He starred in Peep Show, Green Wing and Wonka – and his first novel won an award. Now the star is making operas with 64 homeless people. Not bad going for someone who was written off by his teachersPaterson Joseph is, by his own admission, an unlikely opera librettist. He had turned 50 by the time he got round to going to one, and only went because he was in it, as the “crazy” voice of God in Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. “It’s not my world,” says the actor. But therein lies part of his mission: as a black Londoner written off by the school system, his life was transformed by the goldmine he discovered while truanting down at his local library.One of his discoveries, as “a melancholy teen”, was Pushkin’s verse novel Eugene Onegin. “I remember getting it out of the library,” he says, “just because it was a small book. And I started reading this poem out loud, at night in my bedroom. And I laughed – but I was also frightened and frustrated, weeping at the tragedy of it. When I closed the book, it was dawn.” Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2024-05-27 04:00:13 UTC ]
Text Me When You Get Home: the Evolution and Triumph of Modern Female Friendship by Kayleen SchaeferIt’s a non-fiction book about the change in perspective around female friendship over the last few years, featuring interviews with a huge range of people including Judy Blume. The book looks at... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2019-12-17 09:49:28 UTC ]
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Huge congratulations to De’Shawn Charles Winslow, who last night took home the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize for his acclaimed debut In West Mills. Winslow was presented with the prestigious prize—which has in previous years been awarded to Junot Diaz, Tiphanie Yanique, Viet Thanh Nguyen,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-12-11 17:00:27 UTC ]
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Today, we present an excerpt from a debut novel that earned praise from Victor LaValle, who called it a "gripping and moving book." The post ‘Africaville’: Featured Fiction from Jeffrey Colvin appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2019-12-10 19:30:59 UTC ]
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Tramp Press has bagged the “stunning” debut novel from Irish writer Niall Bourke. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-06 16:27:30 UTC ]
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Raymond AntrobusWho/ What inspired you to start writing? I never started writing poetry with the intention of writing books until publishers approached me. I was happy to write poems and travel and read the poems for audiences. I live poem by poem. The idea of a book of poems doesn’t really... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2019-12-05 12:09:15 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury will publish journalist Thomas McMullan’s debut novel The Last Good Man in November 2020. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-03 21:48:31 UTC ]
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Legend Press has bagged Sahar Mustafah’s "stunning" debut novel charting the background to a shooting at an Islamic school in Chicago. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-03 17:48:49 UTC ]
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Irish poet Elaine Feeney’s "dazzlingly inventive" debut novel As You Were will be published by Harvill Secker following an auction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-02 15:33:42 UTC ]
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What was the first book you fell in love with? The Center for Fiction’s 2019 First Novel Prize authors weigh in. | Lit Hub “Disagree with my argument, beliefs, and my politics, but hands off my syntax!” Lore Segal’s love letter to editors. | Lit Hub “Among Larry’s many strengths as a writer,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-12-02 11:30:22 UTC ]
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We asked this year’s Center for Fiction First Novel Prize finalists about their earliest love affairs with reading. Meet them all at the Finalist Reading and Fête on December 9 at The Center for Fiction. * Chia-Chia Lin, author of The Unpassing on The Elves and the Shoemaker, Fran Hunia and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-12-02 09:49:11 UTC ]
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Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi won the Man Booker International Prize this year for its beautifully rendered portrayal of a family’s tangled history in the village of al-Awafi in Oman. The novel was the first book translated from Arabic to win the prize, and more surprisingly, it was the... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2019-11-26 11:59:00 UTC ]
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From the title, you might think that On Swift Horses is about cowboys, horse wrangling, rural landscapes—and you wouldn’t be entirely wrong. Shannon Pufahl’s debut novel explores wide-open spaces and how people navigate them in a post-Depression, post-World War II, Baby Boomer era in Southern... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2019-11-21 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Hodder & Stoughton is publishing Veronica Roth's first novel for adults, Chosen Ones, after striking a two-book deal. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-20 08:51:10 UTC ]
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Ian Williams, winner of this year’s $100,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize for his debut novel Reproduction, began his acceptance speech Monday night with an emotional tribute. “Margaret Atwood over there is the first book I bought with my own money at a bookstore in Brampton,” he told the audience.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-11-19 20:30:03 UTC ]
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Congratulations to Beth O'Leary! Her debut novel The Flatshare was recently announced as 2019 Fiction Book of the Year by the British retailer WHSmith—an honor previously bestowed on books such as Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman and The Girl on the Train by Paula... Continue reading at Writer's Digest
[ Writer's Digest | 2019-11-19 11:00:22 UTC ]
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Welbeck Publishing Group has snapped up actor, comedian and memoirist Jessie Cave's debut novel. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-19 09:56:37 UTC ]
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Pushkin Press will publish a debut novel by "the next great literary voice in Spain", Elena Medel. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-18 09:03:50 UTC ]
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In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle reads the first novel in Isaac Asimov’s juvenile science fiction series Science fiction set in our own solar system arguably began with Lucian, the classical author whose short satirical piece True History paved the way for... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2019-11-15 15:00:55 UTC ]
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Forty years ago, VC Andrews’ novel about incest, rape and murder-by-doughnut was declared ‘deranged swill’, but new books under her name still sell. Why?Forty years ago this month, Flowers in the Attic, the debut novel of one VC Andrews was published. A review in the Washington Post didn’t mince... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-11-14 14:02:15 UTC ]
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Arrow will publish a "breathtaking" debut novel by Paula Greenlees, inspired by the three years she lived in Singapore. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-13 19:37:40 UTC ]
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