Find out what's new on our websites, where we've been, what's on our minds and the things we're doing.
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An interview with Booktrust writer-in-residence, Nii Ayikwei Parkes [1]
Posted Friday November 6th 2009
by Nikesh ShuklaIn part 1 of our interview with writer-in-residence Nii Aykwei Parkes, we ask him about good poetry, performing and his early gigs.
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Perform a Poem website is launched
Posted Wednesday November 4th 2009
by Nikesh ShuklaPerform-a-Poem is a brand new website for sharing children’s poetry performances
Launched this week at a reception at the National Theatre, this unique poetry performance website for primary school children encourages children to write, choose, perform, film and edit poems. It's a secure site for teachers and pupils who enjoy performing and watching performance poetry, developed in line with national standards on e-safety and child protection.
Perform-a-Poem, initially piloting for London schools, is a joint project between Michael Rosen, Booktrust and the London Grid for Learning (LGfL). It developed from an idea by Michael Rosen during his highly successful term as Children’s Laureate (2007-9): 'I’m hoping that Perform-a-Poem will give an opportunity for children and teachers to experiment and play with poetry in an exciting way. All poems have a voice; sometimes this voice is best heard silently, but most poems enjoy being spoken and performed, because this is how we get to feel a poem.'
As well as the video upload and browse features, Perform-a-Poem contains comprehensive resources for teachers to help their pupils write, choose, perform, film, edit and upload their poems.
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Graphic Memoirs
Posted Thursday October 29th 2009
by Nikesh ShuklaI've recently been reading a few memoirs in comic form, ranging from the whimsical to the dark, from the funny to the sublime and it's been quite a welcome break from the wham! bam! antics of Marvel and DC.
Bizarrely, it feels less indulgent witnessing a person's life in pictoral form. There's less chance for over-egging anecdotes or filling up prose with mounds of overwritten nostalgic cheese. The memoirs, all three in black and white, paint subtle pictures of peoples' lives allowing silences and facial expressions to dominate the frame over too much text. Both books are brilliant and I heartily recommend them if you're looking for something different to dip into.
First up is last year's The Alcoholic by Jonathan Ames with drawings by Dean Haspiel. Jonathan A is a successful crime writer with a degree of life experience to match his hard-boiled detective alter-ego. Despite 'bearing no resemblance' to author Jonathan Ames, we watch him battle through a succession of ladies, liquor bottles and legal scrapes. We watch him from teenage loutishness into alienated post 9/11 sadness, all told in chillingly bleak black and white with a dark humour and wry eye cast over the weakness and desperation…
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Announced... the shortlist for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2009...
Posted Friday October 23rd 2009
by Nikesh ShuklaIf there's one thing you can bank on with the John Llewellyn Rhys prize, it's that you won't find a more eclectic and diverse shortlist. This year's shortlist is no exception. Featuring writers from Nigeria, India, Canada, Australia and the UK, the shortlist shortlist comprises two works of non-fiction, a debut poetry collection, a collection of short stories and two novels.
Debuts by Emma Jones and James Maskalyk are up against prize winner stalwarts Aravind Adiga and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie whose short story collection The Thing Around Your Neck is her first work since winning the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2007.
Global issues are at the forefront of the non-fiction nominations this year, with both James Maskalyk and Tristram Stuart examining the issues of want and surplus from either side of the developed world. Maskalyk’s Six Months in the Sudan began life as a blog written from a hut during his time as a doctor working for Médecins sans Frontière, and the hardship and malnutrition suffered by the inhabitants of the contested border town of Abyei. In contrast, Stuart’s book Waste encounters grotesque examples of the profligacy of the West, and its direct consequence on the poverty and rising…
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In praise of ... James Salter
Posted Friday October 16th 2009
by James SmithIn 2007, the American writer James Salter, now in his eighties, was given the signal honour of having four of his books reissued in the UK at the same time – by two publishers.
In addition, a new collection of short stories was published in paperback for the first time. Such joint publishing ventures are rare, but in Salter’s case it proves how highly both Picador and Penguin feel about his writing.
Salter (born James Horowitz in 1925) grew up in New York. His father, who wanted his son to follow in his footsteps, sent James to West Point, the famous military school. After graduating, he underwent further training with the US Air Force, and was sent to Korea, where he flew jet fighters. He was subsequently posted to bases in Germany and the United States, finally taking the momentous decision to leave the air force and concentrate on his writing.
It was a huge wrench – ‘a strange, bottomless reaction set in’, as Salter wrote in his memoir Burning the Days – but he adjusted. He continued flying at weekends for the National Guard, and was posted to France in 1961 as a reservist during the Berlin…
