Category Archives: Books

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

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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.

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Edinburgh book festival hoping Greta Thunberg will bring back audiences

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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Utah school district that banned Bible considers removing Book of Mormon

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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Elizabeth I heavily influenced by loss of mother Anne Boleyn at young age

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Evidence that both women experienced stress and anxiety, with Elizabeth traumatised by mother’s death and issue of marriage

Elizabeth I was heavily influenced by her mother Anne Boleyn, despite the fact that the latter died when the Tudor queen was less than three years old, according to the historian and author Tracy Borman.

As well as being influenced by feminist ideas that were ahead of their time, Borman said there was evidence they both experienced stress and anxiety.

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James M Cain: lost story by ‘poet of the tabloid murder’ discovered in Congress library

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Strand Magazine will publish Blackmail, a tale of a blind Korean war veteran, found by New York editor Andrew Gulli

A New York editor and literary detective is celebrating the discovery and release of an unpublished short story by James M Cain, one of the greats of American noir, a “poet of the tabloid murder” whose works made famous on film include The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity and Mildred Pierce.

“For all the work that you do,” said Andrew Gulli, editor-in-chief of the Strand Magazine, “like 2% of the time you hit the jackpot. I just feel so good. It’s worth it.”

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The Enormous Crocodile among latest Roald Dahl books to be adapted for stage

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Roald Dahl Story Company announces new shows, including a large-scale circus and a reading of The Magic Finger

A slate of Roald Dahl adaptations has been announced, including a family musical based on The Enormous Crocodile, a reading of The Magic Finger and a large-scale circus show featuring many of the author’s most famous characters.

The three shows will join the new musical The Witches, co-produced by the National Theatre and readying for its debut in November, while a further four creations have been commissioned by the theatre division of the Roald Dahl Story Company and are under development.

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Martin Amis, era-defining British novelist, dies aged 73

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The celebrated author of Money and London Fields, whose works defined the 80s literary scene, died of oesophageal cancer on Friday at his home in Florida

Martin Amis, the influential author of era-defining novels including Money and London Fields, and the memoir Experience, has died at the age of 73 at his home at Lake Worth in Florida . His wife Isabel Fonseca said that the cause was cancer of the oesophagus.

Amis was among the celebrated group of novelists including Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes, whose works defined the British literary scene in the 1980s.

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Pete Brown, countercultural poet, singer and Cream lyricist, dies aged 82

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British poet who wrote lyrics for Sunshine of Your Love, White Room and many more also had acclaimed solo career

Pete Brown, a cult figure in British poetry, rock, psychedelia and rhythm and blues who wrote lyrics for many of Cream’s classic songs, has died aged 82. He had been living with what he recently described as “various forms of cancer” for a number of years.

The family of his long-term late collaborator Jack Bruce wrote on social media: “We are extremely saddened to learn of the death of Jack’s long term friend and writing partner Pete Brown who passed away last night. We extend our sincere condolences to Pete’s wife Sheridan and Pete’s children as well as all his family and friends. Love from the Bruce family.”

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Salman Rushdie makes first public appearance since attack, praising ‘heroes’ who saved him

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A surprise speaker at the Pen America gala, the author said ‘if it had not been for these people, I most certainly would not be standing here’

Salman Rushdie has made his first public appearance since he was stabbed and lost sight in one eye after being attacked at a literary event, joking that it was “nice to be back – as opposed to not being back, which was also an option”.

Rushdie was a surprise attendee at the Pen America gala on Thursday night in New York. The author was greeted with a standing ovation according to the New York Times. After his remarks about being back, he said he was “pretty glad the dice rolled this way”.

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Mem Fox book Guess What? banned in Florida county under Ron DeSantis bill

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Agent for bestselling Australian children’s author says she has ‘nothing to say’ about the ban and Duval county ‘is not important’

Bestselling Australian author Mem Fox has become the latest victim of ultra-conservative Florida governor Ron DeSantis, with the writer’s 1988 children’s book Guess What? being banned in the Jacksonville county of Duval.

The book, about a witch called Daisy O’Grady, appears to have fallen foul of Florida’s parental rights in education bill, widely referred to as the “don’t say gay” law, championed by DeSantis, the Republican widely considered to be Donald Trump’s closest rival for the 2024 presidential race.

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Sorry, Swifties: BTS revealed as authors of mystery book that intrigued the internet

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Beyond the Story: 10-Year Record of BTS will be out on 9 July, ending feverish speculation that the previously untitled book was a Taylor Swift memoir

The guessing game began this week when a mysteriously untitled book, scheduled for publication in July and known only as “4C Untitled Flatiron Nonfiction Summer 2023”, appeared. It quickly became a bestseller when Taylor Swift fans began feverishly speculating that it was her surprise memoir.

But the mystery has been solved, with publishing house Flatiron Books bringing forward their announcement by a month to reveal the book is actually by another musical powerhouse: the K-pop boyband BTS.

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Zimbabwe author Tsitsi Dangarembga has conviction for protest overturned

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Harare high court quashes suspended sentence and fine handed down to Booker-longlisted writer last year

Zimbabwean author and activist Tsitsi Dangarembga has had her conviction for inciting violence by staging a peaceful protest overturned.

The critically acclaimed writer was given a six-month suspended sentence and fined 70,000 Zimbabwean dollars (£170) in September 2022 for staging a protest calling for political reform. During the 2020 protest, alongside fellow activist Julie Barnes, Dangarembga held a placard inscribed: “We want better. Reform our institutions.”

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Prince Harry’s ghostwriter, JR Moehringer, says pair bonded over media intrusion

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Author says paparazzi and reporters began to follow him in his car and snoop around his home

Prince Harry’s ghostwriter has said he bonded with his subject over the “callousness” of paparazzi and media after the “frenzied mob” around the book Spare led to photographers and journalists invading his own privacy.

In a first-person piece for the New Yorker, JR Moehringer, the celebrated ghostwriter behind Spare said he agreed to write Harry’s memoir because he “just liked the dude” and had recently lost his own mother.

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French minister’s steamy novel turns up heat on Macron

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Sex scene in Bruno Le Maire’s book provokes ridicule and anger among opposition politicians

An explicit sex scene in a newly published novel by the French economy minister has left the government facing fresh accusations it is not listening to the concerns of the country just as it tries to contain anger over the unpopular rise in the pension age.

The toe-curling sexual descriptions in the novel, Fugue Américaine, written by the economy minister, Bruno Le Maire, have angered opposition politicians and inspired anti-government slogans and graffiti at street demonstrations as the government struggles to contain the political crisis over Emmanuel Macron raising the minimum pension age to 64.

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Unseen Gabriel García Márquez novel to be published next year

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Colombian author’s En Agosto Now Vemos (We’ll See Each Other in August) had been just a rumour but now fans will get to read it

Rumours had long circulated that an entire literary masterpiece, never seen by the public, could still be lying in a dusty safe held by the late author’s family or under lock and key at his archive at the University of Texas.

On Friday Penguin Random House confirmed that an unpublished Gabriel García Márquez novel – titled En Agosto Nos Vemos, (We’ll See Each Other in August) – not only exists, but will be on shelves across Latin America in 2024.

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