Our annual pick of the most exciting debut fiction has previously tipped Sally Rooney and Louise Kennedy, Tom Crewe and Douglas Stuart. Here the class of 2024 tell us their storiesEach year since 2014, the Observer New Review’s writers and editors have read scores of forthcoming debut novels from authors based in the UK and Ireland in order to spotlight the best; here’s our pick of 2024. As ever, our only guide was the quality of the books in front of us. This year’s list includes industry-tipped titles snapped up by big-spending publishers, but also a canny acquisition from a small independent press. There’s a third book from someone already widely celebrated as a writer of short stories, and even a debut from an actual Observer journalist. These are simply the books we rated most – and we think you’ll love them too.In previous years, we led you to Douglas Stuart’s Booker-winning Shuggie Bain, Gail Honeyman’s global bestseller Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine and Sheena Patel’s cult indie hit I’m a Fan. Last year’s picks continue to hoover up honours. Tom Crewe’s The New Life won the Orwell prize for fiction, while Michael Magee (Close to Home) won the Rooney prize, awarded to an outstanding Irish writer under 40. Both writers are on the shortlist for this month’s Nero debut fiction prize, along with Stephen Buoro, another of our 2023 picks.I’d take the washing up shifts no one else wanted so I could be at the back, jotting things downThere’s violence, but it’s about... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2024-01-14 07:00:20 UTC ]
Man Booker Prize winner Anna Burns and Women's Prize shortlistee Diana Evans are among the six novelists shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-06-10 01:32:56 UTC ]
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In “The Regency Years,” Robert Morrison looks at a dramatic era of 19th-century Britain. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2019-05-29 16:53:00 UTC ]
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Picador has acquired a collection of short stories from "really exciting talent" Dima Alzayat. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-05-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Booker and Jhalak Prize winners Anna Burns and Guy Gunaratne are among the 12 novelists longlisted for the first Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-05-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As a recipient of the Arts Connects Us Grant I travelled to Ghana and Sierra Leone to meet with writers and publishing professionals working in the field of books for young readers to foster creative and collaborative exchanges between those contacts and publishing professionals and readers in... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2019-03-19 11:10:28 UTC ]
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You started writing early in your high school days, what were you writing about most back then?I think it is exaggerating to say I started writing at high school. I was already writing, but it was mainly journaling, which was not for public consumption. There was a poem (about a tree in the... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2019-03-15 11:15:36 UTC ]
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Europa Editions has snapped up the latest collection of short stories by American writer Deborah Eisenberg. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Podcasts, writing workshops and a collection of short stories are among the winners of this year’s RSL Literature Matters Awards. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Picador has landed a second book of short stories by acclaimed science fiction writer Ted Chiang, Exhalation. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-02-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Some writers turn to fiction as a way to escape the nonstop onslaught of (mostly bad) news that Americans are subjected to constantly these days. Karen E. Bender, the novelist and short story writer, is not that kind of writer. Bender’s new short story collection, “The New Order,” takes on a host... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-02-19 00:00:00 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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Audible is bringing the novels and short stories of A.S. Byatt to audio for the first time this month. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-02-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Myriad has acquired world rights to Elaine Chiew's debut collection of short stories, The Heartsick Diaspora. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-02-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The shortlist for the 2019 International Prize for Arabic Fiction was announced today at the El-Hakawati Palestinian National Theatre in East Jerusalem. The IPAF - often referred to as the ‘Arabic Booker’ - is an annual literary prize for prose fiction, which encourages the readership of... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2019-02-05 16:33:45 UTC ]
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David Walliams’ next publication, a funny story entitled Fing, "dovetails seamlessly" with his short stories and middle-grade novels, according to his publisher HarperCollins Children’s Books. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-01-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Author of the Oscar-nominated film “45 Years” David Constantine has signed a deal for a collection of short stories, The Dressing-up Box, with Comma Press. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Each month in 2018, Future Tense Fiction—a series of short stories from Future Tense and ASU’s Center for Science and the Imagination about how technology and science will change our lives—will publish a story on a theme. The theme for October–December 2018: Work. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2018-12-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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MP Tulip Siddiq will chair the judges’ panel for The Orwell Prize for Political Writing, which from this year is only open to non-fiction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-12-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Daunt Books, Waterstones and Foyles are raising money for The Passage, a charity that supports people who are homeless, by selling a book of short stories by AS Byatt, Lennie James and Michael Morpurgo. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-12-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Thirty-six short stories were submitted for the first ever FutureBook speculative fiction competition run with digital reading platform the Pigeonhole. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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