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Where book lovers unite
By Lucy Broughton, on 22 October 2014
Each week we will pick a tweet that we think you just should not miss out on…
This week, predictably, Tweet of the Week has to go to @DWill_ . With 17K retweets and 12K favourites, and the whole book industry expressing their jealousy of being trapped in a bookshop, you probably did see this… but it was definitely the highlight of Twitter this past week and I couldn’t not choose it!
Bookshop sleepover anyone?
By Caroline A Murphy, on 19 October 2014
… from the new blog team at UCL’s Centre for Publishing!
We’re really excited to be running the blog platform for our department, and we hope you enjoy reading as much as we enjoy creating! So you know who we are if you ever have any questions, or want us to post anything for you, we’ve created little profiles for all 6 of us below.
Yasmin Morrissey @MorrisseyYasmin
Where are you from?: Half Irish, half Egyptian but raised in London.
What did you study for your undergraduate and where?: I studied Law, in Cork, Ireland.
What is your favourite book?: I have a few depending on my mood. I don’t want to be too typical and say Harry Potter (even though it is really) so I will say Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith.
What Publishing Project are you working on?: I am working on the Norvik Press project.
What has been the highlight of the course so far?: Difficult question. I think having our first meeting with Norvik Press as a team and deciding who will be doing what on the project. Working with a great team and it’s making me feel very excited.
Likes/Dislikes: Likes = Books, bears, cooking, Bulldogs, travelling and chocolate. Dislikes = Cucumber, sausages, waking up early and football.
Lucy Broughton
@lucyybroughton
Where are you from?: Southampton.
What did you study for your undergraduate and where?: I studied History at the University of Warwick.
What is your favourite book?: I hate this question because I never know the answer, so I’m just going to list some favourites… The Lord of the Rings, Pride and Prejudice, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Lindsey Kelk’s I heart… series, The Book Thief, The Secret Garden, nearly anything YA.
What Publishing Project are you working on?: The Bookseller Children’s project.
What has been the highlight of the course so far?: The treasure hunt! I may be slightly biased because I won the subsequent blog competition and a beautiful copy of The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell…
Likes/Dislikes: Likes = Books obviously… films (even the bad ones), indie and folk music, travelling, Italian food, sleeping in, Topshop and ASOS. Dislikes = Spiders, pink, running, spoilers, extreme historical inaccuracies.
Caroline Murphy @carolinealice93
Where are you from?: Stratford upon Avon.
What did you study for your undergraduate and where?: English Literature & Philosophy at the University of Birmingham.
What is your favourite book?: I really like Virginia Woolf, so probably The Waves.
What Publishing Project are you working on?: The William Morris Society project.
What has been the highlight of the course so far?: I’ve really enjoyed all of the guest speakers so far, but really loved Auriol Bishop’s talk on book cover design.
Likes/Dislikes: Likes = Food, Tom Hiddleston, Breaking Bad, food, Strictly, Jamie Cullum, coffee, books, food, blogging. Dislikes = Decaff, fan fiction, X Factor, drum and bass, misuse of apostrophes, cooking, when people say ‘generally’ when they mean ‘genuinely’.
Emily McCracken 
@emilycracken
Where are you from?: Phoenix, Arizona. I have lived in the UK & South Korea for the last 6 years.
What did you study for your undergraduate and where?: English Literature at Gonzaga University in Washington and an MA in English Literature from London Met.
What is your favourite book?: Any of the following – Calvin and Hobbes, Clan of the Cave Bear, Tolkien, HP, Alison Bechdel, Kurt Vonnegut, Toni Morrison, Gertrude Stein, American Gothic, Victorian novels, Modern poetry!
What Publishing Project are you working on?: UCL Press Archaeology eBook project.
What has been the highlight of the course so far?: Everything! I currently write children’s books for a publishing company in Seoul, so I am greatly enjoying learning about the industry as a whole at UCL.
