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‘We’re Going to Stand Up’: Queer Literature is Booming in Africa
Even in countries where homophobia is pervasive and same-sex relationships are illegal, authors are pushing boundaries, finding an audience and winning awards. As a queer teenager growing up in northern Nigeria, Arinze Ifeakandu often found himself searching for books that reflected what he felt. He combed through the books at home and imagined closer bonds…
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New Virginia literary award focuses on children’s literature
William & Mary Libraries has joined with the Library of Virginia to present a new award recognizing excellence in children’s literature with an emphasis on Virginia. The Children’s Virginia Literary Award encompasses fiction and nonfiction picture books through middle-grade works, with recommended reading levels of up to age 12. Books by Virginia authors or books…
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Literary Fist-Fighting, Rare Book Economics, and Carson McCullers: February Books Roundup
Our regular look at new books that have recently caught the eye of our print and online editors this month. The Economics of the Manuscript and Rare Book Trade, ca. 1890–1939, edited by Federico Botana and Laura Cleaver A look at the operation of the rare book trade, including how books were priced, profit margins,…
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Museum of Solutions to host ‘Peek A Book’ Children’s Literature Festival
<!– –> Museum of Solutions Peek A Book Children’s Literature Festival Museum of Solutions, first-of-its kind children’s museum in Mumbai, is creating new & innovative reasons for children to visit a museum. It will host India’s first Children’s Literature Festival, Peek A Book, on Saturday, February 24, 2024. Peek A Book will showcase some of…
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New Delhi World Book Fair 2024: A multi-lingual world in books
For 50 years now, the New Delhi World Book Fair (NDWBF) has brought together thousands of book lovers, readers, authors, publishers, scholars, educationists, students and literary enthusiasts from all over the world. This year too a mammoth crowd has been gathering at the newly constructed International Convention Centre at Pragati Maidan — home to the…
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The National Book Awards Opens Up to Writers Who Are Not U.S. Citizens
The awards, which celebrate the best of American literature, are expanding the definition of who qualifies. Since their inauguration in 1950, the National Book Awards have set a lofty goal: to celebrate the best writing in America. And for most of the awards’ history, American literature was defined as books written by United States citizens.…
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7 Books About Ghostwriters
When I was ghostwriting full-time, I produced twenty books in fourteen years. Thanks to a suggestion from my literary agent, I realized a ghostwriter might make a great heroine—they’re under tremendous pressure, often while adjacent to the fame machine—so Mari Hawthorn, the ghostwriter at the center of my debut novel The Last Days of The…
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Five of the best campus novels
The beauty of the traditional campus novel is that it’s rarely reflective of most students’ actual experience – at least not in the UK. High stakes interpersonal drama, soft-serve Marxism and ivy-covered stone are less the modern student experience than terrible housing, dating-app ghosting and a staple diet of Super Noodles and own-brand vodka. It’s…
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In Search of a Rare Queer Voice: Hannah Levene on Butch Lesbian Literature
I have long searched for butch in writing. I pick up The Well of Loneliness every few years and cry each time the horse dies. I am working my way slowly through the thicket of Gertrude Stein, relinquishing understanding for something more like knowing. I have read Nightwood, Djuna Barnes’ ghostly evocation of a woman…
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Bloodshed & Bela Lugosi: Two New Novels
Incarnating the truth in art is the supreme test for a writer with convictions, and this problem is the real heart of the tension between entertainment and literature. I had a friend in England I’ll call Rosemary. She had always wanted to be a writer, so she honed her craft and eventually got a contract…