Primadonna Festival launches inaugural writing prize
thebookseller.com – Friday May 24, 2019
The Primadonna Festival has launched its inaugural prize to celebrate "brilliant writing from emerging as well as established artists".
Staged in Suffolk from August 30th to 1st September, the festival aims to focus on women’s writers to redress the gender inequality in publishing and says it will "give prominence to work by women, while welcoming all genders, on stage and off."
The Primadonna Festival is the brainchild of a group of women from publishing and entertainment, who include Sabeena Akhtar, Joanna Baker, Jane Dyball, Catherine Mayer, Kit de Waal, Shona Abhyankar, Jude Kelly, Alexis Kirschbaum, Lisa Milton, Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, Sonia Purnell, Monisha Rajesh, Catherine Riley, Athena Stevens, Cathryn Summerhayes, Sandi Toksvig and Sioned Wiliam.
Portico Prize relaunches with Manchester Writing School
thebookseller.com – Tuesday May 21, 2019
The £10,000 Portico Prize will return after a four-year absence with a new partnership with the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Blogger and broadcaster Simon Savidge will chair the panel for the 2019 prize with fellow judges including actor Holliday Grainger, who starred in the BBC adaptation of J K Rowling’s Cormoran Strike novels, as well as writer and performer Kate Fox, novelist Zahid Hussain and Jean Sprackland, professor of creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Harlequin Presents/ M&B Modern Blitz
firstwriter.com – Saturday May 18, 2019
Harlequin Presents/ M&B Modern are looking for new authors. You can submit your first chapter between Wednesday 15th May and Sunday 2nd June 2019, and get a response by Friday 14th June 2019.
What you need to know:
Rankin and Cleeves to headline Bute Noir crime writing festival
thebookseller.com – Thursday May 16, 2019
Ian Rankin and Ann Cleeves will headline this summer's Bute Noir crime writing festival.
Authors Mark Billingham, Denise Mina, Stuart MacBride, Chris Brookmyre, Ruth Ware and Mick Herron will also join the line-up for the festival in Rothesay, which takes place from Friday 2nd August 2 to Sunday 4th August.
Organisers have also signed up authors Oscar de Muriel from Mexico, Lilja Sigurdardottir from Iceland, Thomas Enger from Norway, Alexandra Sokoloff from the USA, and Liz Nugent from Ireland as well as leading Scottish talent including Alex Gray, Lin Anderson and Craig Robertson.
ICM Partners join forces with Curtis Brown Creative for writing course
thebookseller.com – Wednesday May 15, 2019
US agency ICM Partners and Curtis Brown Creative are teaming up to launch a six-month online novel-writing course.
The course, which starts in September, will provide 15 writing students with the opportunity to connect with literary agents from the US and UK and the chance to glean knowledge and industry insights from US and UK publishing perspectives.
ICM Partners have worked with Curtis Brown for more than 10 years on UK and translation rights representation and now ICM literary agents Heather Karpas and Zoe Sandler will take part in 'agent days' during the creative writing school's new course.
Buchwald Adds Five Agents In New York, Los Angeles Outposts
deadline.com – Monday May 6, 2019
The boutique agency Buchwald has expanded its New York and Los Angeles offices with five key hires made by president Julia Buchwald. In the New York office, Cassandra Tay and Katie Britton have been brought on as theatrical agents, as well as Liz Orr as a literary agent.
In Los Angeles, Jason Hyman joins as a talent agent, while George Carmona has been hired as Buchwald’s West Coast voice-over agent. In addition to building out the voice-over booth in Buchwald’s L.A. office, Carmona will work with a number of the agency’s east coast commercial agents including newly promoted Director of Animation, Pamela Goldman.
Creative writing graduates will 'never make a living as novelists', says Self
thebookseller.com – Thursday May 2, 2019
Will Self has declared literature to be “morphing into a giant quilting exercise”, suggesting that no current creative writing graduates will make a living from literary fiction.
The author criticised courses during an interview with Radio 4’s “Today” programme on Thursday (2nd May), in a show recorded at the University of East Anglia, almost 50 years since its prestigious Creative Writing MA launched.
Self said: “If you want to do it and you’re not too concerned about making a living in the future then it’s probably a good idea. The paradox is, in the modern university, everyone is encouraged to tailor their courses towards employability but it’s certainly not clear what the pathway is into literary fiction – possibly into genre fiction, or possibly people can use the writing courses just to develop themselves as writers to write video games or something else, that’s a possibility.”
Cengage, McGraw-Hill Agree to Merge to Become 2nd Biggest US Textbook Publisher
edsurge.com – Wednesday May 1, 2019
Cengage and McGraw-Hill Education plan to join forces in an all-stock merger. The news, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, would create the second-biggest U.S. textbook publisher if the deal is approved, with a combined valuation estimated at $5 billion. Pearson, with a market cap of $8.5 billion, would still be ahead of the pack.
Writers Who Fired Their Agents Aren’t Flocking To WGA-Approved Agencies
deadline.com – Tuesday April 16, 2019
Talent agencies that signed the WGA’s new Code of Conduct aren’t being flooded with calls from writers seeking new representation now that they’ve been ordered by the guild to fire their agents who refused to sign. Deadline reached out to many of the 48 agencies that signed the Code and asked if they’ve been getting calls from writers who fired their agents on this the first business day since the Code went into effect.
WGA & ATA Fail To Reach New Deal; Mass Firing Of Agents And Lawsuits Loom
deadline.com – Saturday April 13, 2019
The WGA and the Association of Talent Agents have failed to reach an agreement on a new franchise agreement, setting the stage for unprecedented upheaval in the film and TV industry. Thousands of writers now are ordered by the guild to fire their agents, and in the coming days, expect both sides to carry out their threats to sue each other.
The guild said this afternoon that “as of midnight tonight, every agency will be required to become a signatory” to its new Code of Conduct. Writers will have to fire any agency that refuses to sign it. (Read the letter from guild leaders to members below.) All of the major agencies have said they will not sign, so the unprecedented battle between writers and their agents soon will be on.
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