News Archive
Emmanuel Jal film wins Best Documentary award at Bergen International Film Festival
The American film WAR CHILD, directed by Christian Karim Chrobog, was given the Award for Best Documentary at the Closing Gala Tuesday evening. In BIFF's documentary section 72 films were screened, of which 15 were in the International Documentary Competition Programme. The Documentary Award of NOK 50.000 will secure Norwegian DVD distribution.
http://www.biff.no/2008/index.php3?ID=Nyhet&Eng=Ja&ID2=Vis&counter=40
Mulcahy Conway launches award for unpublished children's and young adult fiction
Mulcahy Conway Associates has established a new prize of £1,000 to be awarded to the best piece of unpublished fiction written for children or young adults.
The prize is being offered in conjunction with The Northern Writers' Centre, the partnership between New Writing North, the writing development agency for the North East of England, and The School of English at Newcastle University.
Professor Linda Anderson, Associate Dean of Creative Practice at Newcastle University and co-Director of The Northern Writers' Centre, said "we are delighted to put in place this sponsorship from such a dynamic agency as Mulcahy Conway Associates. They, like us, are committed to finding and supporting talented new writers."
The directors of Mulcahy Conway Associates said: "The market for children's books is very healthy both in the UK and internationally. We are always searching for authors with the potential to have successful long-term careers writing children's books. In recent years we have been very impressed by the work being done at The Northern Writers' Centre and are pleased to have this opportunity of formalising our relationship with them."
To be eligible for the award, writers must be either living and working in the North East of England or past or present students of creative writing at The School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics at Newcastle University. Picture books or illustrated books are not eligible. The closing date for entries is the 31st January 2009. Entry forms and full conditions of entry are available from the Northern Writers' Centre website: www.northernwriterscentre.com.
Mulcahy Conway appoints new agent Laetitia Rutherford
Mulcahy Conway Associates literary agency is pleased to announce that Laetitia Rutherford will join them as a Literary Agent from 1st November 2008.
Laetitia joins the agency after five years at Toby Eady Associates, where she developed her own list of authors whilst working closely with key agency clients. She will bring her diverse list of authors with her, including Ben Obler (Hamish Hamilton), Mandy Haggith (Virgin), Robin Harvie (John Murray), Samson Kambalu (Jonathan Cape), Samia Serageldin (HarperCollins) and Evie Wyld (Jonathan Cape).
Before becoming an agent, Laeitia worked for three years in publicity at Harper Collins, and at Prospect magazine. Her book We of the Future: Apollinaire and the Making of Modernism will be published by Constable in 2009.
Agency directors Ivan Mulcahy and Jonathan Conway said: "We have been looking for the right person to join us and help build the agency's fiction list. Laetitia is the ideal candidate, combining excellent taste and strong editorial skills with commercial instinct."
Ha-Joon Chang's Guardian article: The economics of hypocrisy
Guardian.co.uk,
Monday October 20 2008.
Back in July, the Republican Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky famously denounced the $200bn nationalisation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage lenders, as something that can only happen in a "socialist" country like France.
France was bad enough, but now Senator Bunning's beloved country has turned into the Evil Empire itself. The US government is using $700bn of taxpayers' money to buy up the "toxic assets" choking up the financial system and - horror of the horrors - partially nationalising the US banking system.
President George Bush, however, did not see things quite that way. Announcing the bail-out package, he argued that, rather than being "socialist", the plan was simply a continuation of the American system of free enterprise, which "rests on the conviction that the federal government should interfere in the market place only when necessary". Obviously, in his view, nationalising a huge chunk of the financial sector was one of those "necessary" things....
Click on the link below to see the whole article.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2008/oct/20/economic-policy-us-bailout
The funniest case of brain-freeze I've ever heard about
The funniest case of brain-freeze I've ever heard about.
IT IS A weird thing to say out loud, but I laughed heartily when I recently read a book about a man's incredibly dangerous brain infection that rendered him totally paralysed.
You may think me heartless, but it is one of the funniest books I've ever read. It is called I Think There's Something Wrong With Me. It is described as a comedy trauma and is written by Nigel Smith. This amazing real-life account of his hospital stay and slow progress after his brain shut down was totally hysterical.
I read the whole book in one sitting and the man is now one of my favourite writers.
