What we're reading August 2019

Lowborn by Kerry HudsonKerry Hudson is best known for her award-winning fiction. Her first book, Tony Hogan Bought Me An Ice-cream Float Before He Stole My Ma, won the Scottish First Book Award and earned her a place on the Granta Best of Young British Novelists list. Her latest book, Lowborn, is a non-fiction account of poverty in the UK today, told from a personal perspective. She recounts a journey across the UK, visiting the seven places she lived as a child. She describes memories of time in care as a looked after child, then with her young and struggling mother, and the all-encompassing poverty which pervaded her childhood, which is still sadly ever visible in the places she visits. Hudson is a masterful storyteller, and this is a brave and honest book that has much to say about the times and society we live in.Sinead Russel, Director LiteratureHend and the Soldiers by Badriah alBeshr, translated from the Arabic by Sanna Dhahir.This beautiful and troubling novel by Saudi novelist and journalist Badriah al Beshr charts a young woman’s childhood and early adulthood, from village life, social ascent during the economic boom, early marriage and divorce. While al Beshr rejects the tag of ‘feminist’ novelist, the picaresque story she weaves lucidly depicts the way gender roles are enforced with martial rigidity by the titular ‘soldiers’ - husband, brothers, extended family, neighbours, and local gossips, who stand guard at the gates of Hend’s world, armed with notions of... Continue reading at 'British Council global'

[ British Council global | 2019-08-30 08:51:45 UTC ]

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Granta reveals its pick of future star British novelists

The journal’s once-in-a-decade selection of the best fiction writers under 40 has broadened its selection of 20 to include authors who ‘regard the UK as their home’Granta magazine’s Best of British Novelists list, which hails the literary stars of the future, has this year expanded to include... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-04-13 07:00:37 UTC ]
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On Writing ‘Blind Bitter Happiness’

‘When I was put on Granta’s first Best of Young British Novelists list in 1983, no novel of mine had been published.’ The post On Writing ‘Blind Bitter Happiness’ appeared first on Granta. Continue reading at Granta

[ Granta | 2023-04-12 15:52:21 UTC ]
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Hay Festival 2023

Hay Festival is the world’s leading festival of ideas across literature, bringing readers and some of the brightest thinkers of our time together to inspire, examine and entertain. This international celebration of literature, music, and the arts is set to take place in the stunning Welsh... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2023-04-11 14:44:07 UTC ]
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On Literary Celebrity

Caryl Phillips on being chosen as a Best of Young British Novelists in 1993 and the nascent culture of literary celebrity. The post On Literary Celebrity appeared first on Granta. Continue reading at Granta

[ Granta | 2023-04-06 11:41:47 UTC ]
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On Judging Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists

A.L. Kennedy on being chosen for, and judging Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists. The post On Judging <em>Granta</em>’s Best of Young British Novelists appeared first on Granta. Continue reading at Granta

[ Granta | 2023-04-06 11:32:41 UTC ]
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On the Anxieties of Translation

Ned Beauman on his translation into Assamese, and where being named one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists took him. The post On the Anxieties of Translation appeared first on Granta. Continue reading at Granta

[ Granta | 2023-04-06 11:24:19 UTC ]
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Catherine Lacey: ‘That constant nervous Twitter energy repels me’

The American novelist, whose latest work is a fake biography of an avant-garde artist, on growing up in Mississippi and why her fiction has ‘never actively involved cellphones or the internet’Catherine Lacey, 37, is the author of three previous novels, including The Answers, currently being... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-04-01 17:00:01 UTC ]
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Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists

‘The issue was the first of its kind. Trust me, it said. I know what I am talking about. These young writers are the future of literature. Watch. History will prove me right.’ A history of the list, with reflections from Bill Buford and other editors. The post <em>Granta</em>’s... Continue reading at Granta

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NYPL Announces 2023 Finalists for Bernstein Excellence in Journalism Award

The New York Public Library has announced its five finalists for the 36th Helen Bernstein Book Award for Journalism. Continue reading at Book Riot

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Bank Street Launches Margaret Wise Brown Board Book Award

The Center for Children's Literature at Bank Street College held a virtual event for the inaugural Margaret Wise Brown Board Book Award on March 9. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

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Here are the winners of the 2023 PEN America Literary Awards.

Last night, the great pens of America convened at The Town Hall in NYC as Kal Penn presided over the 2023 PEN America Literary Awards. For those felled by late-winter viruses who desire to get a taste of proceedings, a recording is available here. Below are this year’s winners: PEN/Jean Stein... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

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In Praise of the Campus Novel: Daisy Alpert Florin on Fiction and Self-Discovery

What is it about campus novels that makes us love them so? The campus has inspired many novelists over the years: Michael Chabon, Kazuo Ishiguro, Curtis Sittenfeld, Elif Batuman, Nabokov, to name just a few. Readers love these stories, too; “the campus novel” has become its own literary... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

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Amina Luqman-Dawson's Newbery Win: A Dual Celebration

We spoke with Amina Luqman-Dawson about her immediate reaction to the news that her middle-grade historical novel 'Freewater,' inspired by the escape of formerly enslaved people, won this year's Coretta Scott King Book Award and the John Newbery Medal. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

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Winners of Inaugural Margaret Wise Brown Board Book Award Named

The Children's Book Committee at Bank Street College of Education has announced the two books that are the first recipients of the Margaret Wise Brown Board Book Award for excellence in literature for young children. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

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Daniel Torday on Why There Are No Acknowledgements in His Latest Novel

I kind of love acknowledgement pages. When I was trying to find an agent for my first novel, I would go to the local Borders (it was a lifetime ago) open to them often to discover which agents and editors novelists worked with, which MFA programs they’d attended, who their early readers were. My... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

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Appreciation: Russell Banks was a giant rooting for the underdogs

Russell Banks, who has died at age 82, carried on the legacy of great American novelists probing big themes through the small lives of heroic underdogs. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-01-09 21:54:28 UTC ]
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How Jane Austen Almost Walked Away From Writing

If you’re a literary genius, you’ve got it easy—right? Wrong. Even Jane Austen, indisputably one of the greatest novelists in the English language, spent years struggling to be published and became so dispirited that there were moments when she almost walked away. The story begins with an... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-11-18 09:54:04 UTC ]
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Lit Hub Daily: November 9, 2022

Kris Jansma on working the polls and having long (bipartisan) conversations about literature with his fellow Election Inspectors. | Lit Hub Politics Read rapid-fire interviews with the National Book Award finalists. | Lit Hub “Now we have conversations where we can’t remember what’s in the book... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-11-09 11:30:59 UTC ]
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Hilary Mantel, celebrated author of Wolf Hall, dies aged 70

‘She saw and felt things us ordinary mortals missed,’ her agent says of Booker prize-winning author who died on Thursday• Hilary Mantel remembered: ‘She was the queen of literature’• ‘The pen is in our hands. A happy ending is ours to write’: Hilary Mantel in her own wordsThe Booker... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2022-09-23 11:29:23 UTC ]
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Celebrating Christian Fiction: ACFW 2022 Photo Essay

Held in person for the first time since 2019, the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) 2022 conference brought over 300 authors, agents, publishers, and aspiring novelists together in St. Louis, Mo. from September 8-11. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

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