Raven Leilani | 'I wanted to write a story about a young black woman who is unvarnished on the page'

"The first time we have sex, we are both fully clothed, at our desks during working hours, bathed in blue computer light.” So begins Luster, the extraordinary début novel from American author Raven Leilani, which has caused a sensation in the US and deserves to do the same here. The unforgettable narrator, Edie, is a young black woman of precarious means who begins a relationship with an older, married, white man, Eric, whose wife has agreed to an open marriage. Continue reading at 'The Bookseller'

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-01 23:03:04 UTC ]
News tagged with: #raven leilani #working hours #white man #open marriage #american author

Other Publishing stories related to: 'Raven Leilani | 'I wanted to write a story about a young black woman who is unvarnished on the page''

Confronting the audience and breaking the fourth wall: why Black drama is getting meta

On stage and screen, self-referential works such as A Strange Loop and American Fiction are on the rise, with playful postmodernism a potent weapon in the fight against inequalityOfficers storm a ballroom, releasing a flurry of bullets that pierce through a Black man as he collapses in a pool of... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-05-06 08:00:34 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #books published

'Harry Potter' set at an HBCU? LaDarrion Williams wrote the book he always wanted to read

'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 ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #harry potter #first novel

AANHPI consumers want better brand representation, Nielsen reports

As companies around the country roll out plans to honor May as Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, a new report out Wednesday suggests members of those communities are paying more attention than ever to representation Continue reading at ABC News

[ ABC News | 2024-05-01 18:38:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #asian american #nielsen

A page-turner: how to get your reading groove back | Letters

Readers share their tips on discovering new authors and reading more widelyIn addition to the excellent advice provided in your article on reading (The experts: librarians on 20 easy, enjoyable ways to read more brilliant books, 25 April), I would add the following. The old adage of not judging... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-04-28 16:39:44 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #paperback #small publisher

The '90s called. They want their books back

When the graphic novel remake of Ann M. Martin's book Claudia and the Bad Joke was the best-selling kids book in Canada earlier this month, it was time for bookworms to feel their hearts flutter with nostalgia. The original, part of the wildly popular The Baby-Sitters Club series, was published... Continue reading at CBC

[ CBC | 2024-04-26 08:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #bad joke #graphic novel

Chris Whitaker’s Survivor Stories

The novelist traded a finance career to pursue fiction. It just may have saved his life. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-04-26 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:

Yan Lianke Wants You to Stop Describing Him As China’s Most Censored Author

In China we have a saying that reading a banned book on a snowy night is one of the true joys of life. From this, one can well imagine the kind of satisfaction that reading a banned book may bring—like candy locked up in a cabinet, it releases a sweet fragrance into solitary spaces. Whenever […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-04-23 08:56:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #banned book

An Oasis in the Desert: Why Libraries Are the Best Places to Write

It’s 2015. My partner and I are in Moab, Utah, for the summer, far from our home of Philadelphia. He is doing research for his dissertation. I am struggling to rewrite a novel that my editor says—and I agree—isn’t working. The desert landscape in southwest Utah is magnificent and to us wholly... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-04-19 08:53:24 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #libraries

3 Spicy New Romances with Black Leads

A trio of new contemporary romance offerings from Black authors beckon readers to settings as far-flung as small-town West Virginia and Panama City. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-04-19 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:

Want to Start an Indie Press? These Publishers Have Some Suggestions

A life in independent publishing requires moxie, malleability, and, of course, money. Just ask these presses, all of which were founded within the past decade. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-04-19 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #indie press #past decade #independent publishing

7 Short Story Collections Set in Nigeria

I have always loved the versatility of the short story, how it can so easily take on the forms of other things. There are playlist short stories, recipe short stories, diary and epistolary-style short stories. There are flash fiction stories, short short stories, and long short stories that... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-04-15 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #short story #electric literature #short stories

A Place Where You Want to Be: PW Talks with Emet North

‘In Universes,’ Emet North’s debut novel, explores queer love and the multiverse Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-04-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:

Robert Lowell! W.E.B. Du Bois on WWI! Black spies! 27 books out in paperback this April.

April, remarkably, is here already—remarkable only, I suppose, because my internal calendar is still stuck on January all too often—and that means that warmer weather and wonderful blooms are also here, both of which I love. (And a solar eclipse on the 8th!) And what better to usher in the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-04-01 08:32:36 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #robert lowell #du bois #paperback

9 Short Story Collections About Women’s Bodies

Short stories can do things novels cannot because they’re short. They’re limber and can dart in and out of close-fitting places. They can be weird and daring in ways that novels cannot always sustain. Joy Williams writes in, “8 Essential Attributes of the Short Story (and one way it differs from... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-03-28 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #short story #electric literature #short stories

24 Titles Compete for Barnes & Noble’s Children’s & Young Adult Book Awards

These 24 picture book, young reader, and young adult books are the finalists for this year's Barnes & Noble Children's and Young Adult Book Awards. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2024-03-27 13:10:40 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #barnes noble #young reader #adult book #barnes