BookBlast Podcast

Growing up in Glasgow, grandma reading stories aloud, total immersion in Dostoyevsky's 'Crime & Punishment' as a young teen, from science to writing, "You have to try a thing to see how it works", London, Leeds and Poland where Crumey began a story imagining a post-Communist Britain. First three novels with Dedalus, moving to Picador, returning to Dedalus. The book most personal to Crumey is 'Sputnik Caledonia', the book which has done best is 'Mobius Dick'. Moving to Newcastle was the end of the road for physics. From being a freelance book reviewer to working as literary editor of Scotland on Sunday. The writing life. Favourite authors. "Art is the expression of value and science is the explanation of phenomena ... I'm interested in the borderline of the explanatory and the expressive." Andrew Crumey now teaches creative writing at Northumbria University. Titles discussed: 'Pfitz', 'Mr Mee', 'Mobius Dick', 'Music as a Foreign Language', 'Sputnik Caledonia' – all are available from www.dedalusbooks.com Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Ben Fiagbe rec, 11.09.2018 | 36.50 minutes Andrew Crumey’s book 'The Great Chain of Unbeing' features on this year’s Saltire Literary Awards Fiction Book of the Year shortlist (he won the Saltire First Book Award in 1994) alongside 'The Sealwoman’s Gift' by Sally Magnusso, 'Dead Men’s Trousers' by Irvine Welsh and 'Elsewhere, Home' by Leila Aboulela. They are up against Manda Scott for 'A Treachery of Spies' and Helen Sedgwick for 'The Growing Season'. The winner will be announced on Friday 30 November.

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A BookBlast 10x10 Tour LIVE event from Waterstones Birmingham (25.10.2018) Feat. Elizabeth Briggs, editor and marketing manager, Saqi Books (chair). Founded in 1983 in London, Saqi Books is an independent publishing house of quality general interest and academic books on North Africa and the Middle East WITH Birmingham-born, British-Pakistani poet, Nafeesa Hamid, whose work covers the taboo themes of sex, domestic violence and mental health, and has performed extensively around the UK AND spoken word poet and creative producer, Aliyah Holder, who writes about heritage and representation, and is currently working on a Random Acts Film for Channel 4. Topics: Poetry and art as tools for social change; British Muslim women are not one homogenous group, it's important to show those women not seen in the Media; being edited and getting published; the influence of Kate Tempest and Sabrina Mahfouz on up-and-coming poets; poetry as an expression of life; IQ tests are scientifically racist; education and racism in the southern states of the US; according to Aliyah Holder the term "spoken word artist" is racialised; the abuse of women and the #MeToo movement; healing as a collective; the white gaze and the canon of stereotypes; social media and putting your work out there; exploitation and being asked to work unpaid. Title focus: 'The Things I Would Tell You- edited by Sabrina Mahfouz – available from www.saqibooks.com Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Ben Fiagbe.

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A BookBlast 10x10 Tour LIVE event from Waterstones Bristol (18.10.2018) Feat. Rosemarie Hudson, founder of HopeRoad Publishing which promotes literature with a focus on Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. Many of HopeRoad’s young adult titles highlight the issues of identity, cultural stereotyping and disability. WITH Pete Kalu, the Manchester-based author of three CYA novels and six novels ranging from science fiction to crime and comedy. Prizes include the BBC/Contact dangerous Comedy Award and The Kodak Short Film Pitch Award. AND Qaisra Shahraz, a British-Pakistani critically acclaimed novelist, scriptwriter and Founder/Director of MACFEST, Muslim Art & Culture Festival. Winner of the National Diversity ‘Lifetime achiever Award’ & listed in Muslim Power 100. Topics: Trading books and creativity; Pete Kalu's first book written using a young adult voice is semi autobiographical; Qaisra Shahraz on her novel 'The Holy Woman', a powerful love story, and its sequel 'Typhoon'; village life in Pakistan; a writer's retreat in Peru; the challenges of writing historical fiction; using correct terminology for example 'enslaved africans' as opposed to 'slaves'; what lies behind the story, 'High Roller: Does God Play Dice'?; the journey to being a published writer; the arbitrariness of the label 'black writing'. Titles discussed: 'Silent Striker' and 'The Concubine & The Slave Catcher' – all available from www.hoperoadpublishing.com Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Ben Fiagbe.

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A BookBlast 10x10 Tour in association with Waterstones LIVE (04.10.2018) Feat. Meike Ziervogel, Nashwa Gowanlcoh, Jamie Bulloch Topics: Peirene publishes fiction with a political focus, introducing to the market new exciting books by unknown writers some of whom could be the next big thing; the Peirene NOW! Series (special commissions); how to translate different voices and Arabic dialects (register) vs. standard Arabic; translating authors who are no longer alive, writing at a different time; production values and design; the subscription business model. Titles discussed: Shatila Stories and The Last Summer by Ricarda Huch. Available from www.peirenepress.com Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Ben Fiagbe

