Diagram Prize

Sometimes, allies can be more harmful than enemies. American Dirt, a novel about a mother and son fleeing a drugs cartel in Mexico, has the literary world clutching its pearls. The problem? Does the writer, Jeanine Cummins (whose grandmother is Puerto Rican but who has identified as white) have the right (or the ability) to portray an authentic Mexican story?  Read more

About eight years ago, the Canadian novelist Susan Swan looked into the research about how female writers compared with male ones when it came to literary prizes and coverage. She was shocked by what she found.

"I thought it was going to be a happy progress report," she said in an interview. "Instead it was a bad news day."  Read more

I was going through my notebooks the other day when I came across a piece of paper; a torn scrap on which I'd written hurriedly a name and the plot number of a grave. Writing a family story is a question of finding where the bodies are buried and this, in very real terms, had been the first clue.  Read more

The pandemic virus, 2019-nCoV (better known as the coronavirus virus) is already having an impact on the global publishing business. While the majority of Chinese companies are closed for several weeks during the long Chinese lunar new year celebrations, many will remain closed for much longer as a consequence of the outbreak.  Read more