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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A new story by Patrick Ness!
Posted Tuesday June 30th 2009
by James Smith‘A Booktrust exclusive!’
Three words (and one exclamation mark) that trip happily off the tongue (or, in this case, the fingers) as we reveal a new, never seen before, story by our first-ever online writer in residence, the indefatigable and hard-working Patrick Ness.
Patrick is halfway through his six-month online residency. In that short time he has: written a blog; put together a series of writing tips; talked to a class at Graveney School, London, about The Knife of Never Letting Go; and been interviewed about the writer in residence experience by ABC Radio in Australia.
Somehow, Patrick’s also found time to run the London marathon (if you’ve been following the blog, you’ll know that some Ness skin was torn and some Ness blood was shed, but that he made it to the finish line), and write a brand-new story about Viola, the determined heroine of The Knife of Never Letting Go and its sequel The Ask and the Answer (the first two parts of the Chaos Walking series).
Those of you who have read Knife – if you haven’t and don’t want to know even the tiniest thing about the story, stop reading now – will know…
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Interview with Charlie Dark
Posted Thursday June 25th 2009
by Nikesh ShuklaForget Stephen Fry, Charlie Dark is one of the UK's national treasures. A writer, musician, DJ, poet and pioneer of legendary club night Blacktronica, his theatrical stagecraft and vocal gymnastics have lit up stages from the US to Germany and all over the UK. As a poet, Charlie is engaged in a lot of education work, shaping the poetical minds of children and young people all over the country. He even runs a thriving running club called Run Dem Crew. Charlie makes regular appearances on the international literature and spoken word circuit and has toured with the British Council to Germany, Spain and The Netherlands. He was featured at Poetry International at the South Bank in 2004. An experienced tutor and workshop facilitator, he runs courses on creative writing and poetry for young people and adults throughout the year and has been a Poet Coach for the London Teenage Poetry Slam for three years. As an enigmatic poet and performer, we thought it was high time we spoke to this national treasure about writing poetry.
>Why do you read?
I was never really a big TV fan as a child so books became my TV. It's a tradition…
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To Australia and back ... in the name of research
Posted Wednesday June 24th 2009
by James SmithBook House, situated on a triangle of Wansdworth land bordered on two sides by lanes of traffic and on the other by a Huguenot cemetery, is the home of Booktrust and the Publishing Training Centre. An elegant Victorian building and former town hall, Book House is owned by the Unwin Charitable Trust, which was set up by publisher Sir Stanley Unwin (founder of George Allen & Unwin and perhaps most famous for publishing a book called The Lord of the Rings – imagine if you’d picked up a first edition of that …).
The Unwin Charitable Trust’s Fellowship provides grants for people from the book industry in Australia to visit the UK and vice versa in alternate years, to carry out projects of mutual benefit to the book industry of each country. Now in its seventh year, the Fellowship has resulted in the production of a number of informative reports, but what is perhaps most interesting is how the topics that have been chosen have reflected the changes in the volatile world of books. You’ll see what I mean when I run through them.
In 2003, Lorien Kaye visited the UK from Australia to research publisher-bookseller cooperation in the UK.
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Book Club Boutique
Posted Monday June 22nd 2009
by Nikesh ShuklaEvery Monday night, there's a literary revolution happening in Soho. In the speakeasy environment of the private member's club, The Green Fingernail on Romilly Street, poets are performing; writers are reading; DJs are spinning, and musicians are musing. All hosted by the immaculately talented Salena Godden and all free, Book Club Boutique is the current literary night to be at. Curated by Salena Godden and featuring 'The Book Club Boutique' resident band starring Max Doray and Cobalt Stargazer, this new literary salon has quickly established itself as a contender for best literary night in London. Already, it has seen book launches from Tim Clare, Nicholas Hogg, Dwang Magazine and Stephanie Thebold. Since they launched in March 2009 they have hosted headline poetry acts like David J, Aoife Mannix, Luke Wright and Murray Lachlan Young, an impromptu set from heartthrob Naked actor David Thewlis, plus comic poets Tim Wells and John Hegley.
They also launched the Punk Fiction anthology with readings from contributors including: Cathi Unsworth, Max Decharne, Stuart Home, Devonia Hynes and Lee Bullman, London Short Stories selected by award-winning author Tony White. Plus they’ve been thrilled by the live music of the Mediaevel Baebes’ Melpomeni, the hip… -
Booked Up 2009 launches
Posted Friday June 19th 2009
by Melanie FlynnLast week saw the launch of Booked Up 2009, which gives a free book to Year 7 pupils in England when they first start secondary school. It’s all about reading for pleasure and independent choice as pupils get to choose their own free book from a list of specially selected titles.
