Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond's Blog, page 7
September 10, 2015
Barnes and Noble's Struggles Continue, But Their Education Division Offers Hope
Yesterday, the ailing bookseller’s stock fell almost 28% as stockholders rushed to dump their shares. The selloff was in response to Barnes and Noble’s report of a projected 1.7% decline in fiscal 2016 first quarter sales, through August 1st. The bad news notwithstanding, there are some glimmers of hope. “‘Core’ Nook-free sales inched up 1 percent, and... Read more.
September 8, 2015
Jeffery Renard Allen: We Need More Black Publishers, Agents, Editors, and Publicists
Writer Tracy M. Lewis-Giggetts asked three acclaimed authors if they felt forced to write about race or social issues because they are black; and about diversity in publishing. Gathering of Waters author Bernice McFadden said “not once did I have an editor tell me what I should or should not write”. However, she cited the case of Millennia... Read more.
The Long Game
My favorite nugget in New York Magazine editor Boris Kachka’s recent piece “How the Tiny Graywolf Press Became a Big Player” is this excerpt about the strategy behind author Eula Biss‘ rise: Before she won multiple awards and wrote one of the Times Book Review’s top-ten books of 2014, the young poet Eula Biss tried to sell a... Read more.
Revision Humor via The New Yorker
The New Yorker‘s Marc Philippe Eskenazi has “Some Notes on Your Manuscript“. Read the full piece here.
On Posthumous Publication and Wills
What do you want to happen to your unpublished manuscripts and in-progress work after you die? It’s a macabre, but necessary thing to consider; something that’s been on my mind since a writer friend who had just completed his first novel passed on suddenly last month, and after reading of the protracted fight between the... Read more.
September 4, 2015
The People Who Write Questionnaire: Megan Gannon
If your life (so far) were a book, what would the title be? You Think You Know How This Story Goes, But SURPRISE! What is the greatest story ever told? Gosh. This is hard. The book that most haunts me is Native Son. Who is the greatest literary character ever created? I think the Judge... Read more.
September 3, 2015
UK Goodreads Members Can Now Access Recommendations via Kindle
Amazon, which bought book recommendation site Goodreads in March 2013, is now integrating Goodreads functions into the Kindle and all other Amazon e-reader and tablet devices in the UK. Quoting Goo dreads CEO Otis Chandler, TheBookseller.com shared: “The UK is the largest market for Goodreads in Europe and bringing Goodreads onto Kindle e-readers and Fire tablets has been one... Read more.
Swedish Government Agency Gifts PEN International $3.7M
The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) has awarded PEN International a grant of 31m SEK–$3.7m, as of today’s exchange rate–in support of the writers’ group’s mission to advance freedom of expression. The money will be disbursed over four years to help foster “strong, diverse, and sustainable PEN Centres”. The gift comes a little over four months after the group’s... Read more.
July 30, 2015
The Man Booker 2015 Longlist Is Here!
Five judges–Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, John Burnside, Sam Leith, and Frances Osborne–chaired by Michael Wood, have culled 156 books in consideration for the 2015 Man Booker Prize, to 13. The diverse longlist for the £50,000 2015 Prize, not to be confused with the Man Booker International Prize, boasts an author each from India, Ireland, Jamaica, Nigeria,... Read more.
July 27, 2015
How Would You Rewrite Your Existing Character or Published Story?
All the dismay expressed about the flawed, racist Atticus Finch character in Harper Lee’s Go Set A Watchman, versus the saintly Civil Rights attorney and crusader Atticus was in To Kill a Mockingbird, has me thinking about Zadie Smith’s popular quote about redlining her published novel to rid it of “every redundant phrase, each show-off, pointless metaphor” just... Read more.
