Newsletter: June 2005

The last month has been a busy but exciting one for me, with trips to Finland and Jamaica. At the latter I was lucky enough to attend the Calabash International Literary Festival, a wonderful weekend of readings and music featuring writers from around the world. There aren't many free book festivals these days - let alone ones at which you can watch the waves rolling up the beach behind a great line-up of readers, eat jerk chicken between events and dance the night away at bonfire-lit beach parties. Among others I listened to Russell Banks, Andrea Levy, Linton Kwesi Johnson and Amiri Baraka reading from their work. It was a great event in a spectacular location with an atmosphere all its own, and if you're ever in the area, I strongly advise you to check it out. By the way, thanks to everyone who emailed in suggestions for Caribbean books for me to read before I went via the EnCompass discussion boards - much appreciated. You can find out more about the event by looking at the festival's website.

Meanwhile in the UK, thousands of readers have been flocking to the annual Hay Festival, which takes place in a small village on the English / Welsh border renowned for its disproportionately high number of bookshops. Kazuo Ishiguro, Terry Pratchett, and Stephen Fry are among the big name authors who took part this year. Find out more about the festival.

Jacqueline Wilson, who has sold over 20 million books in the Uk alone, has been named the new Children's Laureate, taking over from Michael Morpurgo. She has said that she's keen to use the position to encourage parents to read to their children from as early an age as possible. You can find out more about Jacqueline's hugely popular work at her official website.

Publishers Penguin have caused some controversy with the launch of their special series of small books designed to celebrate their 70th anniversary. The fact that only two non-white authors - Zadie Smith and Hari Kunzru in case you were wondering - were included in the 70 strong list of titles has annoyed some writers. Penguin have countered by saying that their choices were guided by those writers with bestselling capacity. You can check out the story on the Guardian's website. 

That's all for now - keep emailing in and sending in your reviews.

All the best,

Susan

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