I’m a big fan of Bookshop.org – an alternative way to buy books online and support indie bookshops and this summer they’re running The Big Read. It reminds me of the summer reading challenges my local library ran when I was a kid. Read on for more details straight from bookshop.org
The Big Read, summer reading challenge
Join in #TheBigRead and tell us what you’re reading.
The challenge This July, we invite you to join us for asummer reading challenge with a difference, where every book you read and recommend on your socials supports independent bookshops.
What’s on your TBR? Whether you already love to share your recommendations, or if you’re looking to bust your way out of a reading slump, share a Bookshop.org link to a book you’ve read, are reading or want to read and tag @bookshop_org_uk #TheBigRead by 31 July for the chance to win a Bookshop.org gift card worth £50, plus tote bags and other bookish goodies every week.
Nigerian writer Arinze Ifeakandu has been awarded one of the world’s largest literary prizes for young writers – the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize – for his ‘exhilarating’ debut God’s Children Are Little Broken Things, a stunning short fiction collection, whose nine stories simmer with loneliness and love, and depict what it means to be gay in contemporary Nigeria.
Described as ‘gorgeous…full of subtlety, wisdom and heart’ by Sarah Waters, ‘quietly transgressive’ by Damon Galgut and awarded the 2022 Republic of Consciousness Prize, God’s Children Are Little Broken Things has established twenty-eight-year-old Ifeakandu as a vital new voice in literary fiction.
Ifeakandu was awarded the prestigious £20,000 Prize for God’s Children Are Little Broken Things (Orion, Weidenfeld & Nicolson) at a ceremony held in Swansea on Thursday 11 May, prior to International Dylan Thomas Day on Sunday 14 May, with November 2023 marking seventy years since the Welsh poet’s death.
Arinze Ifeakandu was born in Kano, Nigeria. An AKO Caine Prize for African Writing finalist and A Public Space Writing Fellow, he is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His work has appeared in A Public Space, One Story, and Guernica. God’s Children Are Little Broken Things is his first book.
God’s Children Are Little Broken Things by Arinze Ifeakandu (Orion, Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
In this stunning debut from one of Nigeria’s most promising young writers, the stakes of love meet a society in flux.
A man revisits the university campus where he lost his first love, aware now of what he couldn’t understand then. A daughter returns home to Lagos after the death of her father, where she must face her past – and future – relationship with his long-time partner. A young musician rises to fame at the risk of losing himself and the man who loves him.
Generations collide, families break and are remade, languages and cultures intertwine, and lovers find their ways to futures; from childhood through adulthood; on university campuses, city centres, and neighbourhoods where church bells mingle with the morning call to prayer.
These nine stories of queer male intimacy brim with simmering secrecy, ecstasy, loneliness and love in their depictions of what it means to be gay in contemporary Nigeria.
*this post was created using a press release but all opinions are my own.
This year’s shortlist includes three of the most talked about British female authors writing about contemporary womanhood: Somali-British writer Warsan Shire, the world-famous poet behind Beyoncé’s features Lemonade and Black is King, pays homage to refugees, Black women and teenage girls in her electrifying debut collection, Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head; Sheena Patel – recentlylonglisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Jhalak Prize – offers a piercing critique of social media and heteronormative relationships in her era-defining debut novel I’m a Fan; and Saba Sams, who burst onto the UK writing scene after winning the BBC National Short Story Award 2022 and who is the youngest contender for this year’s prize (aged 26), is recognised for her tender and witty Send Nudes – a short story collection which highlights the confusing double standards facing women today.
Completing the shortlist are three international authors at the forefront of their home nation’s literary scenes. From Ireland comes Sara Baume – winner of the Davy Byrnes Short Story Award, the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award, and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature – who is nominated for her poetic third novel Seven Steeples, which depicts a couple escaping into the wilds of South-West Ireland. Australia’s Robbie Arnott, a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist, has been nominated for his spellbinding third novel Limberlost, which transports readers to the folkloric setting of the Tasmanian wilderness. The final contender for this year’s prize is Nigeria’s Arinze Ifeakandu,an AKO Caine Prize for African Writing finalist, who makes a confident debut with hisexquisite short story collection, God’s Children Are Little Broken Things – a bookwhich explores what it means to be a queer male in his home country.
The Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize winner will be announced at a Winner’s Ceremony held in Swansea on Thursday 11 May, prior to International Dylan Thomas Day on Sunday 14 May.
*this post was created using information from a press release but all opinions remain my own.
I am really excited to share the incredible longlist for this year’s award. I’ve read almost all of the books and will try to read the rest ASAP. The link to vote is also below, so do join in. Good luck to all the amazing writers.
This year’s longlist features twenty incredible crime novels, with literary icons vying with debut authors for the prestigious award. Contenders include: Bad Actors, the gruelling bestseller from 2022 winner Mick Herron; the penultimate Dr Ruth Galloway thriller The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths; All I Said Was True, the ticking clock thriller from barrister-turned-author Imran Mahmood; historical mysteries set on a 18th Century mail-ship bound for Philadelphia in Blue Water by Leonora Nattrass, and the turbulent streets of 1950s Bombay in The Lost Man of Bombay by Vaseem Khan; Sarah Vaughan with her masterful psychological page-turner Reputation; the deftly suspenseful The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett; and many more.
You can vote for your favourites at harrogatetheakstoncrimeaward.com. The shortlist will be announced on 15 June, with the winner of the most coveted award in crime fiction crowned at the opening night of the world’s largest celebration of crime fiction and thriller writing – Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival – which runs from 20 – 23 July 2023 and is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year with an extra special line-up of killer events.
The full Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2023 longlist is:
· The Murder Book by Mark Billingham (Little, Brown Book Group; Little Brown)
· The Botanist by M.W. Craven (Little, Brown Book Group; Constable)
· Into The Dark by Fiona Cummins (Pan Macmillan; Macmillan/Pan)
· The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley (HarperCollins; HarperFiction)
· The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
· The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett (Profile Books; Viper)
· Bad Actors by Mick Herron (John Murray Press; Baskerville)
· The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell (Cornerstone; Century Fiction)
· Black Hearts by Doug Johnstone (Orenda Books)
· The Lost Man of Bombay by Vaseem Khan (Hodder & Stoughton)
· The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh (Little, Brown Book Group; Sphere)
· All I Said Was True by Imran Mahmood (Bloomsbury Publishing; Raven Books)
· Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister (Penguin Random House; Michael Joseph)
· 1989 by Val McDermid (Little, Brown Book Group; Little Brown)
· The Heretic by Liam McIlvanney (HarperCollins; HarperFiction)
· Blue Water by Leonora Nattrass (Profile Books; Viper)
· May God Forgive by Alan Parks (Canongate Books)
· Truly Darkly Deeply by Victoria Selman (Quercus)
· Reputation by Sarah Vaughan (Simon & Schuster)
· The It Girl by Ruth Ware (Simon & Schuster)
*this post was created using information from a press release but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 