Inaugural children’s book award from Radical Booksellers alliance

 | Lisa Campbell

A graphic novel about refugees forced to flee their homeland has won the inaugural Little Rebels Children’s Book Award, given by the Alliance of Radical Booksellers.

Azzi In Between by Sarah Garland (Frances Lincoln) was praised by judges for its power and simplicity, as well as tackling a topical and important subject in the contemporary climate.

Fen Coles, director of Letterbox Library, who administered the award, said: “At a time when there are so many damaging myths circulating about refugees and asylum seekers, it is heartening to see a book which tells the truth—and in a way which children can relate to.”

The Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing has also been awarded to a ‘shocking’ account of the working lives of Chinese rural migrants, Scattered Sand: The Story of China’s Rural Migrants by Hsiao-Hung Pai (Verso).

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Debut-heavy list for R&J summer promotion

 

Richard and Judy

| By Lisa Campbell

Seven debut authors feature on the 10-strong list of summer Richard and Judy Book Club reads at W H Smith, as the retailer launches a new Book Club website featuring exclusive content.

The seven debut novels are: Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussmann (Picador); The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker (Simon & Schuster); This is How it Ends by Kathleen MacMahon (Sphere); The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence (Hodder); The Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman (Black Swan); The Sea Change by Joanna Rossiter (Penguin); and The Sea Sisters by Lucy Clarke (Harper).

 

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Comma strikes twice on Edge Hill shortlist

| Joshua Farrington

Small independent publisher Comma Press has had two titles shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize.

The books, by Adam Marek and Jane Rogers, are shortlisted alongside titles from Jonathan Cape, Pan Macmillan and Bloomsbury, which also has two nominations.

The award, now in its seventh year, is given for a published collection of short stories by a single author. The winner will be announced in a ceremony at Waterstones Piccadilly on 4th July.

Judges for this year’s prize are last year’s winner Sarah Hall, author Lesley McDowell and Waterstones regional buyer Jim Lee.

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‘Wonderful’ shortlists for Food Writers awards

| By Lisa Campbell

The Guild of Food Writers Awards shortlists include a “wonderful diversity of subject matter” for 2013, the organisers have said.

The annual ceremony awards feature categories such as Cookery Book of the Year, Campaigning and Investigative Food Writing, Cookery Journalist of the Year, Food Blog of the Year and Food Broadcast of the Year. This year’s list includes names like Yotam Ottolenghi, who is up for the cookery journalist of the year award for work published in the Guardian’s Weekend magazine. Also on the list is work such as Consider the Fork: A History of Invention in the Kitchen by Bee Wilson (Particular Books), who is nominated for the Food Book of the Year award.

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RNIB hails Kindle app ‘breakthrough’

 | By Joshua Farrington

A new Kindle app from Amazon will help blind and partially sighted people to access 1.5m titles.

The app works with the in-built magnification and speech functions of iPhones, iPads and some other Apple devices, while also creating an electronic Braille display.

Amazon consulted with blind and partially sighted people in the UK to help develop the app, which has previously been impossible due to compatibility issues with Apple’s own accessibility features.

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Folio Prize to allow self-published work

| By  Joshua Farrington

The Folio Prize has confirmed it is to consider self-published entries, a move which has been welcomed by the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi).

Sixty titles on the 80-strong longlist will be put forward by the Folio’s academy, made up of members of the literary community, and it is understood they will be allowed to select self-published works.

The remaining 20 will be called in by judges following publishers writing letters of support for particular titles. Self-published authors will be able to act as publishers and write letters of support for their own titles, which will then be considered to be called in.

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Anne Somerset wins Elizabeth Longford Prize

 | By Joshua Farrington

Anne Somerset’s biography Queen Anne has won the 2013 Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography.

The book, published by HarperPress, was described by chair of judges Professor Roy Foster as: “a psychologically subtle and surprisingly vivid portrait of a ruler who has hitherto remained obscure to her biographers”.

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Sandstone longlisted for Desmond Elliott Prize

 | By Katie Allen

Scottish indie publisher Sandstone Press has scored a nomination on the longlist for the Desmond Elliott Prize 2013 with Kevin Smith’s Jammy Dodger.

Indie Serpent’s Tail also scores a place with Petite Mort by Beatrice Hitchman.

Hitchman joins six other women on the shortlist of 10, with The Marlowe Papers by Ros Barber (Sceptre); The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan (Wm Heinemann); and The Palace of Curiosities by Rosie Garland (HarperFiction) joined by Signs of Life by Anna Raverat (Picador), Wendy Wallace’s The Painted Bridge (S&S) and Seldom Seen by Sarah Ridgard (Hutchinson).

The shortlist is completed by The Fields by Kevin Maher (Little, Brown) and The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence (Hodder).

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Seren title on Ondaatje shortlist

A title from Seren/Poetry Wales Press has been shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize, in the running with Zadie Smith, Philip Hensher and Gavin Francis.

Call mother a lonely field by Liam Carson is shortlisted for the £10,000 prize alongside Zadie Smith’s NW (Hamish Hamilton), Hensher’s Scenes from An Early Life (Fourth Estate) and Francis’ Empire Antartica (Chatto). Completing the shortlist is Patrick Flanery’s Absolution (Atlantic) and Names for the Sea by Sarah Moss (Granta).

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Mantel, Tremain, Keneally on Walter Scott shortlist

Hilary Mantel

| By Katie Allen

Novels ranging from Tudor England to the battlefields of the Western Front have been shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction, with Hilary Mantel adding another nomination to her prize haul for Bring Up the Bodies (Fourth Estate)

Mantel won in 2010 for Wolf Hall.

The £25,000 prize is rewarded to a book written in English, with the majority of its setting being at least 60 years ago.

 

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