ROMALYN ANTE MADE JERWOOD COMPTON FELLOW

We are delighted that Romalyn Ante has been selected as a Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellow for 2020/21, alongside poets Dzifa Benson and Jamie Hale. They were chosen from a field of nominees by award-winning poets and writers Joelle Taylor, Yomi Sode and Pascale Petit, as well as Jan Kofi-Tsekpo of Literature for Arts Council England; Jon Opie, Deputy Director of Jerwood Arts; and Nathalie Teitler, Project Manager for Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowships.

Romalyn Ante’s highly acclaimed debut poetry collection ANTIEMETIC FOR HOMESICKNESS was published by Chatto & Windus in 2020. It was an Irish Times Best Poetry Book of 2020, an Observer Poetry Book of the Month and a Poetry School Poetry Book of the Year 2020. It was also a National Poetry Day UK Recommended Read and was shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. Romalyn also hosts a series of video interviews, Tsaá with Roma, where she talks to poets and other creatives to invite aspiring writers and new readers into world of poetry. She is now working on a memoir.

Each Fellow is gifted £15,000 as well as a year of critical support and mentoring from the programme’s manager Dr Nathalie Teitler. The Fellowship is designed to give the poets the time and space to focus on their craft, though there is no expectation that they produce a particular work or outcome during this time. Previous recipients include Anthony Joseph and Rathbone Folio Prize winner Raymond Antrobus.

Jon Opie, deputy director of Jerwood Arts, commented: ‘The Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowships is a special programme, which over the last four years has charted significant changes in the poetry world and embraced the diversity of voices, experience and histories it encompasses. Past fellows, and now the ones we have announced today, exemplify some of the multitudes of forms and languages that makes poetry an essential part of this country’s life, inseparable from mainstream media, powerfully articulating lived-experiences and enhancing other artforms. I am hugely looking forward to working with Romalyn, Dzifa and Jamie over the coming year. Their talents are unique, and yet they share a generosity and sense of responsibility towards other poets and their communities. I have no doubt their Fellowships will be profound for them and for others around them.’

Sarah Crown, director of literature at Arts Council England, added: ‘The Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship continues to champion change in art funding practice in the UK as fearlessly as it has done for the last four years. Providing mentoring, financial support and, most importantly, time and space for underrepresented poets to experiment and hone their craft—without the external pressures of meeting a particular outcome—nurtures creativity and enriches the sector as a whole. The selectors have had the tough task of choosing three recipients from what was yet again an extremely strong set of nominees. Romalyn, Dzifa and Jamie join a long line of talented Fellows, and I am excited to see how they flourish over the coming year.’

Praise for ANTIEMETIC FOR HOMESICKNESS:

‘Poignant, beautiful, and meditative writing on movement — living in a foreign country, being away from one’s family, speaking a language not quite your own... This is possibly the most beautiful thing I have read this year.’ – Maria Lewandowska, The Poetry School Poetry Books of the Year

‘Captivating… playful…  moving, witty and agile… These poems have a tended quality, as though Ante's kindness as a nurse extended to them. She is an unforced poet with a lightness of touch and fortitude, not neglecting to see her situation within a wider cultural and historical context’ – Kate Kellaway, Observer Poetry Book of the Month

‘Ante's poems are like embers, pared back to a slow-burning emotional core whose intensity she sustains elegantly throughout the collection’ – Times Literary Supplement

‘By turns playful and tender, offering a formally-various exploration of migration, community, and nursing... there is honesty, musicality, a powerful heart.’ – Seán Hewitt, Irish Times Best Poetry Books of 2020

‘A poetry of rapturous images and riveting conscience.’ –  Tracy K. Smith

‘A poet to fall in love with... a fascinating and moving story of migration and loss, caring and tenderness’. – Liz Berry

About Romalyn Ante:

Photo: S. Chadawong

Romalyn Ante was born in 1989 during her hometown's fiesta of San Sebastian. She grew up and lived in the Philippines until she migrated to the UK when she was 16 years old. She is a Wolverhampton-based poet and co-founding editor of harana poetry.

