Sharmaine Lovegrove: ‘If you don’t have a diverse workforce or product, sooner or later you won’t exist’

The Dialogue Books publisher felt shut out of the book world, working her own way up from secondhand book stall to heading her inclusive new imprint. At last, she writes, the industy is changingI am from a family of activists. My uncle, Len Garrison, was the founder of the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton, south London, and I draw daily inspiration from his fight for equality along with his love for literature. Books and stories have always been my escape route from busy London life. As a child I was often found reading – in a corner at home in Battersea, or in the library, on a bus, or the back of a car, drifting into the lives of others for hours on end, with only the act of turning the page occasionally jolting me back into reality. Growing up in the 1980s and 90s, London was incredible, and totally different to the childhood I am giving my son. We had an enormous amount of freedom in an affordable and creative capital, which is just not possible today. My parents were young but could afford to live in the original “nappy valley” off Northcote Road: grand Victorian villas between Wandsworth and Clapham commons, 10 minutes from glorious Battersea Park, passing the maze of housing estates, crisscrossing the river to visit friends and family and falling in love with the whole place. It was so hard to be the only black woman in my division and for my race to be so defining of my work Related: Breaking down the barriers – a new chapter in publishing Related: The Good... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2018-03-18 00:00:00 UTC ]

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Black Garnet Books in St. Paul Finds a Buyer

Minnesota's first Black woman–owned indie bookstore has changed hands five months after owner Dionne Sims announced that she intended to sell. The new owner—a self-described artist, academic, and an activist—will identify herself at an open house event at the store next week. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-11-14 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Nonfiction Women Writers for DAYS!

Learn about the life of the first Black woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court, as well as hear from women around the globe in this week's nonfiction book talk. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2024-09-06 15:00:00 UTC ]
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19 New Books Coming in September

New novels by Sally Rooney and Richard Powers, a memoir by the first Black woman on the Supreme Court — and more. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-08-27 09:01:50 UTC ]
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PEN President Jennifer Finney Boylan Announces Plans to Review PEN’s Work Going Back a Decade

PEN America has faced an enormous amount of criticism from the literary world for, among other things, failing to call Israel’s six-month assault on Gaza a genocide, and is now facing a wave of withdrawals from two of its signature events, the literary awards and the World Voices Festival. In... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-04-18 14:26:32 UTC ]
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Review: ‘The Street,’ by Ann Petry

This classic story of a single mother’s struggle against poverty, published in 1946, would become the first novel by a Black woman to sell a million copies. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-10-22 04:28:52 UTC ]
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Zakiya Dalila Harris: ‘Publishing is such a spoofable world’

The author of a debut novel about diversity in the workplace on how black people act around white people, embracing her hair, and what’s changed a year after George Floyd’s murderZakiya Dalila Harris was born and raised in Connecticut and is currently based in Brooklyn. Now a full-time writer,... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2021-06-05 17:00:15 UTC ]
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Republic of Consciousness prize shares £20,000 pot among longlist

Shola von Reinhold wins the award for small publishing houses with their novel LOTE, but financial reward split among 10 publishersThe Scottish author Shola von Reinhold has won the Republic of Consciousness prize for small presses for their “dazzling” queer debut novel LOTE. But the £20,000... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2021-05-19 12:17:35 UTC ]
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Booker winner Bernardine Evaristo writing memoir about 'never giving up'

Manifesto will chart the first Black Booker prize winner’s 40-year journey to literary centre-stage and encourage others to pursue creative fulfilmentBernardine Evaristo, the first Black woman to win the Booker prize, is writing a memoir about how she “moved from the margins to centre stage”... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2021-03-27 09:00:08 UTC ]
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Staff Union, Lifehacker EIC Rebuke G/O Media Over Firing of Travel Writer

The editor-in-chief of Lifehacker and a union representing staffers at the site each blasted parent company G/O Media on Friday over the abrupt firing of the site's travel writer—the latest in a long string of public disputes between management and staff at the one-year-old digital media... Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2020-07-20 16:06:59 UTC ]
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‘Black and Asian people not seen as readers’: Bernardine Evaristo condemns books industry

In foreword to report into diversity in publishing, Booker prize-winning author rails against ‘ridiculous’ beliefsBernardine Evaristo, the first black woman to win the Booker prize, has hit out at “ridiculous” and “misguided” beliefs in the publishing industry, where “black and Asian people are... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-06-23 11:06:09 UTC ]
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Radical Kindness: PW talks with Ashlee Eiland

In ‘Human(Kind)’ Ashlee Eiland draws on her experiences as a black woman as well as her extensive Biblical knowledge to advocate for a radical kindness and unity that can appeal to people from all backgrounds and from across the aisle. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-04-17 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Toni Morrison Dies at 88

Novelist of our hearts Toni Morrison died Monday night, her publisher reports, at the age of 88. Morrison won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her best-selling, groundbreaking novel Beloved, and was the first black woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1993. She wrote 11 novels... Continue reading at The Millions

[ The Millions | 2019-08-08 21:38:07 UTC ]
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Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate, Has Died at 88

Toni Morrison, giant of American literature and the first black woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, has passed away. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2019-08-06 14:08:13 UTC ]
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Chicago’s first black woman-owned bookstore is open for business

Semicolon—a vibrant new bookstore, community space, and gallery for Chicago’s street art scene—opened its doors on Tuesday with a party and mural unveiling. The store is just one of a handful of woman-owned bookstores in Chicago and its only bookstore owned by a black woman. An author... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2019-07-12 15:33:15 UTC ]
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How to be a black woman and succeed: two friends who have written the manual

Elizabeth Uviebinené and Yomi Adegoke have turned a dream into a hot publishing property – a self-help guide for black womenIn March 2015, Elizabeth Uviebinené had a brainwave that a less determined 22-year-old might have dismissed as a water-cooler pipe dream. It was ignited by a single chapter... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2018-06-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hanya Yanagihara: influential magazine editor by day, best-selling author by night

It’s enough to make your head spin, but the New York Times journalist and novelist wouldn’t have it any other way. Emma Brockes meets her in New YorkWhen Hanya Yanagihara was 10 years old, her father let her visit a pathologist’s lab. He was a doctor and an artist, twin interests his young... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2018-04-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Trade vows to face challenge of Brexit

Amid a mix of shock, dismay and jubilation at the "Leave" camp's victory in the EU referendum, senior industry figures have vowed to hold off on taking any steps in response until the implications of the result become clear, and to take a positive approach to the challenges ahead. But there have... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2016-06-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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