Category Archives: Books

Big W removes sex education book from shelves after staff members abused

Posted on by

Publisher of Welcome to Sex by Dr Melissa Kang and Yumi Stynes defends book after conservative campaigners claim it is ‘teaching sex to children’

The publisher of a sex education and consent book aimed at adolescents has defended the title after it was taken off the shelves of Big W stores amid backlash from conservative campaigners.

Welcome to Sex, co-authored by the former Dolly Doctor and adolescent health expert Dr Melissa Kang and feminist writer Yumi Stynes, is the fourth book in a series on topics such as consent and menstruation.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Obama speaks out against ‘profoundly misguided’ book bans in school libraries

Posted on by

Former president writes open letter to American librarians and appears in TikTok video decrying rightwing censorship push

In an open letter to American librarians, Barack Obama criticised “profoundly misguided” rightwing efforts to ban books from libraries in public schools.

“Some of the books that shaped my life – and the lives of so many others – are being challenged by people who disagree with certain ideas or perspectives,” the former president wrote.

Continue reading...

French film-maker’s family fight to keep link to chateau that inspired his stories

Posted on by

Marcel Pagnol based his famous movies on a Provencal manor he’d known as a child. Now his legacy is at risk, says his grandson

In 1941 the French novelist, playwright and film-maker Marcel Pagnol bought a chateau in a Provençal valley outside Marseille on the advice of his solicitor without even seeing it.

He proposed to transform the property into a “cinema city”, a French Hollywood set in the hills and lavender fields of southern France where he had holidayed as a child.

Continue reading...

Hungarian bookstore fined for selling LGBTQ+ novel in youth section

Posted on by

Heartstopper by Alice Oseman was on shelves for young people and did not have closed packaging as required by controversial law

A government office in Hungary has levied a hefty fine against a national bookseller over a LGBTQ+ graphic novel series, saying it violated a contentious law that prohibits the depiction of homosexuality to minors.

The bookseller, Líra Könyv, is Hungary’s second-largest bookstore chain. It was fined 12m forints ($36,000 or £27,400) for placing Heartstopper by the British author Alice Oseman in its youth literature section, and for failing to place it in closed packaging as required by a 2021 law.

Continue reading...

Hungarian bookseller wraps LGBTQ+ books in plastic to stop people reading them

Posted on by

Libri bows to pressure to comply with ‘child protection’ law after takeover by foundation linked to PM

Hungary’s largest bookseller has started wrapping books that feature LGBTQ+ characters in plastic to prevent customers from opening them in stores after it was taken over by a private foundation with close ties to Viktor Orbán.

Libri, which is also the country’s largest publisher, said in an email that the packaging was a request from the Hungarian consumer protection authority to follow the controversial “child protection” law that came into force in 2021.

Continue reading...

Life imitates art as El Salvador pressures book fair to bar dissenting writer

Posted on by

Barbers on Strike, author Michelle Recinos’s collection of short stories, has apparently upset strongman president Nayib Bukele

First the soldiers came for those with mohawks. Then they came for the hairdressers themselves.

“They were good kids,” quips the narrator in one of the latest tales by the Salvadorian author Michelle Recinos, “although I’d never trusted them with my hair.”

Continue reading...

Publisher withdraws former police officer’s memoir after force questions Port Arthur massacre claim

Posted on by

Victoria Police says Christophe Glasl was not in Tasmania at the time of Port Arthur massacre, despite his claim to have been involved in its resolution

A publisher has pulled a former police officer’s memoir after the force questioned his claim he attended the Port Arthur massacre.

Hachette confirmed parts of the book Special Operations Group by former Victorian police officer Christophe Glasl were inaccurate, and that it had been removed from shelves.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Daniel Kaluuya’s Barney the Dinosaur film to be ‘adult’ and ‘lean into millennial angst’

Posted on by

Mattel says the Barney movie will be inspired by Charlie Kaufman, while Barbie director Greta Gerwig is planning two Narnia movies for Netflix

The Daniel Kaluuya-produced movie featuring Barney the Dinosaur will be an “adult”, “surrealistic” and “A24-type” film inspired by Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze, it has been revealed.

In a wide-ranging report on the film-making plans of toymaker Mattel in the New Yorker, Mattel Films executive Kevin McKeon said of the project: “We’re leaning into the millennial angst of the property rather than fine-tuning this for kids. It’s really a play for adults. Not that it’s R-rated, but it’ll focus on some of the trials and tribulations of being thirtysomething, growing up with Barney – just the level of disenchantment within the generation.”

Continue reading...

‘Translation is an art’: why translators are battling for recognition

Posted on by

Like any author, translators want to receive credit for their work instead of being treated as an afterthought

They have often been overlooked in the artistic and literary process, but translators have long claimed they have the power to change everything.

There are tales of myths being born, societies being forged and cities destroyed with just a slip of the pen, such as the supposed translation error that allegedly led to the US deciding to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, or the speculation about life on Mars after the mistranslation of an Italian astronomer.

Continue reading...

Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina dies after being wounded in Kramatorsk strike

Posted on by

Author who had been working to document Russian war crimes since the invasion was hospitalised with skull fractures after Tuesday’s missile strike

An award-winning Ukrainian writer and war crimes researcher wounded in a Russian missile strike on a restaurant last week has died, the freedom of expression group PEN has said.

Victoria Amelina, 37, was wounded when a Russian missile destroyed the Ria Pizza restaurant in the eastern city of Kramatorsk on Tuesday, killing 12 people, including four children, and wounding dozens.

