Fri, 24/06/2011 - 11:46 Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has demonstrated an affinity with political outsiders, fantasy worlds and religious prophets as he revealed his choice of favourite books for a new magazine. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Self-published author hits one million Kindle sales

Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Mon, 20/06/2011 - 14:31 John Locke has become the first self-published author to sell more than one million ebooks through Amazon. The author used Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing platform to publish and sell his titles. He joins Stieg Larsson,... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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SoA not fighting for authors, claims historian

Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Thu, 16/06/2011 - 09:22 Author Gregor Dallas has accused the Society of Authors of not doing enough to defend its members from large publishers which are cutting back on range and creating a "national scandal" with the declining quality of their... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Joseph, Ziegler, Henderson, win at Society of Author awards

Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Wed, 15/06/2011 - 08:21 Twenty-one writers shared £76,000 of prize money at the Authors' Awards last night presented by Joanna Trollope. Among them Anjali Joseph won the £10,000 Betty Trask prize for Saraswati Park (Fourth Estate). As previously... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Surprise! Apple Has Also Built Social Contact Integration With Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn and Myspace Into iOS 5

Apple's contact information page in the iOS 5 address book has a field not just for Twitter, but also offers space to add friends' handles on Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn and Myspace. Continue reading at AllThingsD

[ AllThingsD | 2011-06-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Agent Peter Cox offers 'impartial' review of author contracts

Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Thu, 09/06/2011 - 10:05 Literary agent Peter Cox has offered to review "any" contract given to an author by an agent for free in order to ensure that the author has "impartial advice". The move is a response to agents setting up their own publishing... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Avon acquires three from Authonomy author

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Tue, 07/06/2011 - 08:10 Avon has acquired three novels by Authonomy workshop author Laurence O'Bryan. Editorial director Claire Bord bought the three books directly from the author, who attended the crime and thriller workshop held by... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Call the Midwife author Worth dies

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 06/06/2011 - 11:35 Bestselling author of the Call the Midwife trilogy Jennifer Worth has died following a short illness, Weidenfeld & Nicolson has announced. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google Settlement revision due next month

Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Thu, 02/06/2011 - 13:02 Google, American publishers and the US Authors Guild have been given until next month to revise a book-scanning agreement for out of print titles and orphan works. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pluto author Shahzad "found dead"

Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Tue, 31/05/2011 - 14:18 Journalist and Pluto Books author Syed Saleem Shahzad has been found dead near Islamabad, after going missing on Sunday (29th May), according to reports just in from the Pakistan media. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pluto "deeply worried" over vanished author

Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Tue, 31/05/2011 - 14:18 Concerns are growing over the whereabouts of investigative journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad, whose book Inside Al-Qaeda: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11 has just been published in the UK by Pluto Press. Shahzad, who is Pakistan... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HCCB acquires Inkpop author

Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Tue, 31/05/2011 - 15:06 HarperCollins Children's Books has bought a debut by an author discovered on the Inkpop website for budding writers of teen fiction. Senior editor Lizzie Ryley bought UK and Commonwealth rights to the book from Jean McGinley at... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Authors readied to support strong Independent Booksellers Week

Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Wed, 25/05/2011 - 08:45 Edmund de Waal, Maggie O’Farrell and Tony Parsons are among the authors lined up to take part in Independent Booksellers Week. The week of events, in association with the Booksellers Association, will take place between... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Corvus acquires seven from self-published author

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Authors should be paid for events - BIC

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ten make Authors' Club travel longlist

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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