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 ]
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Ware joins S&S UK with 'unputdownable' novel in two-book deal

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[ The Bookseller | 2021-10-26 02:40:30 UTC ]
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The Best Story Arcs From Manga’s Golden Age

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Zephaniah writes 'powerfully moving' Windrush picture book for Scholastic

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Clock Tower scoops YA novel from Jerams and Wyatt

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Review: ‘The Age of Innocence,’ by Edith Wharton

This tale of Gilded Age New York City became, in 1921, the first novel by a woman to win the Pulitzer Prize. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-10-21 14:55:14 UTC ]
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Julia Elliott and DaMaris B. Hill on Writing Rural America

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V.E. Schwab’s New Graphic Novel Returns to her Villains Series

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Raven lands Schuler's debut novel on 'real' Lady Macbeth

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A woman won a million-euro writing prize . . . then turned out to be three men.

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[ Literrary Hub | 2021-10-18 18:30:34 UTC ]
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Gary Paulsen, who wrote the beloved young-adult novel ‘Hatchet,’ dies at 82

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[ The Washington Post | 2021-10-14 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Tributes to Hatchet author Gary Paulsen, who has died aged 82

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John le Carré left behind a novel, ‘Silverview.’ Does it live up to the spy master’s reputation?

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