Continue reading...

Rights to Jorge Luis Borges’s work go to his wife’s nephews

Posted on by

Widow of great Argentinian writer did not leave a will, which put the rights in limbo

A court has granted the rights to the works of the late Jorge Luis Borges, considered Argentina’s most internationally significant author of the 20th century, to five nephews of the author’s widow, who died in March.

Borges’s wife, María Kodama, had devoted much of her life to fiercely protecting his legacy and it surprised many in Argentina’s literary circle that she did not leave a will, even though she had breast cancer.

Continue reading...

Notes, ponderings, doodlings: behind Capote’s creation of In Cold Blood

Posted on by

New manuscript offers insight into the painstaking work of writer’s seemingly effortless storytelling in true crime classic

The opening words are not quite there, but the essence Truman Capote is striving for already soars from the page as he conjures up the vision of a small community in the heartlands of America where terrible events are soon to unfold.

“Holcomb is a very visible village,” the passage begins, captured in the author’s tight, almost crabby handwriting, “located on high wheat plains of western Kansas, where the air is Swiss-clear and the flat views lonesomely, awesomely extensive.”

In Cold Blood, the manuscript by Truman Capote, is published by SP Books and available here.

Continue reading...

Miles Franklin award 2023: shortlist revealed for Australia’s prestigious literary prize

Posted on by

Five first-time nominees are among the six authors competing for $60,000 award for novels that ‘present Australian life in any of its phases’

Five first-time nominees – including a debut novelist – are among the six authors shortlisted for the 2023 Miles Franklin award, Australia’s highest literary honour.

Announced on Tuesday, the six books up for the $60,000 prize are Jessica Au’s Cold Enough for Snow, Robbie Arnott’s Limberlost, Yumna Kassab’s The Lovers, Fiona Kelly McGregor’s Iris, Shankari Chandran’s Chai Time at the Cinnamon Gardens, and Kgshak Akec’s Hopeless Kingdom.

Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning

Continue reading...

Edinburgh book festival hoping Greta Thunberg will bring back audiences

Posted on by

Fallout from Covid crisis has left event struggling financially after last year’s ‘traumatic’ fall in sales

The Edinburgh International book festival hopes a swathe of Booker prize winners, political leaders and a guest appearance by Greta Thunberg will help restore its finances after a “traumatic” fall in sales last year.

The world’s largest book festival celebrates its 40th anniversary in August with events featuring Katrín Jakobsdóttir, the Icelandic prime minister, the former Booker winners Ben Okri and Anne Enright, and the International Booker winners Georgi Gospodinov and David Diop.

Continue reading...

Abuse has led Sathnam Sanghera to ‘more or less stop’ doing book events in UK

Posted on by

Writer of Empireland, which examined Britain’s imperial past, says culture war-fuelled online trolling and heckling ‘gets to you’

The writer Sathnam Sanghera has said he barely ever does public events in the UK because of a fear of being attacked amid a culture war-fuelled backlash over his views on Britain’s imperial past, saying he feared a Florida-style push towards the banning of books.

Sanghera, a journalist and author whose bestselling book Empireland assessed how the UK’s colonial territories still infect contemporary politics and discourse, said he had begun to dread holding book events here.

Continue reading...

Call for new writers of colour as entries open for the 4thWrite short story prize

Posted on by

The winner will receive £1,000, and have their story featured on the Guardian website

A short story competition run by the Guardian and publisher 4th Estate is open for entries from unpublished writers of colour living in the UK.

The winner of the 4thWrite prize will receive £1,000, a one-day publishing workshop with 4th Estate and publication of their story on the Guardian website.

Continue reading...

Utah school district that banned Bible considers removing Book of Mormon

Posted on by

Davis school district says it will assess text after complaint for ‘pornographic or indecent materials’ under law passed last year

A school district in Utah that last week banned the Bible from school libraries is now being asked to consider a further title for removal: the Book of Mormon.

The Davis school district, which serves Davis county, north of Salt Lake City, said it was considering a new complaint demanding the removal of the foundational text of the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Continue reading...

Author Ama Ata Aidoo, ‘an inspiration to feminists everywhere’, dies aged 81

Posted on by

The Ghanaian playwright and novelist, who also served as her country’s education minister, focused on the modern African woman

The Ghanaian writer and academic Ama Ata Aidoo, whose work focused on the modern African woman, has died aged 81.

Ata Aidoo, whose fans included Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, rejected the idea of what she described as a “western perception that the African female is a downtrodden wretch”, said the BBC.

Continue reading...

Librarians sue Arkansas state over law banning them from giving ‘obscene’ books to children

Posted on by

Move comes as rightwing groups increase pressure to remove books, most written by or about members of the LGBTQ+ community and people of colour

The American Library Association and the Authors Guild are among a group of organisations bringing a lawsuit against the state of Arkansas over a law which makes it a crime for librarians to give children books with “obscene” content.

The lawsuit involves 17 plaintiffs, including the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS), the Association of American Publishers and the American Booksellers Association.

Continue reading...

Nobel literature prize fell into my life ‘like a bomb’, says Annie Ernaux

Posted on by

In conversation with Sally Rooney at Charleston festival author says award has hindered her ability to focus on writing

Annie Ernaux, the French winner of the 2022 Nobel prize in literature, has said she never wanted the award and that it fell into her life “like a bomb”, hindering her ability to focus on writing.

In conversation with the novelist Sally Rooney on the final day of Charleston festival, Ernaux was talking via an interpreter as she explained her tricky relationship with the prize.

Continue reading...