Monique Roffey, the Costa-winning author of The Mermaid of Black Conch, on the lit-boom that’s happening on the Caribbean islandLast week, Trinidadian writer Lisa Allen-Agostini’s novel The Bread the Devil Knead landed a coveted spot on the Women’s prize shortlist. As a fellow Trinidadian writer, this is both exciting and unsurprising. These days Trinidad is producing world-class female writers hand over fist. Allen-Agostini’s shortlisting comes on the heels of the announcement, two weeks ago, that Trinidadian writer Amanda Smyth had made the Walter Scott prize for historical fiction shortlist, the only woman on the list, and the first Caribbean writer ever to be chosen. Meanwhile, Celeste Mohammed has become the fifth woman (and third Trinidadian woman) to win Trinidad’s regional OCM Bocas prize.Something has happened in Trinidad, in our small but dense hothouse of a literary world. Perhaps it’s 12 years of the Bocas literary festival, or five waves of feminism, or maybe it’s to do with the internet opening up opportunities for those from developing countries, but in the last decade Trinidad has produced a host of outstanding female writers. It’s a trend that anyone in Caribbean literary circles knows about. Myself, Smyth, Allen-Agostini, Mohammed and others are part of a “lit-boom”, and most of this boom is female. We are finding ourselves on the global stage, on prestigious shortlists in North America and the UK. This huge generational and gender shift would have been... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2022-05-03 13:03:34 UTC ]
The organisers of the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction has launched an academy to help find future winners. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-12-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Love to read historical fiction? Take our quiz and find out how well you really know the genre. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2016-11-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon has established a programme to donate Kindle e-readers, ebooks and Fire tablets to readers in developing nations. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-08-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Japan’s popular messaging app Line has gone public. Mainly used in Asia, the funds raised will help with international expansion. Currently, 12 percent of people in the U.S. use Line, and it’s unlikely to ever reach the scale of Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp. It can differentiate by the range... Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2016-07-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Despite the fact that he says, 'I don't consider myself a historical novelist at all,' Simon Mawer wins the £30,000 pound Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. The post With Its ‘Heart in Scotland,’ the Walter Scott Prize Honors Simon Mawer appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2016-06-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tony Read leaves a legacy of improving educational facilities in a number of developing countries, writes Amanda Buchan. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-06-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Thomas Mullen has been playing with genres for a long time. He has mixed historical fiction with magical realism, played with the spy novel, and is now mixing a police procedural with a fact-based piece of historical fiction. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-05-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Kelly Kerney, who spent a decade writing the historical novel "Hard Red Spring," talks about the impossible task of historical fiction. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-03-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Titles by William Boyd and Patrick Gale have been named on the 2016 Walter Scott Prize shortlist in an “exceptional year” for historical fiction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-03-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Millennial women who grew up reading JK Rowling’s wizard series are driving sales in other genres as they reach their 20s and 30s, according to recent researchThe women switched on to books by Harry Potter are shaping the literary world, according to new research, boosting the market in... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-03-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Authors including Kate Atkinson, William Boyd and Robert Harris are battling it out to win the £25,000 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-03-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Elsevier's not-for-profit Elsevier Foundation has committed an annual contribution of $1m to a series of new programmes to run through to 2018, including one to encourage diversity in science, technology and medicine and another to promote science research in developing countries. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-02-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Translator Steve Komarnyckyj describes the triumph of modestly published book of Ukrainian poetry on the global stage and what it says about the world. The post Routinely Shunned, Ukrainian Lit Is Urgently Needed Now appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2016-01-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishing Perspectives' Erin L. Cox looks back at 2015 in publishing and highlights three significant moments that sparked conversation in the literary world. The post 3 Key Publishing Moments of 2015, the Year of Provocative Thinking appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-12-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Stephen Fry will voice two classic detective stories exclusively for Audible. Fry, who voiced all seven of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books, will voice The Coin of Dionysius and The Game Played in the Dark by Ernest Bramah, which features the blind detective Max Carrados who was first... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-12-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Elena Ferrante—the mysterious Italian writer whose Neapolitan novels have captivated the literary world with their portrait of a lifelong female friendship—has been asked many times why she keeps her identity private. She has responded with many variations on the answer that she gave Vanity Fair... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2015-10-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Antonia Hodgson and MJ Carter are among the authors shortlisted for The 2015 Historical Writers’ Association's (HWA) Debut Crown Award for historical fiction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When Tramp Press asked authors submitting manuscripts to name the writers who inspire them, only 22% were female - pointing again to ‘the larger issue in the industry: our habitual dismissal of women’An Irish publisher has stoked the flames of the gender debate currently running in the literary... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-07-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishing sector has the lowest level of illegal downloads in the entertainment industry, with book piracy at half the rate of copyright theft in film and musicFor publishers, fresh from winning a landmark ruling forcing internet service providers to block illegal ebook download sites in Russia... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-07-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Harper Lee’s unexpected companion novel to To Kill a Mockingbird has bookshops readying for huge salesRead the first chapterListen to an extract read by Reese WitherspoonFirst chapter review: A beguiling journey into the pastSix months ago, it was a book the literary world would have laughed off... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-07-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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