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  • The Teenage Prize 2010 shortlist

    Posted Monday September 6th 2010
    by Rebecca Wilkie

    This year’s Booktrust Teenage Prize shortlist takes readers from Ancient Greece to Africa and from Arctic conditions in the 19th Century to a modern day London, infested by Zombies. There are two debut novelists on the list, as well as a previous winner and an award-winning comedian. This prize annually showcases the best in contemporary writing for teenagers and this year is no exception –most teenagers will find at least one book they enjoy here.

    Unhooking the Moon is a gritty adventure that follows the fortunes of Bob and his sister Rat who travel to New York in search of an Uncle they hope will save them from the orphanage. It tackles themes ranging from grief to mental illness and debut author, Gregory Hughes, is clearly an author to watch.

    Nobody’s Girl by Sarra Manning, has the unashamed teen girl-appeal, you would expect from the pen of a former J17 and Ellegirl UK journalist. It tells the story of 17-year-old Bea who abandons a party holiday with the school cool clique in Spain, to travel to Paris to try and find the father she’s never met – her trip soon becomes a journey of self-discovery.

    Former Teenage Prize winner, Marcus…

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  • Evie Wyld in conversation with Steven Amsterdam...

    Posted Friday September 3rd 2010
    by Evie Wyld

    Steven Amsterdam is a lot of things. His website biography lists the following as examples of what he is:

    > Is a writer living in Melbourne
    > Was born and raised by lifelong New Yorkers in Manhattan
    > Wrote his first story about a hamster whose family was starving. A lilac bush in bloom saved everyone
    was educated at Bronx Science, University of Chicago, and University of Melbourne
    > Wrote speeches about the Nissan forklift for the 1988 Tokyo Auto Show
    > Cast his first vote for Michael Dukakis, absentee from Japan
    > Once got yelled at by Sean Penn
    > Couldn't get lost on the Li River in China

    He is also the author of the superlative collection, Things We Didn't See Coming (reviewed here). When asked which writing hero she wanted to interview as part of her residency, Evie Wyld chose Steven. What follows is a conversation that gets to the heart of what we write and why we do. Thanks to Evie and to Steven for such a powerful interview.

    > Things We Didn’t See Coming explores various conceptions of the future. Did you feel any pressure while writing because of the books…

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  • Check out videos from Whose Muse Is It Anyway?

    Posted Thursday September 2nd 2010
    by Nikesh Shukla

    If you missed the live stream of our improv poetry event featuring Nii Ayikwei Parkes, Laura Dockrill, Luke Wright, Dizraeli and Doc Brown, never fear for we have two videos from the event (an unfortunate technical error meant we only have the first 10 minutes to share with you)... but here we go... Laura Dockrill and Dizraeli in performance at Whose Muse Is It Anyway?

     

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  • Barbara Kingsolver thinks she’s eco-friendly. But we’re making cheese in our fridge...

    Posted Thursday September 2nd 2010
    by Becky Sexton

    Barbara Kingsolver, award-winning author complete with impressive vegetable garden is one of the people I am slightly in awe of.

    As my Granny pulled a jug of congealed milk from the darkest depths of our fridge and asked, ‘Do you intend to keep this for any purpose in particular?’ No joke intended. It reminded me yet again about the amount of food that is wasted in our house even though our recycling bin is continuously over-flowing.

    The contents of the jug was spooned chunk by lovely chunk into the bin, yes our very own brand of luxury, crumbling, blue cheese, an organic semi-skimmed delight. I hung my head in shame as I was told that during my Granny’s childhood, our milk was purposefully made into cheese, every little bit eaten, NO WASTE. No need for individually-packaged apples, three recycling bins, or an extra fridge/freezer in the garage because, let’s face it; where else would you store the beers?

    Bizarrely, Granny and the cheese somehow seemed highly relevant to the current ecological news: climate change, bikes for London, ‘Save the World.’ Even Clarence House is being kitted out with solar panels.

    In company with the Prince, Barbara Kingsolver is also taking…

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  • Authors we love... Peter Suart

    Posted Monday August 16th 2010
    by Emmy the Great

    Folk musician Emmy the Great's Emma-Lee Moss guest-blogs in our continuing Authors We Love... series with her favourite uncle, the poet Peter Suart.   

    I’m near the end of the writing process for my second album, and have recently set up an office in my parents’ landing, which doubles as a library. A few weeks ago, I identified a feeling that I wanted to turn into a song: that there is a world somewhere that exists in our intuition, and it is in striving to see the beauty of that world which drives much of our activity in this one.

    I didn’t expect to be able to convey everything I wanted in a three-minute, chorus-led piece of indie pop, but I thought that maybe if I crammed enough research into the writing process, I’d have gained something from trying. Knowing that my song was called North, I set my sights on the library. By some coincidence, the first book I found was called North. It was written by my uncle, and the opening quote, from Herman Melville, began 'Doubts of all things earthly, and intuitions of some things heavenly; this combination makes neither believer nor infidel...'

    My uncle’s name is Peter…

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