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/janeygodley/Janey-Godley-Sick-of-banks.4583867.jp
Nigel Smith longlisted for Spread the Word: Books to Talk About 2009
Nigel Smith's I THINK THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG WITH ME has been picked as one of the titles on the Spread the Word: Books to Talk About 2009 longlist. Linked to World Book Day, a new website will be launched on 17th October and will include public voting for the shortlist. The Spread the Word: Books to Talk about Supplement will appear on Firday 23rd January featuring the shortlist supported by GUARDIAN online activity.
www.spread-the-word.org.uk
Tim Etchells play Drama Queens to be staged at Old Vic
The Old Vic is to collaborate with leading international artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset to stage a new production of their acclaimed work, Drama Queens (text by Tim Etchells) for a special Gala event on Sunday 12th October, 2008. Drama Queens features six famous sculptures as its protagonists. Trapped on a theatre stage are icons inspired by 20th century art history. A specially cast group of actors, including Old Vic Artistic Director Kevin Spacey, will voice the sculptures, which will be performed live for the first time. All proceeds from this event will go to The Old Vic Theatre Trust Creative Development Programme, including a special new initiative to bring visual artists and theatre practioners together.
VIP Gala Tickets £250
For more information please call +44 (0) 20 7902 7590
http://www.oldvictheatre.com/whatson.php?id=48
Bridget Whelan at LitCamp - A writers' unconference at London Metropolitan University
Bridget Whelan is involved in three sessions at LitCamp - A writers' unconference at London Metropolitan University on Friday 12 September 2008, 11am to 8pm.
11.30am-1pm The first page - Bridget offers a confidence-building session full of imaginative exercises to help prose writers at all levels find inspiration in the ordinary and create characters that live and breathe.
3.30-4.15pm How to make a living while you write - Bridget leads a session on how to earn a living while drafting and revising your magnum opus.
6ish-8pm The Evening Session - An eclectic mix of writers featuring: Paul Ewen, Jay Bernard, Farahad Zama, Vanessa Gebbie, Bridget Whelan, Anne Mullane, Nicholas Hogg, Maggie Butt, Bilal Ghafoor...
http://www.litcamp.org/
Melissa Lane interviewed on prestigious Philosophy Bites
Melissa Lane is interviewed on the prestigious Philosophy Bites podcast series about Rousseau's critique of civilisation.
http://nigelwarburton.typepad.com/philosophy_bites/2008/07/melissa-lane-on.html
The Broken World by Tim Etchells: 'Unmissable'
The Broken World by Time Etchells is Peter Begen's 'I'm Loving' choice in The Bookseller, 18th July 2008. 'This is a subtly constructed and oddly engaging novel... Unmissable.'
10,000 downloads for Davey Spens, the first Costa Coffee Writer-in-Residence
Davey Spens, appointed the first writer-in-residence by Costa Coffee, has now had 10,000 downloads of his short stories, called Frothy Tales, which are being published on his own and the Costa website. Davey is currently finishing his bedut novel, Teach Me To Swim.
http://www.daveyspens.com/costa.html
Alloma Gilbert number 2 on bestseller list
Alloma Gilbert's memoir Deliver Me From Evil reached number 2 on the non-fiction bestseller list in May 2008 and has sold 75,000 copies to date (Bookscan).
Robert Webb stars in West End play
Robert Webb of Mitchell & Webb is currently starring in the West End production of Neil Labute's play Fat Pig.
Trish Deseine second TV series commissioned
A second series of Trish Deseine's Trish's Paris Kitchen has been commissioned by RTE for broadcast in Ireland during 2008.
Excellent reviews for Ian Kelly's Casanova
Excellent reviews for Casanova have appeared in The Times, The Telegraph, The Indpendent, The Daily Mail, The Financial Times and The Spectator. All available online.
Emmanuel Jal July gigs
July 10th: The Black Ball - St John Smith's Square, London
July 12th: Rising Styles Block Party - Old Paddling Pool, Brighton
July 13th: Rise Festival - Africa Village Stage, Finsbury Park, London
Emmanuel Jal at Nelson Mandela concert and the United Nations
Emmanuel Jal performed at Hyde Park on 27th June 2008 to celebrate the 90th birthday of Nelson Mandela, and will take part in Conflict of Interests: Children and Guns in Zones of Instability at the United Nations, New York, on 15th July 2008.
Ian Kelly's Casanova is BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week
Ian Kelly's magisterial new biography Casanova: Actor, Spy, Lover, Priest has been selected as BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week
Bridget Whelan's Good Confession to Severn House
Bridget Whelan's debut novel A Good Confession has been sold to Severn House, who will publish in Christmas 2008. The novel traces Cathleen's relationship with Father Jerry, her dead husband's cousin, and bears comparison with Colleen McCullogh's The Thorn Birds. Bridget began the novel whilst studying for an MA in Creative Writing at Goldsmith's College, London
Book deal for Ellie Levenson's debut
Ellie Levenson's first book The Noughtie Girls' Guide to Feminism has been bought by Oneworld publishers.
Mitchell & Webb sign two-book deal with Fourth Estate
Nigel Smith memoir just published
Leslie Ash memoir just published
New website launched for the publication of "Mirrorscape" by Mike Wilks
http://www.mirrorscape.co.uk
John O'Donoghue's memoir "Sectioned" sold to John Murray at auction