Here in the Booked Up office we’ve been busy getting ready for the launch. We’re asking all secondary schools and libraries in England to register now through our website. All registered schools will get an information pack in September including a magazine for every Year 7 pupil and a DVD to help them decide which book to choose. We’ve just filmed the DVD which features the authors from the list talking about their books. We also gave the books to some lucky 11-year-olds who bravely reviewed them in front of a camera for us! It was a lot of fun to film and we’re looking forward to seeing the final edited version. It will be available on the Booked Up website from the end of August, so visit us then to check it out www.bookedup.org.uk
After weeks of keeping it top secret, we’re really excited that the list…
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Interview with Sathnam Sanghera
Posted Friday June 19th 2009
by Nikesh ShuklaSathnam Sanghera, the author of acclaimed memoir The Boy with the Topknot / If You Don’t Know Me By Know (depending on which edition you own), is also a journalist for The Times, working on a business and a lifestyle column. Born to Punjabi parents and growing up in Wolverhampton, he led an eccentric lifestyle. The book, The Boy with the Topknot, follows Sathnam as he returns home to unravel his family’s problems and reconcile his traditional Asian roots with his flashy London lifestyle. In the process he discovers the truth about his father’s schizophrenia and why his mother won’t accept any English girlfriend of his. It’s a funny and touching piece of work that draws on feelings of belonging and unbelonging, and cultural nuance. Sathnam is an interesting writer, his memoir draws on a lot of music as a backdrop to the words, creating a chronological soundbed of song influences over the years, his writing is journalistic but funny but tender and pained all at the same time. We wondered how he managed to cram all those conflicting styles and emotions into the same bits of prose, so met up with him on a muggy day on Hampstead Heath…
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Abracadeathra - the last word...
Posted Thursday June 18th 2009
by Nikesh ShuklaA few weeks ago, we launched a competition on Twitter, Facebook and this here blog
We asked people to either Tweet or blog or comment on our Facebook page with the last line to the fictional fiction book Abracadeathra. We had some hilarious responses, which we have collated here for you. Bear in mind that some of the responses from Facebook and the blog were a little naughty and didn't stick to just one sentence, but then, we weren't hugely prescriptive- it's still been loads of fun sifting through them!
Twitter entries:
@EllieLevenson: #booktrust He'd learnt his lesson; never trust a fellow magician.
@rebeccawoodhead 'Magda did horror flicks. Them two tricked him good' said Inspector Dex. 'Ma's face? Rubber. Fortune? Vanished. Worked like magic'#booktrust
@josie_henley He thought she’d be dead. As she burned the money, Radford saw he’d cut Magda’s windscreenwiper leads by mistake, not the brake #booktrust
@chaletfan #booktrust "My real name?" said Magda. "My real interest in you? I will never reveal it in less than 140 characters - so you'll never know!"
@Renmeleon #booktrust "Magda herself wasn't even sure." I posted the entire ending on both your blog on and Facebook. I couldn't leave…
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The poetry I'm reading
Posted Monday June 15th 2009
by Anna McKerrowIt is with great pleasure that I am currently reading two of Salt Publishing’s poetry titles – Folklore by Tim Atkins and The Grimoire of Grimalkin by Sascha Aurora Akhtar. I saw both of these authors reading from their work at Openned, a London-based poetry reading event that features excellent and thought-provoking experimental and avant-garde poets. I was mightily impressed by each.
The brain is a delicate wind that surrounds hinge – 'Folklore', Tim Atkins
Folklore is a stunningly beautiful, in-the-moment treatment and enactment of countryside and the rural, an oft-explored theme in traditional and modern poetry. However, unlike many contemporary poets, Atkins’ style refuses to reflect on nature as a scene to be comfortably described in hindsight; he prefers to be inside the reality of the rural experience (rureality?).
This may have some relationship to Atkins’ own Buddhist philosophy; I wonder whether, like Leslie Scalapino, Atkins is trying to capture that Zen sense of being perfectly in the moment with his language. There are many things that just are in Folklore: Beauty is. But the owl is. – as seen in the extract below.
'Where we were climbed there and her skin was all off & the…
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What are your Desert Island Books?
Posted Friday June 12th 2009
by Nikesh ShuklaWhat books would you choose to take with you to a desert island idyll? Books for eternity, books for prosperity, books for frivolity? Would you risk taking something new to get your teeth into? What if you didn't like it after twenty pages? Would you take an old favourite- a comfortable old favourite that you felt you could return to over the years? So many choices... Would you want to challenge yourself with a genre you’d never tried before? Maybe it is time to try that country and western fantasy romance novel languishing at the bottom of the book pile, bought from a charity shop because you quite liked the cover. Or maybe some self-help books to help you get through the difficult time of... being... stuck... on a desert island?
In any case, here are my choices and reasons why:
The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
This Pulitzer-winning collection of short stories is among my favourite books of all time. It’s delicate and fresh and textured with so much detail that I know dipping into it again and again will reveal more hidden beauties and nuances. Dealing with love and loss and the American Asian (being South Asian-…
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BBC National Short Story Award deadline
Posted Wednesday June 10th 2009
by James SmithWriters! The deadline for submission of entries to the 2009 BBC National Short Story looms. If you would like to enter (please read the terms and conditions carefully), you have until 5pm on 15 June to do so.
