What We're Reading – October 2019

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine EvaristoSince studying Lara as a student, I have been a fan of Bernardine Evaristo’s work, and am delighted to see her win the Booker Prize this year. Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives of twelve black characters with different backgrounds and experiences, most of whom identify as female, living in London. I’ve enjoyed getting to know them through my reading and seeing how their lives are linked or overlap in different ways. What I found particularly interesting about this book is how each character responds in their own way to the universal questions of self and identity, particularly the tensions between personal, public and political gender discourse and the effect it has on the relationships the characters have with others. This feels like a very important book, and a must-read if you’re interested in what’s happening in UK fiction today.Rachel Stevens, Director LiteratureCommon People - An Anthology of Working-class Writers (ed Kit de Waal). An exceptional collection of essays, poems, memoir and short stories celebrating working-class life, culture and literature. There are many highlights, but I especially recommend Lisa McInnery’s essay ‘Working Class: An Escape Manual’, which considers how working-class writers and artists are co-opted into other identities when they achieve success. Debut author Adam Sharp’s ‘Play’, a memoir of his relationship with a substance-addicted father, is poignant and deftly handled - he’s a writer to... Continue reading at 'British Council global'

[ British Council global | 2019-10-30 09:49:28 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "What We're Reading – October 2019"


Beyond the Commonwealth

Philip Jones considers the significance of the relationship between David Fickling Books and Penguin Random House UK, who together publish Philip Pullman's Book of Dust series.   Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Lyra returns in Pullman’s second Book of Dust

Lyra Silvertongue, the heroine of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, will return as an adult in The Secret Commonwealth: The Book of Dust Volume Two, which will be released on 3rd October this year. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Picador lands new SF story collection from Chiang

Picador has landed a second book of short stories by acclaimed science fiction writer Ted Chiang, Exhalation. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-02-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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INDONESIA FOCUS: Q+A Intan Paramaditha

Intan Paramaditha will be appearing alongside Syd Moore to discuss re-writing old stories and myths with a contemporary, feminist slant at the Essex Book Festival on 15 March 2019 at 19.00. Find out more and book tickets here.   What’s exciting about Indonesian literature at the moment, and... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2019-02-21 11:15:36 UTC ]
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Publishing and TV deals announced for ‘futuristic’ YA trilogy

Ben Oliver, the debut author of YA trilogy The Loop, has signed a publishing deal with Chicken House and a TV development deal with Lime Pictures. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-02-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Q&A: Karen Bender on her short stories that confront hot-button issues

Some writers turn to fiction as a way to escape the nonstop onslaught of (mostly bad) news that Americans are subjected to constantly these days. Karen E. Bender, the novelist and short story writer, is not that kind of writer. Bender’s new short story collection, “The New Order,” takes on a host... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-02-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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INDONESIA FOCUS: Q+A Laksmi Pamuntjak

Indonesia is the country of focus at the London Book Fair this year and recently at Frankfurt - to what extent do you think Indonesian literature is finally having it's moment in the spotlight? I cannot say for certain what these one-off ‘spotlights’ on Indonesian literature would mean for... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2019-02-08 10:06:53 UTC ]
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Audible brings A.S. Byatt novels and stories to audio for first time

Audible is bringing the novels and short stories of A.S. Byatt to audio for the first time this month. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-02-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Myriad acquires Chiew's debut short story collection

Myriad has acquired world rights to Elaine Chiew's debut collection of short stories, The Heartsick Diaspora. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-02-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Puffin pairs Bryon and Adeola for picture book series

Puffin, part of Penguin Random House Children's, has acquired a three book picture series about an “irrepressible” girl called Rocket by debut author and illustrator duo Nathan Bryon and Dapo Adeola. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-02-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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International Prize for Arabic Fiction Shortlist Announcement

The shortlist for the 2019 International Prize for Arabic Fiction was announced today at the El-Hakawati Palestinian National Theatre in East Jerusalem. The IPAF - often referred to as the ‘Arabic Booker’ - is an annual literary prize for prose fiction, which encourages the readership of... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2019-02-05 16:33:45 UTC ]
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PRH Children’s tackles toxic masculinity with ‘eye opening’ YA

Penguin Random House has acquired a YA novel tackling teen mental illness and toxic masculinity by debut author and mechanic James Goodhand. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-02-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Walliams targets 7+ readers with new ‘daft story’

David Walliams’ next publication, a funny story entitled Fing, "dovetails seamlessly" with his short stories and middle-grade novels, according to his publisher HarperCollins Children’s Books. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-01-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Comma scoops Constantine's fifth short story collection

Author of the Oscar-nominated film “45 Years” David Constantine has signed a deal for a collection of short stories, The Dressing-up Box, with Comma Press. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis

Each month in 2018, Future Tense Fiction—a series of short stories from Future Tense and ASU’s Center for Science and the Imagination about how technology and science will change our lives—will publish a story on a theme. The theme for October–December 2018: Work. Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2018-12-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Morpurgo, James and Byatt join forces with London bookshops to raise money for homeless

Daunt Books, Waterstones and Foyles are raising money for The Passage, a charity that supports people who are homeless, by selling a book of short stories by AS Byatt, Lennie James and Michael Morpurgo. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-12-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Harvill Secker wins actor's parenthood thriller, Conception, at auction

Harvill Secker has won a "sharp" thriller about marriage, parenthood and obsession by debut author and actor C C MacDonald. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Shortlist announced for FutureBook/Pigeonhole short story competition

Thirty-six short stories were submitted for the first ever FutureBook speculative fiction competition run with digital reading platform the Pigeonhole. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Beatles biographer Philip Norman: 'Yoko was waiting for me – with two lawyers'

He has charmed Elton John, angered Paul McCartney – and horrified Yoko Ono. What will he uncover about the ‘murky’ death of Jimi Hendrix? The great rock writer reveals the pain – and pleasure – of chasing starsSlowhand: The Life and Music of Eric Clapton is my eighth rock biography since Shout!... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2018-11-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Newly discovered stories of Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz to Saqi

Saqi Books is publishing a newly discovered collection of short stories by the late author Naguib Mahfouz, who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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