Interviews Matthew Davis Ugandan novelist and short-story writer Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s first novel, Kintu, won the Kwani Manuscript Project in 2013 and was longlisted for the Etisalat Prize in 2014. She was awarded the 2014 Commonwealth Short-Story Prize for her story Lets Tell This Story Properly, published by Granta, and the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction 2018 to support her writing. Her first full story collection, Manchester Happened, was published by Oneworld in May 2019. Retitled Let’s Tell This Story Properly, the collection was published in the US in July 2019. She lives in Manchester with her husband and son and lectures in creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. While Makumbi was a fellow at the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center at George Mason University this past spring, she talked with Matthew Davis, the center’s founding director. Here they discuss how westerners and Africans read African literature differently, writing for Ugandans, and how eighteen years in England has changed her. Matthew Davis: Jennifer, welcome. I want to start by discussing your novel, Kintu, which is in many ways a modern classic of world literature. It begins in 1750, when Kintu Kidda sets out for the capital to pledge allegiance to the new leader of the Buganda kingdom. The novel follows the descendants of Kintu as they struggle with a curse he unleashed as he made his way to the capital in the... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2019-08-06 13:42:31 UTC ]
Welsh writer Carys Davies [pictured] has won the €25,000 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award for her collection The Redemption of Galen Pike, published by the independent Salt Publishing. The award is the single most lucrative prize in the world for a collection of short... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Short stories are gaining ground in the UK, but authors working within the format are finding it more difficult to break into the public consciousness than novelists, writers have told The Bookseller. Awards that cover all forms of fiction such as The Folio Prize, won in 2014 by George... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-06-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Serpent's Tail has signed two books from Orange Prize-winner Valerie Martin, a novel and a collection of short stories. Commissioning editor Rebecca Gray signed UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) from Peter Straus at RCW, on behalf of Molly Friedrich at the Friedrich Agency. Short... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has acquired a book of short stories by Daisy Johnson at auction. Editorial director Alex Bowler signed UK and Commonwealth rights to two books by Johnson from Jack Ramm at Eve White Literary Agency. Johnson is a 24-year-old prizewinning graduate of Oxford University’s Fiction... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-04-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Margaret Atwood's first stand-alone novel in 15 years will be published in September, alongside a new collection of short stories. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2015-03-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Catherine Aird has been awarded the Crime Writer’s Association Diamond Dagger award. The Diamond Dagger winner is chosen by the CWA committee from a shortlist of writers judged worthy by their peers. Shortlisted authors must have sustained excellence in their careers and made a significant... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-02-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Granta Books editor Anne Meadows has acquired a “darkly funny, whip-smart” novel and a collection of short stories from Catherine Lacey, whose debut novel Nobody is Ever Missing will be published - also by Granta - this week. Meadows acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, including Australia New... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-02-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pan Macmillan is to publish a collection of short stories by television and radio presenter Sir Terry Wogan. Editorial director Trisha Jackson acquired UK & Commonwealth Rights from Luigi Bonomi at LBA. Jackson said: “I’ve been a huge fan of Terry’s for many years and these incredibly... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-01-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Booktrust and the BBC have launched a short story competition for teenagers. The ‘BBC Young Writers’ Award with Booktrust’ is for teen writers (aged 14-18) of short stories, on any topic, of up to a 1,000 words. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Irish author Colin Barrett wins the Guardian First Book Award for his debut collection of short stories, Young Skins. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2014-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Short story collection about soldiers struggling in cope with chaos of Iraq war takes top US literary prize, with Ursula K Le Guin honored for lifetime contribution• Redeployment by Phil Klay review – incendiary stories of warA US marines veteran, Phil Klay, has taken home America’s most... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-11-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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My romance with Chicken Soup for the Soul began and ended with the adolescent iteration, Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul, and it was fostered in part because I read it when I was not yet teenaged. There was so much in that book for a 10-year-old to love: the amazing celebrity contributors... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2014-11-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A short story collection by Kuwaiti author Mai Al-Nakib has won the 2014 Edinburgh International Book Festival’s First Book Award. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-10-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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John Murray has pre-empted a collection of short stories and debut novel from Irish writer... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-09-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Established in memory of Nobel Prize-winning author Saul Bellow, the $25,000 award is presented biannually to a living American author whose "scale of achievement in fiction, over a sustained career, places him or her in the highest rank of American literature." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-09-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Nine romance writers are distributing an anthology of short stories, "Naught Nine," through INscribe Digital. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-07-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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An obscure but fascinating aspect of the Civil War, when hundreds of women disguised as men enlisted in the army as Union soldiers to fight, is at the heart of Neverhome (Little, Brown; Sept.) by Laird Hunt, the author of five novels and a collection of short stories and a two-time finalist for... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-05-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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We last heard from Elizabeth Spencer more than a decade ago. In 1998 she published a memoir, Landscapes of the Heart, followed in 2001 by a “greatest hits” roundup of her novellas and short stories, The Southern Woman, which was followed by a quiet 12 years. One could be forgiven the thought... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2014-02-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Literary agent David Godwin predicts that small publishers in India will soon be forced aside by monolithic publishing houses run overseas. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The unnamed protagonist in Jack London's 'To Build a Fire' gets into trouble while hiking in the frozen Yukon with his dog. Widely considered to be London’s best short story, 'To Build a Fire' captures the cold with painful accuracy. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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