By encouraging the young to publish fan fiction, story-sharing startup Movellas is tackling English children's low literacy levelsLiteracy levels among English young adults compare poorly with those in other industrialised countries, according to an OECD survey last autumn which ranked England a "must try harder" 22nd out of 24 in tests for literacy.Turning this around is a challenge that appeals to Movellas, an online story-sharing startup. Taking to heart the maxim that "reading for pleasure" is vital to a child's educational attainment, the company's founders believe that encouraging young people to write about their passions and share those stories with others can have a positive effect on literacy.In other words, if your daughter's writing One Direction fan fiction on her phone, she could be on her way to an A* at English GCSE. Or, at the very least, a book deal. "Movellian" Emily Baker's 1D-inspired Loving the Band was snapped up by Penguin. Helen Hiorns's The Name on Your Wrist was published by Random House after she won the inaugural young movellist of the year, sponsored by Sony and judged by children's laureate Malorie Blackman.High-profile success stories can help build its user base (200,000 and growing), but Movellas does more than sell the dream of literary fame.When surveyed, 50% of respondents said Movellas had made them enjoy reading more; 70% enjoyed writing more. Importantly, 20% of its users get free school meals (about the national average). Only 25%... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2014-02-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with:
#national average
#team working
#fan fiction
Categorising fiction may help to sell books, but it says little about how writers write or readers readIn her Reith lecture of 2017, recently published for the first time in a posthumous collection of nonfiction, A Memoir of My Former Self, Hilary Mantel recalled the beginnings of her career as... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-11-27 12:30:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#big idea
#sell books
#posthumous collection
#interesting thing
#historical fiction
#memoir
Amid ongoing challenges, Black authors and editors are creating the love stories they want to read. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-11-17 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#love stories
#black authors
“The world here beats faster than a hummingbird’s wings,” writes Alexandra Chang in her new collection Tomb Sweeping. Chang, the author of Days of Distraction and a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 recipient, writes poignantly about tenuous connection. In these stories, a wealthy housewife... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-11-02 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#short story
#electric literature
#national book foundation
Mind-body-spirit houses are adding titles for children centered on earth-based spirituality, magic, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-25 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#adding titles
Novelist, playwright and screenwriter Marie Ndiaye has had the attention of the French literary world since she published her first novel, As to the Rich Future, at seventeen. Born in Pithiviers, the daughter of a French school teacher mother and a Senegalese father, she won the 2001 Prix Femina... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-10-24 08:20:28 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#literary world
Computer languages are ultimately rendered in ones and zeros, even AI programs. Though this technology is new, the concept it’s hinged on is not. Isaac Asimov’s iconic science fiction collection I, Robot, tells the story of androids created at U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men Inc. The androids... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2023-10-17 06:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#ai programs
#isaac asimov
#science fiction
Who doesn't want to throw a Halloween book club? Find Halloween book club ideas, decor, party favors, and recommended reads all here! Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-09-25 10:30:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#recommended reads
#book club
As linear television viewership continues to decline, advertisers' appetite for reaching live audiences has only grown in proportion. To capitalize on this opportunity and tap into lucrative video budgets, publishers including Cond? Nast, Penske Media Corp. (PMC) and Overtime have all recently... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2023-07-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#publishers turn
#recently launched
#publishers including
The Jan. 6 Report could be reprinted or recorded by any publisher. So when Macmillan Audio got the draft, the race unfolded with the precision of a heist film. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-06-13 13:00:31 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#recorded history
#macmillan audio
#macmillan
Kenan Orhan’s debut, I Am My Country, feels like much more than just a book of imaginative short stories set in and around the author’s ancestral homeland of Turkey. The powerful collection could be said to comprise a series of real “small rebellions” — enacted by its characters, prose, and the... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-06-13 11:01:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#electric literature
#short stories
When the Next Big Idea Club launched in 2018, the centerpiece of its offerings was a box subscription. It still offers that service, but has company has shifted gears, now operating as an “audio-first company.” Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-06-02 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#big idea
In 'Yellowface,' R. F. Kuang has traded in fantasy fiction for a wild satire on literary scandals over appropriation and plagiarism. How and why she did it. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-05-15 13:00:29 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#satirical thriller
#fantasy fiction
Following Maggie Tokuda-Hall's response to a troubling editorial request from Scholastic's Rising Voices Library, Candlewick is expediting a reprint of Maggie Tokuda-Hall's 'Love in the Library' and will promote the ebook alongside Freedom to Learn's National Day of Action. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-05-02 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#censorship controversy
#national day
In this excerpt from ‘Gunflight,’ Ryan Busse, a former firearms exec turned gun-safety activist, explores the industry’s response to America’s first high-profile school shooting, and the shift to today’s radicalized gun landscape. Ryan Busse is a former firearms executive who spent 25 years at... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2023-04-26 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#ryan busse
#joe biden
#presidential campaign
BuzzFeed changed the way news was reported for the digital age. But it became a casualty of its lopsided relationship with FacebookThe announcement of the demise of BuzzFeed News last week felt unlike the cavalcade of media closures and layoffs of the past decade. In a sense, it represented the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-04-26 03:36:53 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#buzzfeed news
#news operation
#digital age
#past decade
#harry potter
'The Fitful Sleep of Immigrants' began as a memoir about Orlando Ortega-Medina's exile from a homophobic U.S. How it became an immigration thriller instead Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-04-18 13:00:23 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#legal thriller
#memoir
The central thesis of Andreas Malm’s manifesto How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning to Fight in a World on Fire is that peaceful protests have proven themselves ineffective in stopping the widespread annihilation of the earth and its inhabitants by climate change. The book, published by Verso... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-04-07 08:53:26 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#climate change
#verso books
#verso
She might not have written an entire book in one day, but Australian author Karina May has a pretty good, pretty sweat-smile story behind the rom-commy Duck à l’Orange for Breakfast, which comes out March 28 from Pan Macmillan Australia. First, you need to understand the plot: The novel centers... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-03-22 08:59:40 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#pretty good
#pan macmillan
#australian author
As you may recall, back in January of 2022, after much speculation and an industrywide manhunt, a Tom Ripley-esque rights coordinator by the name of Filippo Bernardini was arrested at JFK airport for the extremely strange crime of impersonating literary agents and book publishers. Between 2016... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-03-13 17:20:57 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#filippo bernardini
#book publishers
#literary agents