Likes/Dislikes: I like hats, socks, walks, and ales. I disagree with poorly made pizza (cheap cheese, overly thick crust), and I am on the fence when it comes to the serial comma! Thank you for visiting our blog and I hope you enjoy it!
Alice Hughes @alicehughess
Where are you from?: Peterborough.
What did you study for your undergraduate and where?: English Literature & Creative Writing at Lancaster University.
What is your favourite book?: Impossible to choose! My most read book is Wuthering Heights. My favourite authors include Margaret Atwood, Donna Tartt, Eleanor Catton, Sarah Waters and Iain Banks.
What Publishing Project are you working on?: I am part of the Marketing Team for the UCL Publishers’ Prize.
What has been the highlight of the course so far?: Having the privilege of listening to Editorial advice from Gill Davies, Emeritus Professor for Publishing at the University of the Arts London, who bravely pioneered the work of Michel Foucault and the field of Women’s Studies.
Likes/Dislikes: Likes = Art. Debate. Pub with friends. Oldies playing on the jukebox. The seaside. Long walks. Meeting new people and listening to their stories. Dislikes = Being late. The sound of chalk on a blackboard.
Sam Bradbury @sambradbury89
Where are you from?: Grimsby.
What did you study for your undergraduate and where?: Psychology at the University of Leeds.
What is your favourite book?: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.
What Publishing Project are you working on?: UCL Publishers’ Prize.
What has been the highlight of the course so far?: Amazing projects and the course leaders are great; they are always going out of their way to help and have absolutely fantastic guest speakers!
Likes/Dislikes: Likes = sci-fi and fantasy, pole fitness, sushi, cute animals and bright hair dye. Dislikes = being cold, slow internet connections, and close minded people.
Thanks for reading guys. If you want to get in touch for anything blog related, give one of us a mention on Twitter, or email Yasmin or Caroline on the addresses below:
yasmin.morrissey.14@ucl.ac.uk
caroline.murphy.14@ucl.ac.uk
Stay tuned this afternoon for the ‘Publishing Events Calender’, which will feature all the events for the upcoming week.
By Nick P Canty, on 14 July 2014
By Lauren Nettles
Finalists D.W Wilson, Eimear McBride, Robert Allison
“Debut fiction is the bravest, most exciting and purest form of the art,” declared judging panel chair Chris Cleave at the Desmond Elliott Prize ceremony last Thursday. The passion for debut novels and their importance in the world of fiction was tangible in Fortnum and Mason’s lovely Drawing Room as we eagerly awaited the announcement of the prize’s seventh winner.
The short-list was comprised of Ballistics by D.W. Wilson, author of two short story collections; The Letter Bearer by Robert Allison, author of an absolute stack of history books; and Eimear McBride’s A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, her first published work.
A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing continued its incredible year by adding The Desmond Elliott Prize to a pile of awards which already includes Goldsmiths Prize, Folio Prize, Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction, and Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award. After nearly a decade of rejections, A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing was picked up by Galley Beggar Press, an independent publishing house in Norwich, and proceeded to take the literary world completely by storm.
The Desmond Elliot Prize is doing incredible promotion for debut novels, but there’s simply no such thing as too much good press, and Cleave knows the best way to obtain it. “Publishers are much less able to take risks on unconventional first novels, so I believe that it is now up to established authors to seek out, champion and amplify the best new voices,” he stated. As someone just getting a foot in the door of the publishing industry, I hope that I will be able to watch the world of literature grow thanks to writers such as McBride, Wilson and Allison offering a hand to authors in the difficult position of being undiscovered amongst countless other titles as they once were.
If established authors take the time to support their fellow writers, the worst case scenario ends with more literature being recognised and appreciated. The worst that could happen if they don’t is much less enjoyable; as Cleave said, “Let this generation of writers give life to the next, or may we be damned as the ones who let literature be murdered on our watch.”
Further information on the Desmond Elliott Prize for new fiction can be found here.