She is the first East-Asian to win the Poetry London Prize (2018) and the Manchester Poetry Prize (2017). She also won the Creative Future Literary Award 2017.

Apart from being a writer, she also works as a specialist nurse practitioner.

Visit Romalyn’s website

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MATT HARVEY'S MANDRAKE TO BE SCREENED AT BELFAST FILM FESTIVAL

MANDRAKE, the new feature film by Matt Harvey, is set to be screened at 7 pm tomorrow at the Belfast Film Festival. This is the latest feature film backed by Northern Ireland Screen through its New Talent Focus scheme, produced by Village Films and directed by Lynne Davison.

Witchcraft isn’t real and there’s some good in everyone; two things that Cathy Madden thought were true…until she met Mary Laidlaw.

Probation officer Cathy Madden (Deirdre Mullins), is given the task of rehabilitating notorious killer ‘Bloody Mary’ Laidlaw (Derbhle Crotty) back into society after thirty years of jail for murdering her abusive husband. Cathy has always believed that every client deserves a shot at redemption, but her beliefs are firmly tested when two children disappear near Mary’s farm. A figure of local legend and the subject of occult rumours, Mary Laidlaw’s name has long been invoked to terrify the local children - and when two go missing not long after her release, the village’s suspicions fall on Mary, whose renewed presence in the community seems to be awakening a violent rage among its people.

Cathy - skeptical of the villager's superstitions and with no belief in the occult – tunes out of the local gossip about Mary’s dark history and rumours of witchcraft in the woods. She sets out to find the missing children and prove her new client’s innocence, but soon becomes part of a magic ritual and learns more than she ever thought she would about Mary, about the people of her village - and about herself.

Blending elements of the ‘haunted house’ and ‘backwoods’ sub-genres, MANDRAKE is a contemporary folk tale that starts as a mystery and escalates into full-on survival horror. The story places the supernatural in a plausible setting and maintains a line that this could all be real. The story taps into the mythology of the Mandrake plant which was fabled to grow beneath the gallows and was the most precious plant known to the dark magic of childbirth and fertility. It’s a film about motherhood and community and broken family bonds. Ultimately it’s the story of two women on a collision course.

Previous to MANDRAKE, Matt’s work includes the 2017 film AN ACT OF DEFIANCE about the trial of Nelson Mandela and nine others accused of sabotage against the government during the apartheid era in South Africa. The film won five awards including the Golden Calf for Best Feature Film.

Matt’s three-part TV thriller CRACKED SCREEN, co-written with Hamish Wright, is in development with the BBC.

The film festival runs until 13th November. Read more and access tickets to MANDRAKE on the Belfast Film Festival website.

Matt Harvey is represented by Conrad Williams in the media department.

Literary commemoration of Achmat Dangor hosted by the Johannesburg Review of Books

On Tuesday 2 November the Johannesburg Review of Books will host a literary commemoration of the life of poet and novelist Achmat Dangor, who died in September 2020. The event will take place online on Tuesday, 2 November at 5.30pm SAST/3.30pm GMT (watch on YouTube or Facebook). 

Achmat Dangor was an acclaimed writer and prominent activist, one of the founding members of the Congress of South African Writers. He was a tireless campaigner for social justice, and over the years he headed up various non-governmental organisations, including the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund and the Nelson Mandela Foundation. He was also the Southern Africa Representative for the Ford Foundation. In 2015 he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the South African Literary Awards (SALA). 

He was the author of BITTER FRUIT, which was shortlisted for Man Booker Prize 2004 and the IMPAC Literary Award 2003 and was voted one of the 100 best books of 2004 by Canada’s Globe & Mail.  It is considered a classic of Southern African literature.

His other works include the novels KAFKA’S CURSE (1997), which won the Herman Charles Bosman Prize, THE Z TOWN TRILOGY (1990) and WAITING FOR LEILA (1981); the short story collection STRANGE PILGRIMAGES (2013); a play, MAJIET (1986); and the poetry collection PRIVATE VOICES (1992).  

Read an excerpt from BITTER FRUIT with a brief introduction by Achmat’s literary agent Isobel Dixon here.

THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH by Monique Roffey shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag Readers Award for Breakthrough Author

We are delighted that THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH by Monique Roffey has been shortlisted for the Breakthrough Author category of the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards 2021. Also shortlisted are Dara McAnulty with Diary of a Young Naturalist and Wild Child, Elle McNicoll with Show Us Who You Are, and Marcus Rashford with You Are a Champion (written with Carl Anka).

THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH was published to wide acclaim by Peepal Tree Press in the UK in April 2020, with the paperback published by Vintage in June 2021. It was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize and the Folio Prize and won both the Costa Novel Award and the Costa Book of the Year Award 2020. It has also been shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses and longlisted for the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and the RSL Ondaatje Prize. Rights have been sold in the US, Estonia, France, Germany, Holland, Croatia, Serbia, Italy, Hungary, Japan, Poland, Turkey and Russia, with a film deal being concluded.

The Books Are My Bag Readers Awards are the only book awards curated by bookshops and chosen by readers, and are now in their sixth year. The public can cast their vote for the winner here up until 31 October. The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on Tuesday 9 November at Foyles on Charing Cross Road hosted by Claudia Winkleman. Previous winners of the Breakthrough Author category include Jean Menzies (Greek Myths), Greta Thunberg (No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference), Sarah J. Harris (The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder), Kae Tempest (The Bricks that Built the Houses) and Joanna Cannon (The Trouble with Goats and Sheep).

A vivid, moving story of love and trust, family and friendship in a Caribbean island community, THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH is a world brought to unforgettable life by a master storyteller. A fisherman sings to himself in his boat, but attracts an unexpected sea-dweller — Aycayia, a beautiful young woman cursed to live as a mermaid, swimming the ocean for centuries. Theirs becomes a calm, unspoken bond. But when she hears David’s engine again one day and follows the vessel, she finds herself in a fierce battle for her life. Caught by American sports fishermen, she is strung up on the dock as a trophy, but David rescues her, and gently wins her trust as she starts to transform, painfully, back into a woman. But jealous eyes are watching them…

Interwoven with David and Aycayia’s love story is that of Miss Arcadia Rain, a white landowner bringing up her deaf son on a dwindling estate. As her young son connects with fellow outsider Aycayia, an old lover of Arcadia’s returns to the island and she too begins to feel her way into love and trust again.

Praise for THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH

‘Monique Roffey is a unique talent and most daring and versatile of writers.’ — Bernardine Evaristo

‘Monique Roffey is a writer of verve, vibrancy and compassion, and her work is always a joy to read.’ — Sarah Hall

‘THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH is a daring, mesmerising novel that continually unseats expectation …With her fierce and shapeshifting mermaid, Roffey has created a modern myth about belonging and the bonds humans form with each other and with their land, single-handedly bringing magic realism up to date.’ — Maggie O’Farrell

‘A reading experience as captivating as a tropical storm. Full-throated and mesmerizing’ — C. Pam Zhang

‘Monique Roffey managed to say so much about society’s treatment of difference, enslavement, exploitation of the natural world, sexual politics, but without ever sermonising or compromising the storytelling’ — Clare Chambers

Photo: Marcus Bastel

About Monique Roffey

Monique Roffey is an award-winning novelist. House of Ashes (Scribner UK) was shortlisted for the Costa and the BOCAS Prize. Archipelago, winner of the OCM BOCAS prize for Caribbean Literature, was published by Scribner in the UK, Viking in the US, and translated into 5 languages. Her second novel The White Woman on the Green Bicycle was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Encore Prize, among other accolades, and film/TV rights have been optioned. The Mermaid of Black Conch won the Costa Prize as well as receiving many other prize nominations.

Visit Monique’s website

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THREE NEW ANN GRANGER BOOKS TO HEADLINE

As Headline and Blake Friedmann celebrate Ann Granger and her thirty years of publishing with Headline, we are delighted to announce that a new three-book deal for UK and British Commonwealth rights (including Canada) has been clinched. Headline Executive Editor Clare Foss has acquired two new novels and a collection of short stories from Ann Granger’s agent, Isobel Dixon.

