The author was repeatedly told that no one wanted to read fun books with disabled heroes. Now she has won the £5,000 Waterstones children’s book prize for her debut, A Kind of SparkWhen Scottish author Elle McNicoll was first trying to enter the publishing world, she was repeatedly told that people didn’t want to read about an autistic heroine. “In job interviews, I was saying that I wanted to see more books with disabled characters in them that were not traumatic, boring or educational, but fun and full of life. A lot of the reactions were, ‘Waterstones don’t like books like that’,” she says.Now McNicoll’s debut novel A Kind of Spark has won the Waterstones children’s book prize. Published by tiny independent Knights Of, it follows Addie, an 11-year-old autistic girl, as she campaigns for a memorial to the witch trials that took place in her Scottish village. The novel has been praised by Waterstones’ booksellers as “eye opening, heart-wrenching, sad [and] inspiring”. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2021-07-01 05:01:05 UTC ]
Wildfire will publish Mother Mother, the debut novel from DJ and broadcaster Annie Macmanus, popularly known as Annie Mac. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-11 19:57:39 UTC ]
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In this debut novel set on the river that separates Cleveland from Ohio City, an orphan builds a mythology around his big brother. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-10-06 09:00:08 UTC ]
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A campaign designed to help create visibility and generate book sales for emerging children's authors and illustrators of colour has been launched by BookTrust Represents and Waterstones children’s laureate Cressida Cowell. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-05 01:01:07 UTC ]
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Serpent’s Tail will publish Oana Aristide's debut novel Under the Blue as a lead title in March 2021. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-30 02:17:21 UTC ]
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The YA Book Prize, which aims to recognise the best Young Adult fiction from the UK and Ireland, has re-opened for submissions. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-29 14:33:44 UTC ]
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Emily Temple’s debut novel The Lightness tells the story of a “Buddhist Boot Camp for Bad Girls” Continue reading at Guernica
[ Guernica | 2020-09-29 14:13:13 UTC ]
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K-Ming Chang’s debut novel tells the stories of three generations of Taiwanese women through the beasts, both real and mythical, they encounter. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-09-29 09:00:07 UTC ]
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Michael Joseph has triumphed in a five-way auction for Evening Standard features editor Phoebe Luckhurst's “hilarious” debut novel The Lock In. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-28 12:02:59 UTC ]
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Before writing my debut novel Bestiary, I began a year-long process of translating letters written by my grandmother, many of which were addressed to people I didn’t know. While attempting these translations, I realized the impossibilities and possibilities of the task—the losses and gaps and... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-09-28 11:00:00 UTC ]
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John Murray Press will publish Ilona Bannister's debut novel When I Ran Away on its Two Roads imprint. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-28 10:28:24 UTC ]
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Viking has pre-empted Our New Names, a “heartbreaking” debut novel from Khashayar J Khabushani. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-25 03:48:29 UTC ]
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Natalie Portman knows a thing or two about fairy tales. Portman’s turn as a dancer whose life goes awry in Black Swan (2010) was, famously, a brooding take on Pyotr Tchaikovksy’s most famous ballet. Swan Lake itself was likely inspired by Russian and German folktales like Johann Karl August... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-09-23 16:54:30 UTC ]
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“Everything is copy.” That was an Ephron family saying that I’ve adopted as my own maxim, and it is in that spirit that my debut novel A World Between––a tale of two queer women of color, Eleanor and Leena, who grow away from and towards each other over the course of 13 years––is a web […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-09-15 08:48:45 UTC ]
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Yaa Gyasi’s debut novel Homegoing told the story of two branches of a Ghanaian family, one descended from a woman who marries a white slave trader and whose line stays in Ghana, another descended from her half-sister who is captured and sent to America in bondage. Gyasi’s second novel... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-09-11 11:00:00 UTC ]
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An excerpt from a debut novel Kirkus calls "hypnotizing and inscrutable." The post ‘Pink Mountain on Locust Island’: Featured Fiction from Jamie Marina Lau appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2020-09-09 10:00:12 UTC ]
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“The Discomfort of Evening,” by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, winner of this year’s International Book Prize, is about strictly religious dairy farmers mourning a son’s death. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-09-08 16:16:33 UTC ]
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Harvill Secker has won a debut novel by K-Ming Chang in a "heated" five-way auction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-07 06:51:52 UTC ]
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The children’s book writer never caught on in America, partly because of his Communist Party ties, but the English-language release of his masterpiece could change that. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-09-05 09:00:16 UTC ]
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Big Picture Press, an imprint of Bonnier Books UK, has acquired a non-fiction children’s book from Channel 4 News weather presenter and meteorologist Liam Dutton. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-04 23:38:38 UTC ]
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