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 ]
Coronet has snapped up the “big-hearted” debut novel from journalist Alice O’Keeffe, inspired by her experience of becoming a parent. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-14 11:36:13 UTC ]
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Regina Porter’s debut novel The Travelers includes short chapters, photos, and a compendium of voices—a full cast is listed in the front matter. This includes the Vincents, with patriarch “the man James” and his son Rufus; the Christies, headed by Eddie and Agnes with their daughters Claudia... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2019-08-05 11:00:57 UTC ]
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Lucy Kissick’s debut novel Plutoshine has won the inaugural Writers & Artists Working-Class Writers’ Prize. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-04 19:06:55 UTC ]
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The Amazon review for my debut novel was glowing, including words like “compelling” and “fun.” And then there was this: “If you love historical fiction, you’ll love The Last Book Party.” Say what? How could my novel, which is set during the 1980s—a decade of my own youth—be historical fiction?... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2019-08-01 11:00:53 UTC ]
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Simon & Schuster UK has pre-empted journalist Caroline Bishop’s "uniquely beautiful" debut novel in a two-book deal. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-31 22:16:28 UTC ]
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A few days ago, Publishers Weekly reported that Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens’ debut novel and the September 2018 pick for Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine Book Club, topped a million in print sales in 2019. Today, Laura Miller at Slate had a much juicier story about Owens: her... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-07-30 15:00:24 UTC ]
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The Center for Fiction announced its 2019 First Novel Prize Longlist yesterday. The award is given to the “best debut novel published between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 of the award year,” and the prize-winning author receives $10,000. Here is the 2019 longlist (featuring many titles from our 2019 Book... Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2019-07-25 17:22:45 UTC ]
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The Center for Fiction just announced the longlist for this year’s best debut novel. The shortlist will be announced in September and the winner will be announced in December at The Center for Fiction’s Annual Benefit and Awards Dinner at its new, spacious, happening location in Brooklyn.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-07-25 16:41:15 UTC ]
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A drowning haunts Susan Steinberg’s dark first novel about teenagers’ summer adventures. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2019-07-23 10:00:00 UTC ]
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Scribe has snapped up Mr B's bookseller Jessica Gaitán Johannesson's debut novel in a two-book deal. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-22 18:31:00 UTC ]
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Pamela Dorman pays up for a debut novel by a former publicity director at Penguin Books Canada, and Princeton University Press lands a big book on the gender pay gap in this week's notable book deals. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-07-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Fig Tree will publish journalist and author Dolly Alderton’s debut novel, Ghosts, about a food writer with a dedicated online following whose personal life is falling apart. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-10 16:29:40 UTC ]
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Little, Brown imprint Piatkus has landed the “smart and funny” debut novel from Hannah Tovey in a two-book deal. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-09 16:51:11 UTC ]
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Tochi Onyebuchi’s young adult books, the duology Beasts Made of Night and Crown of Thunder, are fantasy novels with a Nigeria-influenced setting. His upcoming War Girls is set in a post-nuclear, post-climate change Nigeria of 2172. Riot Baby, his first novel for adults (also forthcoming), is a... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2019-07-04 11:00:10 UTC ]
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Titan Books will publish the supernatural-themed debut novel by Cambridge University librarian and writer Marian Womack as part of a two book deal. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-01 17:49:35 UTC ]
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Last year, I read R.F. Kuang’s debut novel The Poppy War. I found myself flung backwards in time to August ... Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-06-28 10:41:44 UTC ]
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Muhammad Khan and his editor Lucy Pearse have won this year’s Branford Boase Award for a debut novel for children or young people with I Am Thunder (Macmillan Children’s Books). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-06-27 15:50:48 UTC ]
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She published her first novel at 50, and her heroines were invariably rich, savvy, ambitious and preternaturally beautiful. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2019-06-24 20:37:23 UTC ]
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Juliet Escoria’s “Juliet the Maniac” sees the life of a bipolar teenager in gut-wrenching fragments. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2019-06-24 09:00:07 UTC ]
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As she celebrates a series of career milestones—which coincide with the 20th anniversary of her publisher, Dafina Books—the author starts a new chapter by revisiting classic characters in the long-awaited sequel to her first novel, My Brother’s Keeper. (Sponsored) Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-06-24 04:00:00 UTC ]
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