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 ]
Bloomsbury has acquired Irish children's laureate Sarah Crossan's first novel for adults in a six-figure deal at auction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-16 04:39:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Head of Zeus imprint Zephyr has pre-empted the debut novel from Aardman Animations creative director Finbar Hawkins in a two-book deal. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-11 03:38:34 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Debut author Chikọdili Emelumadu has won the £3,000 Curtis Brown First Novel Prize. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-10 07:07:47 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The debut novel ‘A Kindness,’ which literary agent Helen Heller received a little over a week ago after responding to an unsolicited pitch letter, is gaining pre-Frankfurt Book Fair buzz after being preempted in the U.S. by Pamela Dorman for high six figures. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-10-10 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Transworld has scooped the debut novel from performer, writer and Faber Academy alumna Helen Paris in a two-book deal. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-09 13:58:41 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Indie press Louise Walters Books has signed a "very British" novel by debut author S J Norbury in a one-book deal. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-09 13:20:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this
AN ADOLESCENT NAMED Adam Gordon is the protagonist of Ben Lerner’s new novel, The Topeka School. He shares this name with the narrator of Leaving the Atocha Station, Lerner’s debut novel from 2011. Leaving the Atocha Station was about the quarter-life crisis of a talented misanthrope;... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-10-09 12:30:44 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Pan Mac imprint Mantle has landed the Shipping Forecast-inspired debut novel from Sue Teddern in a two-book deal. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-09 03:27:54 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The Older Brother in Mahir Guven’s debut novel drives for a ride-sharing service in Paris while his Syrian-born father is an old-school taxi driver. Their Uber politics conflict is further sullied by their religious divergence. Into this, Guven adds a Younger Brother, a talented nurse who could... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2019-10-08 11:00:58 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Translating one medium into another is tricky. Music is music and art is art and dance is dance; to try to convey the power of another art in fiction is its own sleight-of-hand. My own first novel takes on that challenge. In A Song For A New Day, musician Luce Cannon was on the cusp […] The post... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2019-10-07 11:00:15 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Doubleday has made a “substantial” six-figure pre-empt on a debut novel by academic and comedian Marianne Cronin about two women who meet at an art class. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-04 09:03:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this
When I spoke with Linnea Hartsuyker back in 2017, her epic saga was just beginning. The first novel opens with her hero, Ragnvald, seeing a vision of a golden wolf who will unite the feuding kingdoms of Norway under one rule. The vision sets the course of Ragnvald’s life, bringing him into the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-10-04 08:47:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Headline Review has pre-empted world rights to the debut novel from Ruth Druart, with 11 international rights deals following for the "remarkable read". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-04 05:26:17 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Lit Lists T. Patrick Ortez Fantasy is often overlooked when it comes to literature in translation, but from Gilgamesh to the Edda to The Epic of Darkness, fantasy lies at the heart of human storytelling. The genre has changed a lot since then, but fantasy... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2019-10-01 14:00:27 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Penguin Random House says claims by Boris Pasternak’s great niece that parts of Lara Prescott’s debut novel plagiarise her work are “unfounded” and will be “robustly defended”. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-01 13:11:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Man Booker-winning author Anne Enright’s next novel, Actress, about sexual power and celebrity, will be published by Jonathan Cape in February 2020. Jonathan Cape publisher Robin Robertson acquired UK and Commonwealth rights excluding Canada from Peter Straus of Rogers, Coleridge & White... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-27 08:38:57 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Nick Hornby’s first novel in five years, Just Like You, will be published by Viking. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-27 01:29:37 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The Center for Fiction named its 2019 First Novel Prize shortlist this morning. The post Center for Fiction Names 2019 First Novel Prize Shortlist appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2019-09-26 17:53:27 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Irish writer Megan Nolan's debut novel has just sold to Jonathan Cape in a pre-empt. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-26 16:21:35 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Lit Hub is excited to announce the shortlist for the 2019 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. This year’s judging panel included Tommy Orange, Emma Straub, Monique Truong, Maaza Mengiste, and Claire Messud. They are: De’Shawn Charles Winslow, In West Mills Chia-Chia Lin, The Unpassing Julia... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-09-26 13:59:29 UTC ]
More news stories like this