Debut from Rebecca Denton to Atom

Atom has acquired a Young Adult novel from debut author Rebecca Denton.

Sarah Castleton, editor at Atom, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Hattie Grunewald at Blake Friedmann.

GOING SOLO tells the story of a girl who meets the lead singer of hot young boyband The Keep when her father takes her backstage at their London concert. This is a heart-warming story dealing with issues of family and friendship, creativity and confidence, fame and fandom.

Rebecca Denton has spent her career traveling the world making Music TV for MTV and Channel 4, and wrangling young adult and children audiences for Cartoon Network, the BBC and ITV. She’s filmed with Iggy Pop, MIA, Kaiser Chiefs, Sonic Youth, Jack White, Dirty Pretty Things, Laura Marling and Bloc Party to name just a few. GOING SOLO is her first novel.

Sarah Castleton says, “We’re so happy that Rebecca has joined Team Atom. What I love about GOING SOLO is that it celebrates all that is completely brilliant about artists and their fans, at the same time as poking fun at all that is woeful, bizarre and downright cringe-worthy about the fame industry. Rebecca’s insider’s eye means that we trust every page. Like Smash Hits at its best, GOING SOLO *knows* its pop music and is a right giggle to read. It’s going to be a lot of fun to publish.’

Rebecca Denton says, “This book as much a nod to my own hilarious adventures while filming bands across the world as it is a celebration of the creativity and bravery of young artists trying to find their voice. I’m absolutely thrilled to be working with Sarah and Atom on this book - it's a dream come true.” 

Hattie Grunewald says, “Rebecca knows the music industry back to front, and it’s this knowledge that brings her novel to life with the perfect blend of warmth, humour and cynicism. I’m delighted that it has found such a fitting home with Atom.”

For more information, visit Rebecca’s website.

LONDON IN AN HOUR PUBLISHED TODAY

Virgin Books have today published LONDON IN AN HOUR by Kate Hodges.

The book features 120 bite-size ideas for things to do and places to visit in London in under an hour. It is organised around the range of activities London has to offer, with chapters to help you find original and diverting suggestions for things to do, as well as a few places to eat and drink. LONDON IN AN HOUR includes tips on how to squeeze in some culture or some exercise; find the best places to buy a birthday present or go for a quick pampering; discover outdoor spaces or quiet hideaways to escape the chaos; avoid the typical al desco lunch; make the most of your mornings; and turn a spare hour in-between a meeting or at a train station into an hour well spent. It also features top ten lists for those really pushed for time, and comprehensive indices by location and activity type to help you find what you need, quickly.

Whether you’re a visitor, on a family day out or a busy working Londoner, LONDON IN AN HOUR will transform your experience of the city.

Kate Hodges graduated from the University of Westminster with a BA in Print Journalism. She has over 20 years writing experience on magazines, having been a staffer on publications including The Face, Bizarre, Just Seventeen, Smash Hits and Sky, and written for many more, including The Guardian, Kerrang! and NME. She has also worked for Rapido TV, makers of cult show Eurotrash, and P For Production films. Since June 2012, she’s edited, researched and written the weekly Hopscotch newsletter, a guide for families to the best cheap, fun things happening in London.

Kate's first book, LITTLE LONDON, was published by Virgin Books in Spring 2014. 

Kate on Twitter 

Unnamed Press to launch Henrietta Rose-Innes in the US this year

Unnamed Press are to launch South African writer Henrietta Rose-Innes in the US in November 2016, with an East Coast tour for the author alongside publication of her prize-winning novel NINEVEH. NINEVEH is also published in French by Editions Zoe and in Spanish by Almadia in Mexico.

Originally published in South Africa by Umuzi, NINEVEH was described in Pornokitsch as ‘part Gothic, part mystery, all amazing and in the Mail and Guardian as ‘relentless and perfect’. KD, the central character of NINEVEH, is a woman with unusual skills. She learned everything about pest extermination from her father, but has instead become a specialist in the humane relocation of vermin; a “caterpillar wrangler”. Dressed in her toxic-green overalls, she’s a friend to the rats, birds, spiders, snakes and baboons that stray into the human world. Her job makes her hyper-aware of the shifting topography of Cape Town: the neglected corners of the city where displaced creatures – human and otherwise – make their homes, the churn of demolition and development.