The Award is worth a storming £15,000 to the winner and a not-to-be-sniffed-at £3,000 to the runner-up; the three other shortlisted entries each receive £500.
Previous winners are James Lasdun (whose latest collection It's Beginning to Hurt contains 'An Anxious Man', his winning story), the extraordinarily exuberant, pig-stealing Julian Gough (it's a long story), and last year's wonderful Clare Wigfall, whose story was taken from her widely-reviewed and astonishing debut collection The Loudest Sound and Nothing.
If you need only one reason for entering the Award, read what Clare said about winning:
'How can I measure the impact the BBC National Short Story Award has had on my life? Of course, most obvious might be the attention my work has since received – what a gift for a writer so early in their career, especially when you've chosen a literary form so often neglected!
'My collection, for example, was one of Faber's most-reviewed paperbacks last year, and I'm certain…
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Interview with Patrick Neate
Posted Wednesday June 10th 2009
by Nikesh ShuklaPatrick Neate is the acclaimed author of novels like Jerusalem and Twelve Bar Blues, and the co-creator of superlative literary monthly shindig, Book Slam, which recently heralded such luminaries as David Simon (creator of The Wire), up and coming female rapper Speech Debelle and superior spoken word auteur Charlie Dark. His books are brilliant deconstructions of folk tales from around the world, of Britishness and of urban culture. Neate's sardonic and slick writing style has won him plaudits for all his published works. On the eve of the release of his new book Jerusalem, we thought he'd be the ideal candidate to talk about his writing process and about what he's been reading.
>What is your process as a writer?
Process? I write. And then, when it doesn't work, I keep writing. And then I write some more. After that, I mostly write...
When I'm in the the middle of a book, I'll insist on 1000 words a day (even if I bin them all immediately thereafter). Otherwise, I'm not so strict, but I do always try and write something creative. A typical day sees a lot of work in the morning. Mornings are good. Most afternoons I'll go for…
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Interview with Tim Clare
Posted Tuesday June 2nd 2009
by Nikesh ShuklaStand-up poet, writer, musician, presenter of Channel 4's 2005 series How to Get a Book Deal, Tim Clare has been casting his literary canon far and wide, writing for the Guardian, appearing on Radio 1 and 2, and being a resident at legendary literary cabaret night, Homework. His first book, We Can't All Be Astronauts (Ebury Press), is a memoir about chasing your dreams only to find out your friends have made off with them. In the book, he deconstructs the writing process and the process of turning manuscripts into published works by chasing publishers, agents, coverage and the dream. The book also covers his literary grandfather and his efforts to be creative as a teenager, through writing short stories, making animations and playing games. We thought he'd be perfect to talk to about his reading journey, his work as a performance poet and his obsession with Buddhist self-help books.
>What got you into reading as a child?
I can remember my dad reading me Wilhelm Busch’s Max und Moritz, translating the German couplets into English in a very soft, lullaby voice, while I looked at the pictures of chickens being throttled with string and a Church organist getting…
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Tales From Outer Suburbia launch
Posted Monday June 1st 2009
by Rebecca WilkieTo the Illustration Cupboard in Piccadilly, for the launch of Shaun Tan’s stunning new collection of illustrated short stories, Tales from Outer Suburbia.
Artwork from the book lined the walls of the gallery and Shaun himself was visiting from his home in Perth, Australia to sign copies of the book. He spoke of feeling overwhelmed by the huge turnout of people from the children’s book world, who were spilling out onto the pavement outside the gallery.
Shaun Tan’s previous book The Arrival was greeted with much acclaim when it was published here last year. It is a wordless graphic novel and its emotive sepia-toned illustrations, which tell the story of a man leaving his wife and child for life in a strange new country, touched a chord with a lot of people in the UK and beyond.
Tales from Outer Suburbia promises to have the same effect – it also deals with themes of different cultures and alienation but is a collection of stories told in different forms – from newspaper clippings to more traditionally illustrated tales – read our review here.
Shaun Tan produces illustrated books that are perfect for helping to break down the misconception…
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Last Lines competition – win some books!
Posted Monday June 1st 2009
by Nikesh ShuklaWelcome to our first Twitter/Booktrust blog/Facebook competition! How Web 2.0 of us! So here's your chance to win some Orange Prize for Fiction 2009 longlist books. All you have to do is write a sentence. Simple, eh?
We've invented a book, a fictional piece of fiction, called Abracadeathra. You can read the blurb below. All we ask is that you provide us with the last line of the book. The most imaginative, funny, creative ones will be collated into a future blog and will be retweeted on Twitter. We're looking for something more imaginative than '... and they lived happily ever after' or '... and then he woke up and it was all a dream.'
Abracadeathra
‘There was only one way this could end. He would have to make a choice. Save her from herself or save himself from her.’
Radford Quist has nowhere left to go. Excluded from the magicians’ circle for giving away trade secrets on Twitter, he’s down on his luck, unable to find work, unable to catch a break, unable to buy his mother the cosmetic surgery she desperately needs. Then he meets Magda, a car mechanic with a secret, and a taste for…
