Crime Story 2020: Innovative crime writing festival turns spotlight on contemporary crime
newsroom.northumbria.ac.uk – Saturday February 29, 2020
A series of events for crime fiction fans will take place at Alphabetti Theatre, Newcastle this spring, bringing together people from the two very different worlds of fact and fiction.
Across the three events, celebrated writers AA Dhand, Oliver Harris, Jessica Moor, Judith O’Reilly and Mim Skinner will be paired with experts who will offer unique insight into how contemporary issues are dealt with in real life.
Experts taking part in Crime Story include three Northumbria University academics - Dr Nicci MacLeod, a forensic linguist, who has written on women in the criminal justice system; Professor Mike Rowe, a criminologist who specialises in policing culture and reforms; and Professor Lars Holmquist, an internationally-leading researcher in human-computer interaction.
Publishers, Agents Scramble to Reschedule Bologna
publishersweekly.com – Wednesday February 26, 2020
The news on Monday that the Bologna Children’s Book Fair has been rescheduled to May 4–7 due to the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus has left North American publishers and agents scrambling. Most are working to reschedule appointments, hoping that other attendees will agree to shift their existing appointments to the new dates.
Prize for short form writers launched in tribute to Dave Murray
thebookseller.com – Friday January 31, 2020
An award for new and emerging short-form writers has been launched in memory of Manchester-based writer and critic Dave Murray.
The QuietManDave Prize will be run by the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University, in conjunction with the Manchester School of Theatre.
Named in honour of Murray, a writer and theatre blogger, and lover of flash fiction and non-fiction, who died in 2019, the prize has been initiated and funded by Murray’s family, including his wife Vanda Murray OBE, who is a senior non-executive director with several organisations and chair of Manchester Metropolitan’s board of governors.
SUNY Cortland launches online literary magazine
www2.cortland.edu – Tuesday January 28, 2020
SUNY Cortland’s new online literary magazine, Hoxie Gorge Review, blends together innovative poetry, fiction and nonfiction from established national writers as well as emerging talents.
It was also a labor of love for the 12 students in an upper-level course on the publishing industry taught by instructor Heather Bartlett in the English Department. Those students served as editors, soliciting, selecting and editing submissions for the first issue published in December.
While there are many online literary magazines that feature the work of undergraduate writers, including Cortland’s own Crystallize Review, few are in the mold of Hoxie Gorge Review: a magazine run by undergraduates featuring the work of national writers.
Buchwald Adds Sola Fasehun and Tim Patricia As Literary Agents
deadline.com – Saturday January 25, 2020
Buchwald has hired Sola Fasehun and Tim Patricia to its motion picture and television literary departments, respectively.
Fasehun got her start working under Academy Award-winning producer Michael Phillips at Lighthouse Productions. She then spent six years as a film production, sales, and distribution consultant at Submarine Entertainment/Deluxe. She joins Buchwald from UTA, where, as a member of their team, she helped spearhead the agency’s Diversity initiative.
APA Agency Signs Agreement With The WGA – Update
deadline.com – Wednesday January 22, 2020
UPDATED with WGA and ATA statements and more details: Another full-service agency and Association of Talent Agents member, APA, has reached a deal with the WGA. The agency, which immediately will resume its representation of writers, also said it will bring the Television and Motion Picture Literary businesses together under the banner of APA Scripted Literary.
APA is the latest member of the Association of Talent Agents to break ranks and sign the guild’s new franchise agreement. Its deal comes just days after fellow full-service agency Gersh also signed with the WGA. The other four association members to make WGA deals are Buchwald, also a full-service agency; literary boutiques the Rothman Brecher Ehrich Livingston agency and the Kaplan Stahler Agency; and Pantheon. Non-ATA member Verve, also lit-focused, was the first mid-size agency to reach an agreement with the WGA last May.
UK and Europe writing award with £6,000 prize opens for submissions
falmouthpacket.co.uk – Tuesday January 21, 2020
Falmouth University is welcoming submissions for a writing award with a prize of £6,000.
The 2020 Nick Darke Writers' Award is now open for submissions.
Funded by the university's Academy of Music and Theatre Arts (AMATA) and School of Communication, the award is open to all writers in the UK and Europe aged 16 and over.
A MONSTER CALLS Inspires 'The Monster Challenge' Creative Writing Challenge
broadwayworld.com – Monday January 20, 2020
Calling young aspiring writers! This spring, Sally Cookson's critically acclaimed stage production of A Monster Calls heads to Coventry as part of a brand new UK tour, and to celebrate, the company has launched a creative writing competition open to young people aged 10-25.
Based on the award-winning children's novel by Patrick Ness and Siobhan Dowd, A Monster Calls tells the story of 13-year-old Conor O'Malley, who is visited by a monster while struggling to cope with his mother's illness. Over the course of several nights, the monster tells Conor stories that help him to face up to his fears.
Which best-selling book series are penned by more than one writer?
news.sky.com – Sunday January 19, 2020
Lee Child has quit the Jack Reacher series and asked his brother to write them - so which other authors have done a similar thing?
The author of the best-selling Jack Reacher novels has revealed he is stepping aside and letting his brother write them.
After the move by Lee Child - whose real name is James Grant - Sky News takes a look at authors who have used other writers to take over their bestselling series.
Book Publishers Settle Copyright Battle With Audible Over Captioning Service
mediapost.com – Thursday January 16, 2020
Seven book publishers have settled a lawsuit with Amazon's Audible over a captioning service that could allow people to read along while listening to books, according to court papers filed this week.
Settlement terms have not yet been revealed. U.S. District Court Judge Valerie Caproni in the Southern District of New York, who presided over the litigation, officially dismissed the matter Tuesday.
The move brings an end to a high-profile copyright infringement lawsuit brought by Hachette, HarperCollins, MacMillan, Penguin Random House, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster and Chronicle.
They argued in a complaint filed in federal court last August that Audible's captioning service could directly compete with their own physical books and e-books. Hachette and the others alleged the service would infringe their rights by “taking copyrighted works and repurposing them.”
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