Black authors soar with high fantasy

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Two pieces of bookish news have me very excited this week.

First up, Tomi Adeyemi. She’s a 23-year-old, Harvard graduate who’s just signed a seven-figure book deal.

Over the Easter weekend I got a google alert link to Metro news with the headline, Writer lands seven figure deal for ‘Black Lives Matter-inspired’ fantasy novel.

The book is called Children of Blood and Bone, it doesn’t have a release date yet but the film adaptation is already in development with Fox 2000. If that’s not baller I’m not sure what is.

The story is set in West Africa and centres on a young girl with magical abilities, living in a world that persecutes those with her skin tone and her gifts. Following the murder of her mother, the girl finds a magic scroll with the power to preserve and secure magic on earth for another century. But first she must outmanoeuvre the Crown Prince who wants to wipe out magic forever.

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Discover the world – one book festival at a time

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Chilling at the Jaipur festival

Book festivals are the best. You get to leave the four walls of your home and hang out with other book-loving people doing book-loving things.

The only thing better than a book festival, is a book festival in another country. I discovered this when I travelled to India with my book club for the Jaipur Literary Festival.

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Wanted: Waterstones Black Writing Curator

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Waterstones Piccadilly is ever and always my favourite book shop. It’s housed in a stunning art deco building in Central London and contains eight floors filled with miles of beautiful books.

I love the branch not only for the eight floors of awesomeness, but also for its Black Writing section.

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11 things you (maybe) didn’t know about Nicola Yoon

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Sonya Sones

Photo by Sonya Sones

1. Her family emigrated from Jamaica to America when she was 11-years-old. Yoon used her experience of being caught between two cultures to flesh out the lives of the characters in her second novel, The Sun is Not a Star. Natasha and Daniel are both children of immigrants. Natasha’s family is facing deportation back to Jamaica when she meets Korean-American, Daniel. Continue reading →

Bougie Christmas Baking with Lorraine Pascale

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Maybe you need a last-minute dish for a pot luck. Maybe you’re after a show-stopping dessert to impress family and friends over the festive season. Or maybe you just want something to snack on while you’re binge watching Queen Sugar during your Christmas vacation. Whatever the cause, Lorraine Pascale’s recipe for White Chocolate & Cherry Torte with a Creme Fraiche Chantilly is the gift that keeps on giving. It sounds like something off a French menu in a high end restaurant, it looks mouth-wateringly delicious and it is possibly the simplest cake I’ve ever baked. No, really! Watch…

Christmas 2016 Black Book Gift Guide

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It’s been a tough year. We could all use a break. Gift wrap some joy and escapism for the people you love this Christmas. With 30 book suggestions to choose from, you’ll find there truly is a book for everybody.

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1. The Perfect Find – Tia Williams

A forty-year-old woman with everything on the line – her high-stakes career, ticking biological clock, bank account – risks it all for a secret romance with a man half her age.

2. From Pasta to Pigfoot: Second Helpings – Frances Mensah Williams

Faye Bonsu has it all: a gorgeous boyfriend, a career as an interior designer and a mansion to call home. But with all her friends becoming mothers, a partner in no hurry to propose, tricky clients, and a very attractive and single boss, things are not quite as simple as they appear. She takes a trip to Ghana for some R&R, but life takes an even more complicated turn.

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5 Black Publishers You Should Be Supporting

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When Margaret Busby launched her publishing company in 1967, she was the youngest and first black woman to do so in England.

Decades later, when she was asked why she’d fought so hard to launch an indie publishing house, she said:

“So that you don’t only get one perspective all the time, with everything filtered through the usual gatekeepers— we know who they are, whether in London, New York or wherever… Other voices need to get a look-in, not just those that already have the power.”

Trinidad and Tobago Guardian

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