London Writing Workshops

Archive for the ‘Places to Read New Fiction’ Category

The Bookseller reports that a group of 40 children’s authors will launch the first online literary festival in the children’s sector on 9 & 10 July.  The authors, all members of the Scattered Authors Society, are aiming to attract more readers to their blogging website, An Awfully Big Blog Adventure (http://awfullybigblogadventure.blogspot.com/p/online-lit-fest.html), which is aimed at teenagers, teachers, librarians, parents and others within the trade.

Those taking part include Adele Geras, Mary Hoffman, Liz Kessler and Celia Rees. They will provide new blogs every half hour from 9.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m. over these two days. Rees said: “There are a lot of bloggers out there talking about children’s books, but not so much of a voice for writers themselves. We are trying to give ourselves a voice within this world. It’s a way of increasing interest in our books, yes, but also about supporting reading in general.”

The annual Worlds Literature Festival takes place in Norwich from 20th-24th June this year, with a variety of public events and speakers including Joseph O’Connor, John Boyne, A.S. Byatt, Hisham Matar and many more.

Tuesday’s Summer Read event features a personal favourite of mine. Katie Kitamura (pictured) will be reading from her flawless debut novel about a prizefighter The Longshot (6pm, Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library). As it says on the back of the book, ‘Hemingway’s returned to life - and this time, he’s a woman’ (Tom McCarthy).

Click here for information on the participants of Worlds Literature Festival 2011.

The Bookseller reports that, the success of this year’s Save Our Libraries Day – with 120 events held across the country to demonstrate support for local libraries threatened with cuts and closures - has led to calls for an annual National Libraries Day. The plan has the backing of a wide range of organisations including the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, Campaign for the Book, the Crime Writers Association, the Publishers Association and The Bookseller.

In her acceptance speech on Monday (6th June), the new Children’s Laureate Julia Donaldson (pictured)  signalled her intention to be an advocate for the public library service during her two years in the role, saying: “I care very much about libraries and I’m looking for more opportunities to speak out against the cuts and closures I see as so damaging to our children’s future.” She has since announced she plans to take a tour of libraries across the UK.

Congratulations to Arts Council funded independent publishers Route Online. One of their authors, Michael Nath, has been shortlisted for the prestigious James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel La Rochelle.  The winner of the prize - chosen by the Professor of English Literature at Edinburgh University, assisted by PhD students - will be announced at this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival in August.

Established in 1919, the James Tait Black Prize is Britain’s oldest literary award. Two prizes are awarded each year, one for fiction, one for biography. Previous winners in the novel category include E M Forster, Siegfried Sassoon, Aldous Huxley, D H Lawrence, Evelyn Waugh, Muriel Spark, Iris Murdoch, Beryl Bainbridge, Angela Carter, John le Carré and Bruce Chatwin.

Tweet

Join Granta Magazine at Foyles, 113-119 Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0EB, on May 18, 6.30pm, to celebrate the launch of their latest issue, ‘The F Word’, which explores  the legacy of feminism in literature.

Contributors Rachel Cusk and Taiye Selasi talk about the writers who inspired them and what the word ‘feminism’ means to them today. Granta‘s publisher Sigrid Rausing will host the discussion. With readings from the issue and drinks. The event is free but you need to email events@granta.com to reserve a place.

This week, ‘super agent’ Ed Victor announced that he is setting up a new digital and print on demand publishing venture, Bedford Square Books, which will release six titles by authors his agency represents this September, with another six planned for January 2012. Authors’ royalties will be 50% as opposed to the 26% traditionally on offer from publishers for ebooks.  Now, The Bookseller reports that agencies Curtis Brown and Blake Friedman are planning to follow his example. Agent Sonia Land has already made 100 of Catherine Cookson’s out of print titles available as e-books, apparently frustrated by the lack of interest from the traditional publishers. She reacted to the news of Bedford Square Books by warning publishers to “rethink their legacy operation”.

In July last year, US literary agent Andrew Wylie (AKA ‘the Jackal’), created an imprint called Odyssey Books and struck a deal with Amazon to make a number of classic titles by some of his extremely famous clients –  for example, Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint, Nabokov’s Lolita – available on Kindle. Random House reacted furiously by declaring that it now regarded the the Wylie Agency as a direct competitor. In the end Wylie was forced to scale down his plans, although books like Brideshead Revisited and The Naked and the Dead are still available on Odyssey.

As yet, Ed Victor’s move has not attracted such ire. The CEO of the Publishers Association, Richard Mollet, wished Victor luck and added that he “hope[d] he would consider joining the PA”.

Tweet

Is it a book? Is it a film? No it’s a networked novel.

Kate Pullinger, novelist and Reader in Creative Writing and New Media at de Montfort Univerity, Leicester, and Chris Joseph, electronic writer and artist, have produced a novel with music and images to be read online.  It explores what happens when diverse worlds collide and an airplane stowaway crashes in on the life of a suburban London housewife. Click here to experience FLIGHT PATHS.

Tweet