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A BookBlast 10x10 Tour LIVE event from Waterstones Nottingham, England (27.09.2018) Feat. Georgia de Chamberet, replacement chair for Susan Curtis, founder-director of Istros Books, in conversation with David Norris who was until recently Head of Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies at the University of Nottingham where he taught Serbian and Croatian studies for almost 40 years. His recent book, 'Haunted Serbia: Representations of History and War in the Literary Imagination,' analyzes Serbian prose from the 1980s dedicated to the Second World War, particularly the use of ghosts and other uncanny motifs to represent times of instability and transition. AND Translator, Christina Pribićević-Zorić, who worked for 20 years as a broadcaster at the English Language Service, Radio Belgrade, the BBC in London, and for The Hague at the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia. She has translated over 35 translated works of fiction and non-fiction from Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, Serbian and French into English. Discussion context: Yugoslavia was invaded and dismembered in 1941. Germany annexed northern Slovenia and occupied Serbia, and greatly influenced the fascist puppet state of Croatia ruled by the Ustashe. Mussolini's Italy gained the remainder of Slovenia, Kosovo, and sections of the coastal Dalmatia region and Montenegro. Hungary occupied Vojvodina in northern Serbia. The Holocaust in South-East Europe involved not only the genocide of Jews, but also that of Serbs, Romani (gypsies) and anti-Fascist Croatians. Topics: What is instrinsically "Balkan"? What are perceptions of the Balkans? How does the image emerge from the region's literature? Can one answer the existence of evil? The difference between history (statistics) and literature: the detail fiction gives us makes it more alive. Trauma and war are beyond understanding. Ghosts in literature (memories). Is there hope? Titles discussed: DOPPELGANGER by Daša Drndić & THE HOUSE OF REMEMBERING AND FORGETTING by Filip David – available from www.istrosbooks.com Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Ben Fiagbe.

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A BookBlast 10x10 Tour LIVE event from Waterstones Leeds, England (20.09.2018) Feat. Ra Page (chair) & Georgia de Chamberet (interim chair), Comma Press, in conversation with C.D. Rose who has written stories set in Paris, Naples, St. Petersburg, Lisbon, Manchester and Birmingham & Ian Duhig who has won the National Poetry Competition twice and whose collection, 'The Lammas Hireling', was the Poetry Book Society’s Choice for Summer 2003. He has held various Royal Literary Fund fellowships at universities including Lancaster, Durham, Newcastle and his own alma mater, Leeds. Topics: Comma's City Series which sets fiction against fact, blurring truth and the imagination; wealth, poverty & gentrification across the last century in Leeds (a survivors' city and not fashionable like Manchester or Liverpool), and Birmingham (much of the centre has been knocked down and rebuilt); blind Jack Metcalf, a major 18th century road builder; Tolkien and the discovery of his diaries; reading and writing vs. poetry and song . . . With active audience participation. Titles discussed: 'The Book of Birmingham' and 'The Book of Leeds ' – available from www.commapress.co.uk Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Ben Fiagbe.

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A BookBlast 10x10 Tour LIVE event from Waterstones Newcastle, England (12.09.2018) Feat. Kevin Duffy (chair), Bluemoose Books, in conversation with Colette Snowden who lives in Manchester with her three children. She is a journalist and went to St Andrews University. Her novel, The Secret to Not Drowning, was Mumsnet Book of the month and chosen as a Brave New Reads 2016 & Dan Micklethwaite, an award-winning short story author and novelist who does most of his writing in a shed in West Yorkshire. His debut novel, The Less than Perfect Legend of Donna Creosote, was shortlisted for The Guardian’s “Not the Booker Prize” in 2016. Topics: Bluemoose successes notably Ben Myers with 'The Gallows Pole'; publishing North and South, changing business models, giantism vs. independence, the joys of editing, back to the future.... Titles discussed: 'The Secret to Not Drowning' and 'The Less than Perfect Legend of Donna Creosote' – available from www.bluemoosebooks.com Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Ben Fiagbe.

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A BookBlast 10x10 Tour LIVE event from Waterstones Gower Street, Bloomsbury, London WC1 (11.09.2018) Feat. Eric Lane (chair) Dedalus Books in conversation with Margaret Jull Costa OBE who is a British translator of Portuguese-and-Spanish-language fiction and poetry, including the works of Fernando Pessoa, Javier Marías, Bernardo Atxaga, José Régio and Nobel Prize winner, José Saramago. She received a lifetime achievement award in New York the day after the event. & Glasgow-born award-winning novelist, Andrew Crumey who has had eight novels published by Dedalus. He has a PhD in theoretical physics, and was literary editor of Scotland on Sunday for six years. Topics: Translating the classics with a focus on Eça de Quieroz, a contemporary of Flaubert and Dickens; the European novel; integrity in writing and the essence of translation, style and idiom. With questions from Sarah Anderson (author), Lucy Popescu (award-winning journalist), and Neil Griffiths (Republic of Consciousness Prize) among others. Titles discussed: The Maias, Cousin Basilio and The Crime of Father Amaro; and The Great Chain of Unbeing – available from www.dedalus.com Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Ben Fiagbe.

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Robert Elms talks to Georgia de Chamberet about The BookBlast® 10x10 Tour in association with Waterstones. A carnival of authors, poets, translators and #indiepubs will visit 9 major cities across England, 11 September-15 November, inspiring readers to immerse themselves in authentic and offbeat writing which adds value to the cultural landscape. Interview date: 1_9_18

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