Jonathan Escoffery: ‘I was trying to write novels aged nine’

The If I Survive You author on the suspense of the Booker ceremony, Americans’ warped view of the Caribbean, and writing his next novel on the roadJonathan Escoffery, 43, was born in Texas and lives in Oakland, California. His debut, If I Survive You, about a second-generation Jamaican in Miami, where Escoffery grew up, was shortlisted for last year’s Booker and is currently on the shortlist of the Gordon Burn prize, announced on 7 March. The novelist Rumaan Alam has called it “a reminder of what fiction can do... It’s truly a feat that a book of short stories tackling such big stuff – family, love, violence, race – could be so damn funny.”What did it mean to be shortlisted for the Booker prize?It felt like I’d arrived in the UK for the first time, even though the book had been out for months. I’d already connected with readers outside the US because the book is partly set in Jamaica and talks about the African-Caribbean diaspora, but suddenly I was hearing from people in India and Australia. I’d watched the ceremony when Marlon James won with A Brief History of Seven Killings in 2015. I loved what that book did for Jamaica and to see it honoured in such a massive way was beautiful. I felt like that novel was capturing a history of tumultuous politics and rising crime I’d grown up hearing in a very matter of fact way from my parents: “This is what was happening in the 70s, this is why we left.” Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2024-01-27 18:00:42 UTC ]
News tagged with: #booker ceremony #booker prize #jonathan escoffery #warped view #roadjonathan escoffery #second-generation jamaican #escoffery grew #big stuff #damn funny #partly set #african-caribbean diaspora #tumultuous politics #rising crime #short stories

Other Publishing stories related to: 'Jonathan Escoffery: ‘I was trying to write novels aged nine’'


Writing young-adult fiction: Better than going to the prom.

Young-adult books are being sold to an audience that can't vote, yet they're being written by people commonly referred to on the Internet as "the olds." We should know. We're two of them. Both of us have made our living writing. One of us in journalism (Grady) and the other in literary fiction... Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2011-06-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #young-adult books


W&N wins auction for second Semple novel

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 10/06/2011 - 10:49 Weidenfeld & Nicolson has triumphed in an auction for the second novel by American author Maria Semple, staking a six-figure sum for the title. Editorial director Arzu Tahsin bought UK and Commonwealth rights to... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #six-figure sum #andrew kidd #final round


Hans Keilson dies aged 101

Publication Date: Wed, 01/06/2011 - 14:40 Hans Keilson, the author of New York Times bestseller The Death of the Adversary has died at the age of 101. Keilson passed away in the early hours of yesterday morning. Vintage Classics republished his novel, first published in English almost half a... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #early hours #yesterday morning #century ago


Publishers must change "radically' in digital age - Johnson

Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Wed, 11/05/2011 - 10:46 Publishers selling direct to readers, printers folding and more agents becoming publishers are some of the implications of digital, claims former Borders chairman Luke Johnson. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


How Traditional Media Companies Should Reshape for the Digital Age

In a white paper titled “The Media Company of the Future: The Revolution Goes On”, consulting firm AMR International Consulting Inc. outlines the steps it says traditional companies must take to incorporate technological advances into their business model and stay competitive against “New world”... Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2011-04-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #digital age #media company #business model #stay competitive


Helen Dunmore to write for Hammer

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 21/04/2011 - 10:29 Random House imprint Hammer has acquired the latest title by Orange-prize winner Helen Dunmore, in a special project for the Penguin author. Century and Arrow publisher Kate Elton bought UK and Commonwealth rights to The... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #helen dunmore #latest title


Spielberg to write for Palazzo retrospective

Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Wed, 20/04/2011 - 15:13 Palazzo Editions will publish a "major" retrospective of the work of Steven Spielberg in August 2012, written in co-operation with the director. Steven Spielberg: A Retrospective will be written by film critic and documentary... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #steven spielberg #film critic


Canongate reveals release date for J J Abrams novel

Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Mon, 18/04/2011 - 15:11 Canongate will publish a book co-created by JJ Abrams, the man behind "Lost" and "Star Trek", next year after a deal was signed during London Book Fair. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #star trek


