In her 20s, she set up her own company, publishing everyone from James Ellroy to the Worst Witch series, and changing Britain for the better, book by book There is a revealing story Margaret Busby tells, about the first novel she published. A family friend had bumped into a former US serviceman called Sam Greenlee. Greenlee said he had written a novel, rejected by 40 American publishers, a satirical thriller about the first African American man hired by the CIA but given a very visible non-job (the point being it was only to improve the CIA’s image). The man keeps his head down, learns about guerrilla warfare, then quits to become a freedom fighter in Chicago. Busby took it on, borrowing money so Greenlee could stay in London while the book was edited and, when it was about to be published, in 1969, she sent it to the Observer.The paper refused it – it didn’t extract fiction and certainly not black power novels. Busby sent it back, insisting the paper was wrong. It ran an extract, and The Spook Who Sat By the Door was translated into six languages and turned into a film. When this “parable of institutional racism”, as the New York Times described the film, opened in 1973, newspapers wondered if it would start race warfare. It closed early under FBI pressure, and was not reissued until 2004, then, nearly a decade later, added to the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2020-10-22 05:00:17 UTC ]
Distinct among the literary prizes for its emphasis on debuts, the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize has been recognizing “exciting emerging voices in contemporary fiction” since 2006. This year, a panel of readers and judges selected a longlist of 25 novels out of 144 debuts submitted for... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-08-01 14:21:54 UTC ]
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“Through Multiculturalism We Become Better Humans”: A Conversation with Vonani Bila, by Ming Di Interviews [email protected] Thu, 06/13/2024 - 15:21 Vonani Bila with his mother and his son. Courtesy of Mark Waller, 2010.Vonani Bila (b. 1972) grew... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2024-06-13 20:21:36 UTC ]
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In Nicola Yoon’s first novel for adults, “One of Our Kind,” a woman finds that a lush California suburb is not what it seems. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-06-11 09:01:04 UTC ]
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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... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-05-27 04:00:13 UTC ]
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Translated by Michael Hofmann, it’s the first novel originally written in German to win the major literary award. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-05-21 23:13:25 UTC ]
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R.O. Kwon first novel, The Incendiaries, made my top ten list of books in 2018 for BBC Culture: “Kwon’s finely polished first novel is an explosive mix, tracking the evolution of a cult that turns to violence, bombing abortion clinics.” Her second novel, Exhibit, is more intimate, an artfully... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-21 08:54:03 UTC ]
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Photo by Miria-Sabina Maciągiewicz. As Emerson said to Whitman: “I greet you at the beginning of a great career, which yet must have had a long foreground somewhere, for such a start.” The same words my editor said to me when I published my first novel in—good God—1982! Although I have to... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-10 08:56:38 UTC ]
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Tlotlo Tsamaase’s first novel adds to an exciting and growing body of African science fiction. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2024-05-09 14:08:00 UTC ]
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Michael Deagler’s first novel follows a young man who is piecing his life back together and trying very hard not to drink. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-05-06 09:00:26 UTC ]
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'Blood at the Root,' LaDarrion Williams' first novel in a three-book deal — a series that centers on a Black boy in a YA fantasy saga — is the kind of fiction he wishes existed when he was a kid. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-05-03 10:00:51 UTC ]
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Can We Truly Be Free of Our Past? A Conversation with Wendy Chen, by Xixuan Collins Interviews [email protected] Mon, 04/29/2024 - 15:10 An epic family saga that spans over one hundred years and two countries, Wendy Chen’s powerful, lyrical debut,... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2024-04-29 20:10:46 UTC ]
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Independent publisher Zando's highest-visibility imprints are its collabs with celebrities, which are part of its mission to change the institutional racism that has plagued American publishing from its start. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-04-24 18:02:25 UTC ]
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7 Questions for Kim Hye-jin, by Michelle Johnson Interviews [email protected] Mon, 04/22/2024 - 09:49 Photo © Lee HaesooOn March 20, Restless Books published Kim Hye-jin’s Counsel Culture, a novel about a woman’s scapegoating and her path to... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2024-04-22 14:49:51 UTC ]
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In January 2016, I was an unpublished writer working on my first novel when I learned of an artist residency on a tiny island off the west coast of South Korea. Excited, I daydreamed of finishing my manuscript in my motherland, visiting family, and of course, eating an abundance of delicious... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-04-18 11:05:00 UTC ]
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The work of Barbara Comyns always felt like a secret, as if she were writing, speaking only to me. A literary outsider, Comyns had almost no formal training in writing, and didn’t publish her first novel until 1947 at the age of forty. She published ten novels and one short memoir, but it’s her... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-04-15 08:56:47 UTC ]
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Elegant, luxurious, catlike … Netflix’s Andrew Scott-starring series is devastatingly unhurried – although not all viewers agree• Don’t get the What’s On TV newsletter delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereThe reviews for Netflix’s elegant new Patricia Highsmith adaptation, Ripley, have been... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-04-09 11:00:06 UTC ]
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The astonishing breadth of her writing was a great inspiration – as was she, in her passionate advocacy for children’s books• Lynne Reid Banks, author of The Indian in the Cupboard, dies aged 94It is quite rare to find a writer like Lynne Reid Banks, who tries so many different subjects, and so... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-04-08 10:18:15 UTC ]
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The Suede bassist and author on writing without a safety net, terrifying himself for his next novel and which of the Thursday Murder Club books – by his brother Richard – he likes bestMat Osman is, along with Brett Anderson, a founding and current member of the band Suede, and the author of two... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-03-23 18:00:26 UTC ]
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“A Woman of Pleasure,” Kiyoko Murata’s first novel to be translated into English, explores the world of sex work in early-20th-century Japan. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-26 10:00:14 UTC ]
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We Solve Murders introduces a new detective duo – but the author has not abandoned his Thursday Murder Club charactersA new crime series by Richard Osman called We Solve Murders has been announced, after the huge success of his Thursday Murder Club novels.The beloved elderly sleuths from the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-02-20 17:44:06 UTC ]
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