American poet Louise Glück has won the Nobel Prize in Literature for her “unmistakable poet voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.” This makes Glück the 16th woman to win the prize, and the first American woman to win since Toni Morrison in 1993. The prestigious award is renowned for being awarded to […]Read More
Welsh author, Rhiannon Lewis, best known for her debut novel My Beautiful Imperial has become the first UK writer to win the prestigious William Faulkner Literary Prize for her new short story. The win was announced on 25th September from the William Faulkner Library, located at the Union County Heritage Museum in Mississippi. Typically, the […]Read More
CONTENT WARNING: SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND EATING DISORDERS. Roxane Gay’s 2017 memoir Hunger, subtitled A Memoir Of (My) Body, presents itself as anexploration of Gay’s experiences as a morbidly obese person, but it is in fact so much more than that. In it she deals with all the facets of her identity that come with inhabiting […]Read More
Imagine sitting on a train bound for London when you suddenly lose your memory. This is what seems to happen to John. I say seems, as little in Dennis Potter’s psychological thriller Ticket to Ride is exactly how it appears on the surface. Odd fragments from John’s past float in and out of his disoriented […]Read More
Luckily, my mum has always demanded I read books that open my mind to new perspectives, that pique my interest in history, politics and culture from around the world. Thus, this meant that when the book lists relating to Black Lives Matter circulated, I had read the majority of them already. But, of course, there […]Read More
Last week was a ‘bumper week’ for UK booksellers as sales hit £33.6 million in seven days. This is an 11% increase on the previous week, and the best first week of September on record. When lockdown relegated us to our homes in March, as a nation we picked up hobbies to pass the time, […]Read More
When the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2020 shortlist was first announced, it was evident the judges had a difficult job on their hands, under pressure to pick a winner from some of the most talented writers we have all loved during lockdown. On Wednesday, it was officially announced, via a digital awards ceremony in London, […]Read More
When reading fiction, you’ll find that a lot of the time you are quite moved by the story.However, over time, it loses it power when you remember it is fictional. The intimateconnections with the characters you develop, and the tense following of the plot that playson your emotions begins to fade as the novelty wears […]Read More
Publisher Comma Press, in partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University, has today announced the National Creative Writing Industry Conference. The conference is a spin on the usual annual event of the National Creative Writing Industry Day, which is usually a ticketed, non-remote event held in Manchester. Due to the pandemic, however, this year the event has […]Read More
The traditional methods of book browsing and book recommendations are being swapped for online libraries, pdf downloads and even Facebook groups - all remote ways book lovers are discovering to quench their bookish thirst during the pandemic.Read More
Sherwood Anderson’s book of short stories begins with an old writer thinking of the people he has known throughout his life. Particularly ingrained in his mind are the ‘grotesques’ of Winesburg, the small fictional town in Ohio that serves as the setting for each story. The writer is George Willard, who as a young man […]Read More
29-year-old Dutch author, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld’s debut novel The Discomfort of Evening has officially won the 2020 International Booker Prize, the youngest winner so far to take home the esteemed £50,000 prize. The International Booker is an award given every year to a novel translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland. In […]Read More
Title: Dark, Salt, Clear: Life in a Cornish Fishing Village Author: Lamorna Ash What I Think So Far: I was immediately entranced by the premise of Dark, Salt, Clear after scrolling past an advertisement for the book on Instagram. In a season muffled with lockdowns and quarantines, reading about another place can be a nice […]Read More
Harry Lesser just wants to finish his book. He’s been working on it for ten years, and it’s stripped him of a social life. He scarcely ventures beyond his flat in New York, so the outside world exists only in his mind and on the pages he writes. He is frequently pestered by his landlord, […]Read More
As Summer is slowly drawing to a close, many of us are gasping a sigh of relief as we edge closer to the end of the disastrous 2020. However, as the nights draw in, there is time to reflect on ways in which 2020 will be a defining year for many reasons. As an English […]Read More
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