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National Book Critics Circle Awards 2018 shortlists announced

Wednesday, 23 January 2019
In the US, the shortlists for the 2018 National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Awards have been announced. The finalists include: Fiction Milkman (Anna Burns, Faber) Slave Old Man (Patrick Chamoiseau, trans by Linda...

French bookshop chain Furet du Nord buys competitor Decitre

Tuesday, 22 January 2019
In France, the Furet du Nord chain of bookshops has confirmed it has bought its competitor the Decitre group, reports the Bookseller. Based in the city of Lille, Furet du Nord...

Authors’ associations demand that Open Library stops lending scanned books

Monday, 21 January 2019
The Society of Authors (SoA) in the UK and the Authors Guild (AG) in the US are simultaneously demanding that the Internet Archive’s Open Library stops lending scanned copies of...

UK publishing workforce still lacking in BAME representation, regional diversity

Friday, 18 January 2019
In the UK, the Publisher's Association (PA) has released the results of its second survey of the publishing workforce, finding that while improvements have been made around representation of women...

Print book sales in Canada remain flat in 2018

Thursday, 17 January 2019
Print book sales in Canada have remained flat in 2018, with backlist books still dominating the market (60%) and nonfiction sales up slightly more than fiction, the same as in...

More guests boycott Dubai lit fest, protest human rights abuses in UAE

Wednesday, 16 January 2019
Former Irish president and former UN human rights commissioner Mary Robinson is the latest guest to pull out of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, following concerns about human rights...

Sullivan wins 2018 T S Eliot Prize

Tuesday, 15 January 2019
In the UK, London-based poet Hannah Sullivan has won the 2018 T S Eliot Prize for poetry. Sullivan won the prize for her debut collection Three Poems (Faber), making it the third debut...

Costa Book Awards 2018 category winners announced

Monday, 14 January 2019
In the UK, the five category winners for the 2018 Costa Book Awards have been announced. The five winners were chosen from shortlists announced in November 2018. The winning authors...

Activist author made director of Mexico’s largest state-owned publishing house

Friday, 7 December 2018
Author and activist Pablo Ignacio Taibo II has been made director of Mexico's largest state-owned publishing house, Fondo de Cultura Económica (FCE), reports Publishers Weekly. Mexico's new president Andrés Manuel...

UK Society of Authors issues ‘Brexit Briefing’

Thursday, 6 December 2018
The UK's Society of Authors (SoA) has issued a report outlining the vulnerabilities faced by the UK's creative industries during the government's Brexit negotiations, reports Publishers Weekly. Representing 10,500 members,...

RightsTech: Europe conference announced for Frankfurt in 2019

Wednesday, 5 December 2018
Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF) has partnered with RightsTech Project (RTP) to launch a new conference called RightsTech: Europe, to be held in Frankfurt, Germany, on 9-10 April 2019. Modelled on...

Frey wins Bad S-x in Fiction Award

Tuesday, 4 December 2018
US author James Frey has received the 2018 Bad S-x in Fiction Award, the Literary Review’s annual prize for ‘poorly written, perfunctory or redundant passages of sexual description in modern fiction’....

Bad S-x in Fiction Award 2018 shortlist announced

Monday, 3 December 2018
In the UK, the Literary Review has announced the Bad S-x in Fiction Award shortlist for 2018. The seven shortlisted books are: Scoundrels: The Hunt for Hansclapp (Major Victor Cornwall & Major Arthur St John...

Rooney wins 2018 Waterstones book of the year award

Friday, 30 November 2018
UK bookselling chain Waterstones has selected Sally Rooney’s Normal People (Faber) as its book of the year for 2018. Chosen from a shortlist of eight, ‘Normal People was swiftly championed...

Rooney wins novel of the year at 2018 Irish Book Awards

Thursday, 29 November 2018
The winners of the 2018 Irish Book Awards have been announced. Chosen from shortlists announced in October, the winners include: Novel of the year Normal People (Sally Rooney, Faber) Popular...

Netflix to adapt Dahl classics into animated series

Wednesday, 28 November 2018
Netflix has secured the rights to adapt many of Roald Dahl's works for screen, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG, Matilda and George’s Marvellous Medicine (all Puffin). It also has plans to create a...

PEN Afrikaans criticises proposed changes to South Africa’s Copyright Act

Tuesday, 27 November 2018
In South Africa, PEN Afrikaans has joined international organisations in protesting against proposed changes to South African copyright law outlined in the Copyright Amendment Bill. According to a statement from...

‘The Joy of Waterboiling’ wins 2018 Diagram Prize

Monday, 26 November 2018
The Joy of Waterboiling (Achse Verlag) has won the 2018 Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year presented by the Bookseller. The German cookbook is a guide to the preparation of classic,...

Costa Book Awards 2018 shortlists announced

Friday, 23 November 2018
In the UK, the shortlists for the 2018 Costa Book Awards have been announced. Shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award are: The Silence of the Girls (Pat Barker, Hamish Hamilton) The...

Chinese author jailed for publishing gay erotic novel

Thursday, 22 November 2018
In China, an erotic novelist has been sentenced to over a decade in prison for writing and selling a gay porn novel, reports the Guardian. The book in question, Gongzhan...

Edugyan wins Canada’s Giller Prize for ‘Washington Black’

Wednesday, 21 November 2018
Canadian author Esi Edugyan has won Canada’s Scotiabank Giller Prize—the country’s richest literary award—for her novel Washington Black (Serpent's Tail). Set in 19th century Canada, Washington Black tells the story of an 11-year-old boy who...