Quercus acquires Hull-set crime novel

Publication Date: Wed, 06/04/2011 - 14:24 Quercus has won a "keenly contested" auction to a debut literary crime novel set in Hull and East Yorkshire. Editor Jon Riley acquired UK and Commonwealth rights excluding Canada to The Dark Winter from Oliver Munson at Blake Friedmann in a two-book... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #keenly contested #oliver munson #blake friedmann #true nature


Fourth Estate to publish next Tan novel

Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Wed, 30/03/2011 - 14:55 Fourth Estate will publish the latest novel by The Joy Luck Club author Amy Tan after HarperCollins bought The Valley of Amazement. Publication date for the novel is expected to be autumn 2012. Daniel Halpern, president and... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #canadian rights #fourth estate


Profit up at Jonathan Goodman Publishing

Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Mon, 28/03/2011 - 15:31 Profit before tax at Jonathan Goodman Publishing, the parent company of Carlton Books Ltd and Andre Deutsch Ltd, has increased by 72% to £1.6m. The figures, for the year to end December 2010, also show turnover is up 6% to... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #carlton books #good year #andre deutsch


Sales and profit up at Jonathan Goodman

Publication Date: Fri, 25/03/2011 - 08:44 Profit before tax at Jonathan Goodman Publishing, the parent company of Carlton Books Ltd and Andre Deutsch Ltd, has increased by 72% to £1.6m. The figures, for the year to end December 2010, also show that turnover is up 6% to £15.8m. In a statement,... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #international sales #carlton books #andre deutsch


Forbes wins £50k Warwick Prize for Writing

Publication Date: Wed, 23/03/2011 - 07:50 Writer, journalist and editor Peter Forbes' exploration of mimicry and camouflage in nature, art and warfare has been awarded the £50,000 Warwick Prize for Writing. His Dazzled and Deceived (Yale University Press) was described by chair of judges... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Luke Johnson to write business advice for Portfolio

Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 17/03/2011 - 15:57 Luke Johnson, best known in the book trade for his spell owning Borders, and fellow Financial Times journalist Mrs Moneypenny are writing business titles for Penguin's business imprint Portfolio. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #luke johnson #book trade


Jojo Moyes wins RNA Romantic Novel of the Year

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Tue, 08/03/2011 - 08:50 Hodder author Jojo Moyes has won Romantic Novel of the Year at the Romantic Novelists' Association's (RNA) Pure Passion Awards, scooping the prize with The Last Letter from Your Lover. Both Josephine Cox and Penny Jordan,... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #romantic novelists #7th march


Hodder to release final Earth’s Children novel

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 24/02/2011 - 09:25 Hodder & Stoughton is gearing up for the launch of the final book in the Earth’s Children series, which began 35 years ago with an idea for a short story. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #final book #short story


Literacy still crucial in digital age, says Mollet

Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 09/02/2011 - 07:28 PA chief executive Richard Mollet has stressed the "political . . and social imperative to promote literacy", calling on delegates at the PA's second annual digital seminar to "do all we can to promote people and... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #digital age #promote literacy #keynote speech #publishers association


Eric Carle to write first book in four years for Puffin

Written By: Charlotte Williams Puffin is to publish a new picture book by The Very Hungry Caterpillar author Eric Carle, his first in four years. The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse will be published in October 2011, in a global, simultaneous publication with Philomel, a Penguin Young Readers... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #picture book #eric carle #simultaneous publication #motoko inoue


Adam Haslett on Stanley Fish's How To Write a Sentence.

In 1919, the young E.B. White, future New Yorker writer and author of Charlotte's Web, took a class at Cornell University with a drill sergeant of an English professor named William Strunk Jr. Strunk assigned his self-published manual on composition titled "The Elements of Style," a 43-page list... Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2011-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #combined work


Barack Obama Anonymous Novel: What if Tom Friedman or Rahm Emanuel wrote it?

As Simon & Schuster prepares to release O: A Presidential Novel, based on the Obama administration and starring a thinly veiled Barack Obama as the character "O," the publisher is trying to keep the identity of its anonymous author under wraps. Slate imagines a few possibilities.[more ...] Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2011-01-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #obama administration #anonymous author