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 ]
News tagged with:
#black conch
#coveted spot
#prize shortlist
#literary world
#developing countries
#global stage
#historical fiction
The British author, who lived in the US, blended memoir and travelogue in books that were often inspired by the seaJonathan Raban, the British travel writer, critic and novelist known for his candid accounts of travelling the world in books such as Passage to Juneau and Coasting, has died aged... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-01-18 08:53:25 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#jonathan raban
#british author
#memoir
Two years after her apparent suicide, the novelist has announced she is still very much alive. Is this what it takes to sell books nowadays?‘All publicity is good publicity,” Susan Meachen thought to herself as she prepared to stage her suicide. In September 2020, Meachen, the self-published... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-01-11 07:00:12 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#arwa mahdawi
#final book
#romance writer
#writing community
#issues raised
#letters section
#book world
#self-published author
On the 125th anniversary of “J’Accuse,” a picture book for older kids places the lives of Alfred Dreyfus and Émile Zola side by side. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-01-06 07:36:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#book review
#125th anniversary
#picture book
News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller announces Gunn’s appointmentFollow our Australia news live blog for the latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastThe Australian has promoted the paper’s editor, Michelle Gunn, to... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-01-06 01:24:53 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#female editor-in-chief
#free morning
#michelle gunn
#latest updatesget
#free app
#executive chairman
#michael miller
#guardian australia
#news corp
This past summer, an auntie of mine dusted off an old cardboard box of books from a cluttered storage unit, and handed me a slim blue and gold paperback with soft, slightly frayed corners and a creased spine by Octavia E. Butler. I had never read science fiction that featured a Black girl being... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2022-12-28 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#past summer
#black girl
#electric literature
#science fiction
Naira Kuzmich died in 2017, at age 29 from lung cancer, but her posthumous short story collection, In Everything I See Your Hand, was only recently brought to fruition by University of New Orleans Press (June 2022). The included stories were widely published in literary journals and one was... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-12-22 09:53:38 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#personal canon
#lung cancer
#widely published
#literary journals
#short stories
Poets, literary fiction authors, and other unexpected writers are taking their shot at sci-fi and fantasy. Here are some of the best, including Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-12-20 11:35:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#sff books
#louise erdrich
#literary fiction
As an author whose own books never find their way to supermarket shelves, it’s frustrating work – but it puts food on my family’s tableOnce a rare species, celebrity authored children’s books have become stalwarts of supermarket books aisles. Perfect for a grandparent hunting a last-minute... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-12-16 10:41:27 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#ghost writer
#young readers
#children’s book
Africa is a continent of 54 countries and some 1.4 billion people, speaking—and sometimes writing and publishing—in hundreds of languages. The book business on the continent is diverse and eclectic. We convened a group of several top practitioners to get a sample of the triumphs and challenges... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-12-08 09:57:24 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#publishers discuss
#book business
Challenging myths about heterosexual white South African men, Prinsloo published four books of short stories in 12 years. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2022-11-28 05:37:53 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#short stories
Joshua Whitehead can’t be held by genre. Following on the success of his Lambda Literary Award winning novel Jonny Appleseed and poetry collection full-metal indigiqueer, Making Love with the Land is Whitehead’s first full-length work of creative nonfiction. But to describe this book as merely... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2022-11-23 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#full-length work
#creative nonfiction
#essay collection
#electric literature
#literary award
On Friday, Longwood University announced the finalists for the 2022 John Dos Passos Prize, which is the oldest literary award given by a Virginia college or university, and which honors “one of America’s most talented but underappreciated writers. . . whose work offers incisive, original... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-11-21 14:30:02 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#virginia college
#original commentary
#american themes
#literary award
Female authors reveal honest stories of trauma, the challenges of motherhood, sexual dysfunction, and other rarely-talked about topics in new religion and spirituality books for women. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-11-18 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#female authors
#spirituality books
Esteemed Agent, I’m seeking representation for my [300,000-word rhyming memoir / novel-in-grocery-coupons / famous literary graves calendar**] which is a cross between [Maid and Green Eggs and Ham / a bag of Halloween candy and that novel-in-texts you just sold / an apple watch and a mortuary... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2022-11-11 12:05:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#green eggs
#apple watch
#electric literature
#memoir
Author and USC professor Percival Everett joins the Los Angeles Times Book Club on Nov. 16 to discuss "Dr. No" at the Autry Museum. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-11-08 21:41:13 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#times book
“Words and Bullets” is a project launched by the Ukrainian independent publisher Chytomo and PEN Ukraine with the support of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). It is a series of interviews with authors and journalists who became soldiers or volunteers following the Russian invasion of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-11-07 09:53:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#pen ukraine
#project launched
#national endowment
#russian invasion
#independent publisher
She documented her attempt to cook every recipe in Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” in a popular blog that became a best-selling book and a hit movie. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-11-01 17:10:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#julie powell
#food writer
#julie julia
#julia child
#french cooking
#popular blog
#hit movie
#best-selling book
It is a truth universally acknowledged that there are as many definitions of “feminism” and “science fiction” as there are people who identify as feminists and science fiction enthusiasts—in fact, that is part of what makes both of these communities attractive to many people. However, by 1981,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-10-11 08:53:20 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#science fiction
Novelist and television script writer Michael Malone, 80, died of pancreatic cancer on August 19. Malone was one of the first established writers to be published under the Sourcebooks Landmark imprint launched in 2001. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-08-23 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#pancreatic cancer
#established writers
He wrote best-selling mysteries and family sagas, and also examined homophobia and sexual assault as head writer of the soap opera "One Life to Live." Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2022-08-23 02:01:50 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#tv writer
#family sagas
#sexual assault
#head writer
#soap opera