Indeed, a new construction project is literally shaking the foundations of KD’s house, but, as the walls crack, other more intimate and disturbing forces are about to muscle into her life …  You can read an extract here.

Olivia Taylor Smith of Unnamed Press says: ‘We are thrilled to be publishing Henrietta Rose-Innes in the United States and the novel NINEVEH in particular. Rose-Innes has the remarkable ability to create worlds that are lush, vivid, and endlessly fascinating, entire ecosystems and hidden communities that are buzzing with life. This is an absorbing, in every sense of the word, gothic novel for the 21st Century exploring both human relationships and the environment with grace and wit.’

‘I'm delighted to have found a home on Unnamed Press's exciting list,’ says Henrietta, ‘ – and very happy that NINEVEH's beasts and beetles will be swarming across the US soon.’

Henrietta is the author of four novels and one book of short stories. She was winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing 2008 (for which she was shortlisted in 2007), the PEN Short Story Prize 2007, and awarded the Runner-Up prize for her short story 'Sanctuary' at the BBC International Short Story Awards 2012. Her novel, NINEVEH, was shortlisted for The Sunday Times Fiction Prize (South Africa), the M-Net Prize 2012 and won the Francois Sommer Literary Prize in France.

She has degrees in archaeology and biology and an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town and is currently completing a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. For more information on Henrietta, please visit her website.

More praise for NINEVEH:

‘A gripping allegory … executed with wit, panache, and precision.’ – Neel Mukherjee

‘A tragi-comic psychological thriller … an original work of elegant writing that looks set to cement her status as one of South Africa’s more promising writers.’ – Jonathan Amid, SLiPNet

‘This multidimensional novel recalls Italo Calvino's beautiful, challenging and descriptive novel, INVISIBLE CITIES ... Such delicacy is evident in NINEVEH, where the architecture is finely spun, amid the ugliness of urban life...’  – Maureen Isaacson, Sunday Independent

 Praise for Henrietta Rose-Innes:

‘Henrietta Rose-Innes writes an admirably taut, clean prose…A welcome addition to the new South African literature.’ – J.M. Coetzee

‘Rose-Innes’s writing is as entertaining as it is subtle – a rare combination.’ – Steven Amsterdam

'Rose-Innes is a writer almost in the Virginia Woolf mould – lateral of mind and poetic in her style of narration.' – Leon de Kock, Sunday Times

Follow Henrietta on Twitter: @HenriettaRI

SHAKESPEARE IN SWAHILILAND PUBLISHED TODAY IN THE UK

SHAKESPEARE IN SWAHILILAND is published today in the UK by William Collins. In this adventurous blend of literature, history and memoir Cambridge scholar Edward Wilson-Lee traces a journey in search of the explorers, labourers, freedom fighters and tyrants who loved and fought over Shakespeare in East Africa over the centuries. Edward’s Shakespearean expertise and personal experience of the region make this a vivid and memorable read. 

2016 is a year of #Shakespeare400 celebrations, marking four centuries since the death of the great English poet and playwright. SHAKESPEARE IN SWAHILILAND has already attracted a great deal of pre-publication attention and been listed as one of the top books on Shakespeare to read this year. The Bookseller called it a 'striking literary debut' in its preview of the best forthcoming books for #Shakespeare400, The Times included it in their list of all things ‘Bardtastic’ to look out for, and The Financial Times also highlighted it as a book to read in 2016. In the US, where Farrar, Straus & Giroux will publish in September 2016,  The Wall Street Journal featured it in their article on ‘The Coming Shakespeare Extravaganza’. 

As Matthew Reisz writes in Times Higher Education: 'There will be many books published to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. Few will be bolder than SHAKESPEARE IN SWAHILILAND.’

In a series of clips Edward considers questions like “What would the world be like without Shakespeare?” and  why Antony & Cleopatra is (currently) his favourite Shakespeare play. 

