Books, Venue / 05/08/2020 The Cat and the City: intricate and charming debut from UEA Creative Writing MA graduate (review and interview)

The Cat and the City, the debut novel of UEA alumnus Nick Bradley, is a wonderfully crafted love letter to Tokyo and its ever-changing inhabitants. Centred around the movements of a wandering calico cat, we are taken on a seamless journey, meeting characters who are more intertwined than perhaps they (and we) initially think. It...

Books, Venue / 04/08/2020 Favourite Black character: Brooke Bayoude in Ali Smith’s There but for the

If an adult walked up to their white, middle class neighbours and asked them, “Have you just not met any or very many black people before or are you just living in a different universe?” they would be met with a certain level of anger. However, Brooke Bayoude in Ali Smith’s There but for the...

Books, Venue / 04/08/2020 Angie Thomas: unapologetic and utterly brilliant

Angie Thomas, one of the most prominent authors of the last few years, has skyrocketed to fame and recognition in the literary world, following the publication of her 2017 debut novel The Hate U Give. Spending a grand total of 50 weeks at the top of The New York Times Best Sellers list, Thomas’s masterpiece...

Books, Venue / 04/08/2020 Leaving a fictional character’s identity ambiguous: harmful or helpful?

Genuine representation in literature has been a debated topic for a while now. We all (hopefully) agree representation is important for the voices of minority groups to be acknowledged, heard, and related to, but the technicalities of carrying this out are often contested. When it comes to the explicit representation of identities, readers tend to...

Books, Venue / 04/08/2020 Do awards really matter?

Whether a book has won an award or not has never determined whether I’ll buy or read it, and many of the stories I love the most cannot boast an award. It’s also worth noting that, like awards for film and TV, Black authors, particularly Black women, have significantly less recognition for their work. It...

Books, Venue / 04/08/2020 Diversity in children’s literature

Children’s literature is full of freedom. It explores worlds of fantasy, magic, loss, joy, and absolutely everything in between. Young minds are so creative, and so eager to learn; children are crucially influenced by what they read and are affected by this as they grow up and form opinions about the world around them. So,...

Books

UEA Literary Festival returns this autumn with a virtual twist
Image: Pickpik https://www.pickpik.com/red-book-dark-gloomy-books-pages-paper-66312
Books, Venue

UEA Literary Festival returns this autumn with a virtual twist

UEA’s bi-annual Literary Festival has just announced its return for Autumn 2020 through an apt renaming to UEA Live. To combat the issues presented by social distancing, UEA will be hosting a plethora of fascinating author discussions over livestream. Similarly, this year marks the 50th anniversary of Creative Writing at UEA with CW50, something that…

The unstable future of book reviews
Image: Unsplash
Books, Venue

The unstable future of book reviews

Sometimes dealing with the fallout of the Coronavirus feels like tackling a hydra; when one issue seems to be resolved, two more grow in its place. A significant blow to the economy has seen a disastrous domino effect, wherein cuts to the most “unnecessary” sectors have been made through practical, economic reasoning. Formal book reviews…

Fiction against racism
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
#BLM, Books

Fiction against racism

Race, racism, and racial injustice continue to stain the fabric of our society, as they have done for many years. As they do, the importance of education as a tool to recognise, comprehend and dismantle racism, as well as its associated institutions, has moved to the forefront of conversations surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement….


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