 Drawing together stories which have appeared in magazines and anthologies over Ann Granger’s entire writing career, the collection, MYSTERY IN THE MAKING, will be published in hardback on 9 December 2021. The first novel, DEADLY COMPANY, will mark a return to the ever-popular Mitchell and Markby series and will be published in July 2022. The second novel, to be published in July 2023, will continue Granger’s Victorian mystery series, featuring Scotland Yard’s Inspector Ben Ross and his wife Lizzie. These much-loved characters featured in the most recent series addition, THE TRUTH-SEEKER’S WIFE, which was published in summer 2021. The paperback is due to be released on 9 December 2021, the same day as MYSTERY IN THE MAKING comes out in hardback – a fantastic Christmas package for Granger fans!

 Clare Foss said: ‘It is a privilege to publish one of the nation’s best-loved and most well-respected crime writers. Over the last thirty years, hundreds of thousands of Ann’s fans have followed the fortunes of Mitchell and Markby, Fran Varady, Campbell and Carter, and Ben and Lizzie Ross.’ 

 Ann Granger said: ‘To think that I have been writing crime fiction for 30 years seems astonishing to me. The time has passed so quickly. I have been very fortunate to have had wonderful backing in my writing career. I have been a client of a first-class agency in Blake Friedmann; and this has provided a constant support for which I am very grateful.

 I have also had the good fortune, over the years, to have had three wonderful editors at Headline: Anne Williams, Marion Donaldson and Clare Foss. They’ve always been there for me with advice and encouragement. I could not have been luckier. My most constant supporter, my late husband John Hulme, is sadly no longer here to share this 30th anniversary of writing. Even when he knew himself to have little time left, he urged me to keep writing. So, I shall continue to do so for as long as it’s possible.’

 Isobel Dixon said: ‘It’s an absolute honour and joy to represent Ann Granger, having worked for two decades with her long-time agent Carole Blake. Some of my first deals at Blake Friedmann were selling Ann’s wonderful short stories and crime fiction serials – crafty 3- and 5-parters delivered for magazines with clockwork precision – and I loved talking with so many translating publishers about her beloved Mitchell and Markby and Fran Varady books then too.

 It’s been glorious to see the full scope of the work unfold, with Headline also now publishing the Victorian crime series, and Campbell and Carter picking up from Mitchell and Markby in crime-solving in the Cotswolds. With the short story collection signposting Ann’s remarkable thirty years with Headline, we’re thrilled to still be in full swing with the new three-book deal, and looking forward to the road ahead. Ann is a dream author for an agent, for her publishers and her readers – here’s to many more stories.’

 Headline has sold well over a million copies of Ann Granger’s novels and all four of her series continue to sell strongly. Her work is published in 10 languages, and she has had particular success in Germany, with millions of copies sold, in addition to more than 30 appearances in the Top 5 on the German bestseller lists.

 Praise for Ann Granger

‘Granger’s deft touch raises her above the competition and her finely drawn characters are affecting and believable…Something quite special.’ — Crime Time

 ‘Anyone who enjoys crime stories featuring credible characters in action in a recognizable real world…will lap up the work of Ann Granger.’ — Oxford Mail

 'Well-plotted… realistically portrayed, mature characters whose motivations for solving the crimes are nearly as interesting as the crimes themselves. To be savoured by connoisseurs of characterisation.' — Publishers Weekly

 ‘Granger writes in the best tradition of Agatha Christie and classic crime stories’ — Woman Space

 About the author

Ann Granger is a bestselling British crime author. Born in Portsmouth, England, she went on to study at the University of London. She has written over thirty murder mysteries, including the Mitchell & Markby Mysteries, the Fran Varady Mysteries, the Victorian Inspector Ben Ross and Lizzie Martin Mysteries and the Campbell and Carter Mysteries. Her books are set in Britain, and feature female detectives, murderous twists and characters full of humour and colour.  She has been published in the UK by Headline for more than 30 years and her German publisher Lübbe has sold millions of copies of her work.

Visit Ann’s website.

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