Andrew Blackman
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"Literary news"
I got depressed about bookshops recently. A great little London literary magazine, Smoke, has just published its last issue. The editor/founder Matt Haynes explained:
Of the hundred-odd shops that stocked our early issues, well over half have now closed. And when Borders ceased trading just before Christmas, we lost not only more than 25% [...]
Just wanted to share the exciting news that one of my regular readers, Michelle Davidson Argyle (aka Lady Glamis) has just published her first book. I haven’t read it yet, but the extracts I’ve seen were very intriguing. It’s the story of what happens after the “happily ever after” that we’re all so familiar with [...]
Ah, another list. Another list that makes me feel inadequate, not only because I’m not on it but because I haven’t even read any of the people who are on it. The closest I can get is having seen Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie speak at the Southbank Centre.
Is anyone better read than me? Do [...]
It’s sad to see that the budget for Public Lending Right is being cut by the new Tory/LibDem government. It’s a worthwhile scheme that provides income to writers. OK, at six pence per loan it’s not a huge amount, but every little helps. It’s sad that having spent billions on wars and bank bailouts, [...]
The Society of Young Publishers hit on an interesting idea in a recent issue of its magazine inPrint. They dug up an old article from 1998, in which Waterstones Managing Director Alan Giles was giving his thoughts about the future of the bookselling industry. For those of you who don’t know, Waterstones is the major [...]
My publisher, Legend Press, just announced that submissions are open for the 2010 Luke Bitmead Writer’s Bursary. This is the contest that gave me my break into publishing when I won it in 2008. The prize is £2,500 and a publishing contract. You enter the first three or four chapters of your novel and [...]
Lady Glamis just wrote a great series on short story writing. It includes a useful list of markets to submit to, loads of good advice, and also a short story contest. So if you have a story to submit, do send it in for the contest – prize is $50 plus a full [...]
So it seems that due to a procedural anomaly, a whole year’s worth of novels missed out on being considered for the Booker Prize. This is being remedied by a retroactive award, with a shortlist of novels from 1970 being drawn up by three judges and then a public vote to decide the [...]
One of my fellow Legend Press authors, Mark Piggott, wrote an interesting article in the Independent about ‘state of the nation’ novels. I thought it would be complaining that nobody’s writing about contemporary British issues these days – there’s been quite a bit of that recently, because historical novels have been getting a [...]
The other day, I picked up a copy of The Times because of the news of J.D. Salinger’s death on the cover. I read about Catcher in the Rye and its skewering of “phonies”, and how Salinger retreated to his home in New Hampshire and ignored the world for about forty years. Then I read [...]
Recent Comments
- Kommunal ekosocialism | Svensson on “Social Ecology and Communalism” by Murray Bookchin
- Andrew Blackman on “Tail of the Blue Bird” by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
- Kwadwo on “Tail of the Blue Bird” by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
- Kwadwo on On the Holloway Road – free sample
- Andrew Blackman on “The Sense of an Ending” by Julian Barnes
