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 ]
Raven Leilani’s debut novel follows an interracial, intergenerational affair as it leads to an unusual redefinition of family. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-08-06 09:00:04 UTC ]
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A prolific writer, she published more than 75 books, including a Best Seller and a National Book Award finalist, all while encouraging aspiring authors. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-08-05 21:52:08 UTC ]
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Jennifer Hofmann’s debut novel follows a Stasi agent trying to make sense of his past. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-08-04 12:00:00 UTC ]
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For 18 seasons, he served as creative director and producer of the global phenomenon ‘America’s Next Top Model.’ But his debut novel isn’t the juicy tell-all you might’ve expected. Makeup artist and stylist Jay Manuel has spent more than 20 years in the fashion industry, most famously serving as... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2020-08-03 12:15:52 UTC ]
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Ashley Hickson-Lovence, Abir Mukherjee, Courttia Newland, Guy Gunaratne, Paul Mendez and Okechukwu Nzelu on why British writers of colour are left out of the conversationAfter this week’s Booker prize longlist was announced, the Times asked “Where are the new male hotshot novelists?” I was... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-07-31 14:10:18 UTC ]
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When I started writing my current novel, Paris Never Leaves You, I had no idea the protagonist, a young widow struggling to survive in Occupied Paris, would end up working in a New York publishing house. I knew she would get to America, but I assumed she would enter the fashion or beauty... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-07-31 08:48:22 UTC ]
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Renard Press has made its first acquisition, landing Iain Hood's debut novel This Good Book. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-28 22:40:39 UTC ]
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Mieko Kawakami, whose poignant and pointed debut novel Breasts and Eggs is this season’s LARB’s Book Club selection, joins Medaya Ocher and Boris Dralyuk to discuss her career as a musician, poet, blogger, and author, the challenges facing women around the world, the state of Japanese... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-07-24 17:23:00 UTC ]
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Emma Gannon is releasing a four-part series of podcasts to mark the publication of her debut novel Olive (HarperCollins). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-23 16:12:33 UTC ]
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Today, Simon and Schuster announced that their imprint Scribner will be publishing the debut novel for adults from #1 New York Times bestselling children’s book author Jason Reynolds, whose books include Look Both Ways and Ghost, both finalists for the National Book Award for Young People’s... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-07-22 16:30:17 UTC ]
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When a friend of mine, a former teacher, told me the subject of a children’s book he wants to write—an allegory about how the criminal justice system tries to entrap people of color from a young age—my first thought was Dark, man. And then: I wish I’d had access to a book like that when I was a […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-07-21 19:17:26 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has scooped an “exceptional” debut novel from journalist and former Waterstones bookseller Jo Hamya. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-21 17:27:41 UTC ]
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Rachel Neely, commissioning editor at Trapeze, has made her first acquisition for the company with debut novel Wet Paint by Chloë Ashby. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-21 15:42:11 UTC ]
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Hodder & Stoughton has pre-empted a debut novel from Gleam Titles agent Abigail Bergstrom, an upmarket commercial fiction book she originally submitted under a pseudonym. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-14 21:54:03 UTC ]
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And Other Stories is set to publish the debut novel of British poet and former human rights lawyer Mona Arshi. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-13 11:07:20 UTC ]
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James Corden to produce film and TV series based on Australia’s Real Pigeons children’s booksThe humble pigeon may be an unlikely breed of star but an author-illustrator duo from Melbourne have been turning the birds into a crime-fighting troupe of superheroes – and they’re about to take flight... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-07-07 21:55:36 UTC ]
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Set in Atlantic City in the 1930s, Rachel Beanland’s debut novel wades through heartbreak. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-07-07 09:00:11 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury editor-in-chief Paul Baggaley has acquired an "extraordinarily prescient" debut novel by Sequoia Nagamatsu, How High We Go in the Dark. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-06 10:17:28 UTC ]
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Mo Willems, Kyo Maclear, and other children’s book authors on what Arnold Lobel’s series means to them. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2020-07-03 14:30:00 UTC ]
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Waterstones Children’s Laureate Cressida Cowell is running a virtual “Summer Camp” for youngsters featuring guest authors and illustrators. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-01 10:46:08 UTC ]
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