After its sponsorship model changed from a single-headline partnership with Baileys, the Women's Prize is enjoying a golden summer of talks, workshops and a booming merchandise line backed by high-profile influencers.
From Sally Rooney to Raven Leilani, female novelists have captured the literary zeitgeist, with more buzz, prizes and bestsellers than men. But is this cultural shift something to celebrate or rectify?
The Nigerian-American author won the Orange Prize in 2007 and her ‘Half of a Yellow Sun' has been voted the best of the Women's Prize's 25 years of winners.
The Women's Prize has issued a statement saying that eligibility for the prize extends to "all women" where a woman is defined as "a cis woman, a transgender woman or anyone who is legally defined as a woman or of the female sex". Read more
Akwaeke Emezi, who became the first non-binary transgender author to be nominated for the Women's prize in 2019, has said that they will not let their future novels be entered for the award after the prize asked them for information on their sex as defined "by law". Read more
The Women's Prize for Fiction recently debuted an upcoming project which will mark the 25th anniversary of the prize: an initiative called "Reclaim Her Name" (#ReclaimHerName) which republishes famous works by twenty-five female authors who published under male nom-de-plumes in the 19th and early 20th centuries, including George Eliot, George Sand, Vernon Lee, and Arnold Petri. Read more
Women's prize sponsor Baileys has apologised for putting an illustration of the wrong black abolitionist on the cover of a book in a series republishing female authors who wrote under male pseudonyms - a project that has received mixed reactions since it launched earlier this week.
Middlemarch is to be published for the first time in almost 150 years under George Eliot's real name, Mary Ann Evans, alongside 24 other historic works by women whose writing has only ever previously been in print under their male pseudonyms.
The Women's Prize Trust is launching Discoveries, a writers' development programme offering aspiring female writers of all ages and backgrounds "encouragement and support" at the beginning of their creative journeys. Read more
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‘Even if you are writing stark realism, I think there is magic in this age group, because they are at an age at which possibility is at its most colossal. They are still on the brink of becoming the person that they will be, and there is magic inherent there. I wanted to say to children, "I think you have been underestimated.
"What's going on with the book market?" an agent asked me this week. The big books are not showing up, the débuts are passing by too fleetingly, while genre titles, the brands, and backlist books are shifting to the centre ground and taking root. In short, for this year's trends, look to last year's hits. Rinse and repeat.
In my previous blog, I outlined five ways in which publishing can, and likely will, use AI to streamline and make its operations more efficient. I'd like to turn your attention to how AI can help sell more books.
Labour achieved a landslide win in yesterday's general election, with Sir Keir Starmer due to enter Number 10 Downing Street for his first term in office.
A new survey commissioned by the Publishers Association (PA) has shown that children's reading for pleasure remains a priority for adults across the country, despite a decline in reading.
'Having imagination, it takes you an hour to write a paragraph that, if you were unimaginative, would take only a minute. Or you might not write the paragraph at all.'