International student publication The Day ran this piece by Edward on Shakespeare’s global impact he was interviewed for the World Service: Focus on Africa programme. He has already appeared at the Bath Literary Festival and London readers can book tickets for his forthcoming event at Stanford Travel Bookshop on 15 March. Many other festival appearances are scheduled, including:
29 April: Stratford upon Avon Literary Festival
13 July:  Dartington Ways with Words
7 November:  Bridport Literary Festival

See more on Edward’s website. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Edward Wilson-Lee is a Fellow in English at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he teaches medieval and Renaissance literature and Shakespeare. After growing up in Kenya and Switzerland, he went to university in London, New York, Oxford and Cambridge, living briefly in Mexico and New Orleans in between. He is now working on a second book for William Collins.

Follow Edward on Twitter.

JANICE GALLOWAY AND PIPPA GOLDSCHMIDT LONGLISTED FOR THE EDGE HILL SHORT STORY PRIZE

JELLYFISH by Janice Galloway and THE NEED FOR BETTER REGULATION OF OUTER SPACE by Pippa Goldschmidt are among the short story collections longlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize. The list was announced yesterday and includes many Scottish and Irish authors and a number of prize-winning writers like Ali Smith, China Miéville, Kate Clanchy and Marina Warner .

The Edge Hill Prize is awarded annually by Edge Hill University for excellence in a published single-author short story collection. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Prize and Ailsa Cox, Professor of Short Fiction and organiser of the Short Story Prize shared her excitement for the event and for the strong longlist of established names competing alongside relative newcomers.

A shortlist of six authors will be announced in May, and the winner announced on 5th July. Judges are last year’s winner, Kirsty Gunn; Cathy Galvin, Director of The Word Factory; and Edge Hill Creative Writing Lecturer, Billy Cowan.

About JELLYFISH:

JELLYFISH is a collection of short stories, published in the UK by Freight Books. Three stories from the collection were broadcast by BBC Radio 4, and the book has already been longlisted for the Frank O’Connor Short Story Prize 2015.

Praise for JELLYFISH:

‘Foreboding floats through the fourteen tales … Reminiscent of Sylvia Plath in its black humour and visceral imagery … These deft short stories show why publishers should have more faith in the form … Exquisite similes and witty metaphors rise up and sting the senses like the eponymous jellyfish. With this electrifying volume Galloway proves herself a truly powerful writer who deserves to be much better known.’ – The Independent

‘An exquisite short-story collection … Previously very much a city writer, here the natural world encroaches on Galloway’s work from the title onwards, both indifferent and essential.’ – The Guardian

'This is a short story collection to savour, by one of the foremost Scottish writers of her generation.' – Irish Times

Visit Janice's website

About THE NEED FOR BETTER REGULATION OF OUTER SPACE:

In THE NEED FOR BETTER REGULATION OF OUTER SPACE, Pippa Goldschmidt brings together an outstanding collection of short stories on the theme of science and its impact on all our lives.

Praise for THE NEED FOR BETTER REGULATION OF OUTER SPACE:

'Definitions: 'scientist' – human being who wonders, tries, gets things wrong; 'science' – curiosity, wrapped in strange language and with odd-looking equipment; 'story' – what if, and then, and then. Pippa Goldschmidt mixes all of the above and the resulting compounds are sweet, funny, spicy, provocative, moving. Your universe will be expanded. It doesn't get any better than that.' – Tania Hershman, author of MY MOTHER WAS AN UPRIGHT PIANO 

'These stories, written with deep empathy and a bittersweet humour, open up a world where literature often fears to tread. Science is a tool for understanding the universe, but in Pippa Goldschmidt’s hands it is also a metaphor through which we can better understand ourselves. She is a writer of great heart and talent.' – Iain Maloney, author of FIRST TIME SOLO and SILMA HILL 

'Sharply imagined stories that glitter like a constellation: funny, sexy and moving by turns. There is a haunting, planetary loneliness at the heart of many of these tales, but they're told with energy, wit and unflagging inventiveness.' – Wayne Price, author of FURNACE and MERCY SEAT

'Pippa Goldschmidt is busy defining an entirely new kind of "science" fiction. These stories – all of which are superb exercises in tone and concision – are urgent dispatches from a territory almost completely ignored by contemporary authors – elegant fables that inhabit the intersection of science, culture, humanity, and which are thoroughly informed by a sharp understanding of both the secret histories and hidden processes of actual science.' – Alastair Reynolds, author or REVELATION SPACE and POSEIDON’S CHILDREN

Visit Pippa's website

Follow Pippa on Twitter: @goldipipschmidt