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 ]
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Pulitzer Prize-winner Junot Diaz, reporter David Finkel, and writer Dinaw Mengestu were honored by the MacArthur Foundation, each receiving a $500,000 grant. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-10-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Booksellers have become book writers for a popular science project from Icon Books. Icon’s... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-09-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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To him, the world was both subject and spectacle. Yet he remained, always, an author difficult to categorize.Gore Vidal, who died Tuesday night at age 86, was a fixture on the American cultural landscape for so long that it seems hard to imagine our literature without him. From 1946, when his... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-08-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hamish Hamilton has signed up a novel from South American writer Daniel Galera, a... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-08-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The foundation behind a proposed museum honoring American authors has published a plan for the building. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-07-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Cornerstone has reprinted the Fifty Shades trilogy a further three times this week, as retailers... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A dozen books a year? Some writers are accelerating the pace in this brave new world of ebooks. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-05-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mark Coker of Smashwords became the leader of indie ebook writers--including some with dirty minds--in a fight against censorship and PayPal. He also has strong feelings about the DOJ's ebook pricing lawsuit.Mark Coker is the CEO of Smashwords, an ebook publishing and distribution platform.... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2012-04-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hot Keys Books has partnered with the Guardian to launch a new young person’s writing prize... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-04-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Figment is a website that gives teenagers and young adults a forum for posting their work and giving advice to others. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green, London, is to have its own "writer in residence... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Edinburgh International Book Festival and the British Council are launching the Edinburgh... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ars Technica has many things, from an audience of nearly 8 million monthly uniques to an affluent, educated readership of engaged hard-core techies. What it hasn’t had—until now—is a dedicated advertising staff. Founded by Ken Fisher in 1998 and bought by Condé Nast for a reported $25 million... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2012-03-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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English PEN has welcomed the government's announcement of a new visa for visiting writers and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-02-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A group of writers in India have set up a petition calling for the lifting of the country's... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Eight female novelists have made the Waterstones 11 2012 selection, with three novels each from... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A group of Chinese writers has filed a lawsuit against Apple, alleging that the company's App Store sells pirated versions of the authors' works. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2012-01-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The £2,000 Educational Writers' Award 2011 has gone to Moon: Apollo 11 and Beyond... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook will "imminently" launch a plugin for publishers and public figures to ask their readers to subscribe on Facebook directly from their own Web sites. Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2011-12-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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