News: books

English PEN to celebrate Mandela centenary with poets and activists

English PEN is celebrating the centenary of Nelson Mandela’s birth by holding an evening of readings with writers and creatives including Ted Hughes Award-winner Jay Bernard and Makar Jackie Kay.... Read more

Lloyd Parry scoops Rathbones Folio Prize

The Times’ foreign correspondent Richard Lloyd Parry has scooped the £20,000 Rathbones Folio Prize for his “harrowing and inspiring” portrayal of the 2011 Japanese tsunami.... Read more

Maya Angelou's memoirs to be dramatised for Radio 4

BBC's Radio 4 will broadcast dramatisations of six of Maya Angelou’s memoirs for the first time, 90 years after her birth. Read more

Crime buyer Knobbs leaves Waterstones to pursue writing career

Waterstones' crime buyer and noir novelist Joseph Knobbs is leaving the company after almost a decade to become a full-time writer. ... Read more

Díaz pulls out of festival following harassment claims

Novelist Junot Díaz has reportedly pulled out of Sydney Writers’ Festival following accusations of sexually inappropriate behaviour. Read more

Trade rolls out campaigns for Mental Health Awareness Week

Publishers are marking Mental Health Awareness Week by encouraging authors to talk openly about mental health, hosting "positive mental attitude workouts” at their offices and engaging in... Read more

Debut author flyposts PRH offices to advertise own book

A debut author flyposted Penguin Random House's offices in London's Vauxhall as part of a guerrilla marketing stunt to promote his new book.... Read more

Trade figures fundraise for author of 'cult swimming classic'

Members of the book trade are supporting author Charles Sprawson with a fundraising iniative to raise money for care fees, as Vintage prepares to reissue... Read more

O'Connell's transhumanism debut scoops Wellcome Prize

Irish journalist Mark O’Connell’s “passionate, entertaining and cogent examination” into the use of technology to cheat death and push the human body beyond its current... Read more

Bergstrom, Clark and Hahn on new Cheltenham Festival advisory group

The Times and The Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival has recruited a new advisory group made up of editors, agents and journalists to "help ensure... Read more

Final Mankell novel makes Petrona shortlist

The final book from Henning Mankell is among the titles to be shortlisted for the 2018 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of... Read more

Atwood, Schlag and Morris to receive Hay Festival Medals

Margaret Atwood, Evelyn Schlag and Jackie Morris have been named the recipients of this year’s Hay Festival Medals. Read more

'Crisis' at Swedish Academy jeopardises 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature

The Nobel Prize in Literature may not be awarded this year, following the sexual assault scandal that has rocked the Swedish Academy which governs the prize.... Read more

George R R Martin to release Fire and Blood this November

George R R Martin is to release a new book in November – Fire and Blood – set 300 years before the events in A Song of... Read more

Nasrallah takes $50k International Prize for Arabic Fiction

The International Prize for Arabic Fiction has gone to Jordanian-Palestinian author and former refugee Ibrahim Nasrallah for his “masterful” rendering of a dystopian future.... Read more