The 2005 Diagram Prize for the Oddest Title of the Year
The shortlist for the 2005 prize was announced recently. My favourite competition of the year is run by columnist Horace Bent in the Bookseller (the UK book trade weekly) with input from dedicated odd title hunters from all over the world. Read more
Chaired by the writer and journalist John Walsh, a panel of four publishing insiders deliberated the thorny subject of how to get published in front of a large, well-informed, near-capacity audience of writers at the London Book Fair. Read more
The Masterclass on Historical Fiction at the London Book Fair involved two of the most successful authors in the genre, Bernard Cornwall, author of the Sharpe novels and the Arthurian trilogy, and Philippa Gregory, who first made her name in the field with A Respectable Trade and has more recentlywritten a series of Tudornovels. Read more
Report from the Annual Writers’ Conference in Winchester
In the week that brought the news that the average age of authors whose books were in the US bestseller lists was a little over fifty, Fay Weldon in her plenary address to the 25th Writers’ Conference at Winchester had more good news for mature writers. Read more
Nick Webb, publisher turned author, comments on what GoogleWorld might mean for authors
When I first turned to writing I resolved to resist the personality disorders that decades of dealing with authors made me associate with the species. You know: insecurity, jealous rage, plangent whingeing, emotional neediness, and - above all - endless anxiety about money. Read more
Last week saw the launch of the Poetry ArchiveOnline archive with recordings of over 130 living poets' voices, mostly from the UK; you can listen to excerpts on their wonderful site or go to www.poetrybookshoponline.com to buy hour-long recordings on CD. www.poetryarchive.org a major initiative to record poets’ voices and to preserve their own readings of their work. The new website is at www.poetryarchive.org, where you can listen to the 80 poets who have so far been recorded by the Archive, now the world's premier online collection of recordings of poets read Read more
Poetry lovers who are within reach of London can look forward to an annual treat in January. The poets shortlisted for the annual T S Eliot Prize for the best poetry collection published in the UK during 2005 will be reading on Sunday the 15th January. Read more
'I'm very reassuringly honest. It's a job as well as a calling. It's my living - I'm the chief breadwinner in my house. My husband is retired, he supported me through the two decades while I wasn't making enough to live on, and was doing all kinds of things to do with writing to survive - judging competitions, running workshops, appraising manuscripts.
‘My settings of Europe and English visitors weren't really doing it for them, so we decided Scotland would be good. I thought an island would be great, because it's a small community, and it's an opportunity for my main character to get away from it all. The team at HarperCollins have been so supportive and enthusiastic... Read more
For the past five years or so, I've read books on my phone. The practice started innocently enough. I write book reviews from time to time, and so publishers sometimes send me upcoming titles that fall roughly within my interests. Read more
The Guardian calls Irish-Indian poet Nikita Gill "Britain's most-followed poet on social media"-she has 780,000 Instagram followers and 180,000 TikTok followers, and her Instapoetry has been reshared by the likes of Khloe Kardashian, Alanis Morissette, and Sam Smith-and she has published seven volumes of poetry and two novels in the U.K. But she is far less known on this side of the pond. Read more
Nikkolas Smith knows a thing or two about book bans. The illustrator has created five picture books over the last three years-four of which have been yanked off library shelves. There's I am Ruby Bridges, about the civil rights icon; That Flag about the confederate flag; Born on the Water, which explores slavery; and The Artivist which features a child supporting trans kids.
Simon & Schuster has acquired the largest Dutch publishing group Veen Bosch & Keuning, including all of its publishers in the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as sister companies Thinium and Bookchoice.
The Publishers Association (PA) has criticised the government's response to a House of Lords report on AI, saying that it has failed to make "any tangible commitments to protect the creative industries against mass copyright infringement".
'I'm very reassuringly honest'
‘My settings of Europe and English visitors weren't really doing it for them, so we decided Scotland would be good. I thought an island would be great, because it's a small community, and it's an opportunity for my main character to get away from it all. The team at HarperCollins have been so supportive and enthusiastic... Read more