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 ]
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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The host of NPR's "Pop Culture Happy Hour" podcast has written her debut novel, the romantic comedy "Evvie Drake Starts Over." Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2019-06-19 22:05:02 UTC ]
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Hachette Books Ireland has snapped up an "incredible" debut novel by Irish journalist Sophie White about the world of Instagram influencers. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-06-17 14:38:06 UTC ]
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Raymond Antrobus and 70-year-old debut novelist Anne Youngson are among the winners of this year's £100,000 Society of Authors' Awards. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-06-17 02:12:28 UTC ]
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Taffy Brodesser-Akner's debut novel is a divorce novel wrapped around a mystery: What are women really up to? Continue reading at The Huffington Post
[ The Huffington Post | 2019-06-16 12:00:06 UTC ]
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Zaffre has bagged an "unbelievably timely" debut novel from Helly Acton, which has already been optioned for TV, in a two-book deal. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-06-14 12:23:54 UTC ]
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Ocean Vuong reads from his stunning debut novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2019-06-14 12:00:01 UTC ]
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Allen & Unwin will publish the debut novel by Sophie Hardcastle, a research assistant at Oxford University, exploring “the female ill-treatment at the hands of men”. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-06-13 21:53:54 UTC ]
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Picador has pre-empted a “razor-sharp, brutal and darkly comic” debut novel from recent NYU graduate Raven Leilani about a black millennial woman pulled into a suburban white couple’s life. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-06-13 21:43:52 UTC ]
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“We call them Bunnies because that is what they call each other,” explains Samantha Heather Mackey, the narrator of Mona Awad’s new novel, “Bunny.” “Seriously. Bunny. … Bunny, I love you. I love you, Bunny.” Awad does so many things right in “Bunny,” her follow-up to her 2016 debut novel,... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-06-11 15:00:00 UTC ]
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Her Body and Other Parties, by Carmen Maria Machado I've absolutely loved this collection of short stories, which floats between the weird and the queer, passing horror, black comedy and feminism along the way. Doubles and others are especially important: a wife enters her wife’s dream when they... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2019-04-11 08:49:28 UTC ]
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Indonesia is the country of focus at the London Book Fair this year and recently at Frankfurt - to what extent do you think Indonesian literature is finally having it's moment in the spotlight? I cannot say for certain what these one-off ‘spotlights’ on Indonesian literature would mean for... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2019-02-08 10:06:53 UTC ]
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