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With Utopia For Realists author Rutger Bregman and cognitive neuroscientist Anil Seth (whose book The Presence Chamber is forthcoming from Faber) giving TED talks, and data visualisation designer (author, with Stefanie Posavec, of Dear Data) Giorgia Lupi drawing ?data portraits? of the participants at the TED 17 conference, we left behind in the London office almost feel as if we?re in Vancouver? Davey Alba called Anil Seth's talk his "favourite TED talk so far", and Chris Weller reported that Rutger Bregman's TED talk on universal basic income "just got a standing ovation."

The winner of the Waterstones Children's Book of the Year 2017 is Kiran Millwood Hargrave's extraordinary debut, The Girl of Ink & Stars! The Waterstones Children's Book Prize is voted for by booksellers, and is split into three categories. Kiran scooped up the prize in the Younger Fiction category, before being announced as the overall winner of this year's prize. Waterstones' Managing Director, James Daunt, said: ?We have a sensationally good winner, a work of imagination and drive that will command a special place on the bookshelves of many generations of readers to come." Set at the start of the Golden Age of mapmaking, The Girl of Ink & Stars is inspired by the Canarian myth of Guayota and his demon-dogs. Forbidden to leave her island, Isabella dreams of the faraway lands her cartographer father once mapped. When her friend disappears, she volunteers to guide the search. The world beyond the walls is a monster-filled wasteland - and beneath the dry rivers and smoking mountains, a fire demon is stirring. Following her map, her heart and an ancient myth, Isabella discovers the true end of her journey: to save the island itself. Waterstones' Children's Buyer and Judge, Florentyna Martin, said: "It is always exciting when we see this level of outstanding talent in a new writer, and Kiran has crafted a mesmerising world full of myths, magic and adventure that evokes an atmosphere akin to Pullman?s His Dark Materials." Kiran's second book, The Island at the End of Everything, will be released on 4th May 2017.

Kiran Millwood Hargrave's gorgeous debut The Girl of Ink & Stars has been shortlisted for yet another award! This time, it's Children's Book of the Year at the British Book Awards. Set at the start of the Golden Age of mapmaking, this is a skilfully crafted middle-grade adventure novel inspired by the Canarian myth of Guayota and his demon-dogs. Forbidden to leave her island, Isabella dreams of the faraway lands her cartographer father once mapped. When her friend disappears, she volunteers to guide the search. The world beyond the walls is a monster-filled wasteland - and beneath the dry rivers and smoking mountains, a fire demon is stirring. Following her map, her heart and an ancient myth, Isabella discovers the true end of her journey: to save the island itself. The British Book Awards, or Nibbies, honours the commercial success of publishers, authors and bookshops. There are six individual books of the year awards, and as well as a winner being chosen in each category, an overall book of the year is also chosen from the category winners. "The idea behind the books of the year is to celebrate the whole journey from the author?s mind to the reader?s hand, and showcase the range and depth of modern publishing. It?s about the story itself, but also the way that the publishing contributes both to the story telling and to finding an audience." The winners will be announced on 8th May 2017.

Ed Yong's debut, I Contain Multitudes, has been shortlisted for the 2017 Wellcome Prize. The prize celebrates books which engage with the topics of health and medicine, and the many ways they touch our lives. Chair of judges Val McDermid hailed the 2017 shortlist as one which will "shift perceptions". She said: "One of the ways we communicate is to bring things down to a human level and it's important for science to communicate to non-scientists... There will be people who read one of the books on this list and it will change their lives." I Contain Multitudes is the only debut book on the shortlist. The Wellcome Prize calls it: "An exciting and genre-busting book on microbes, one of science?s hottest topics, by a debut writer with a huge following." In I Contain Multitudes, Ed Yong opens our eyes and invites us to marvel at ourselves and other animals in a new light, less as individuals and more as thriving ecosystems. We learn the invisible and wondrous science behind the corals that construct mighty reefs and the squid that create their own light shows. We see how bacteria can alter our response to cancer-fighting drugs, tune our immune system, influence our evolution and even modify our genetic make-up. And we meet the scientists who are manipulating these microscopic partners to our advantage. In a million tiny ways, I Contain Multitudes will radically change how you think about the natural world, and how you see yourself. The overall winner of the prize will be announced on 24th April 2017.

Ed Yong's New York Times bestselling book I Contain Multitudes has been selected for the shortlist of the LA Times Book Prize under the Science & Technology category. The Los Angeles Times has awarded a set of book prizes annually since 1980. The 2017 prizes for each category will be awarded on the 21st April, opening the LA Times Festival of Books at the University of Southern California.

Three of our authors have been selected for the longlist of the Branford Boase Award 2017: Amber Lee Dodd with We are Giants; Kiran Millwood Hargrave with The Girl of Ink & Stars; and Nat Luurtsema, for Girl Out of Water. The Branford Boase Award is awarded annually or an outstanding first novel to a first-time writer of a book for young people, and is notable for its recognition of the editors' contributions in identifying and nurturing new talent. Previous winners and shortlisted authors include six who later went on to win the CILIP Carnegie Medal, and last year's Costa Book Award winner. Julia Eccleshare, chair of judges, said: "Once again our longlist includes an enormously varied collection of interesting, well-written books. We read fantasy stories, mysteries, contemporary adventures, romances, books that made us laugh and books that made us hopeful; and we met characters who broaden our knowledge and understanding of the world. The variety and quality of the books submitted demonstrate the current healthy, boundary-expanding state of UK children?s literature." The shortlist will be announced on the 8th May 2017, and the winner will be revealed on the 5th July 2017.

Two of Janklow & Nesbit's authors have received nominations for the 2017 Wellcome Prize longlist: Adam Rutherford for A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived, and Ed Yong for his debut I Contain Multitudes. Crime writer Val McDermid, who is chairing the judges this year, spoke out for the importance of both arts and science in an interview in the Guardian, saying that developments in education meant that the Wellcome Prize was more important than ever because it focuses on making science accessible through both fiction and nonfiction. The twelve books on the longlist include seven factual and five fiction titles. Wellcome have sponsored a literary science prize since 1998, redefining it in 2009 to an award which "celebrates the topics of health and medicine in literature." The 2017 shortlist will be announced on the 14th March, at the London Book Fair, and the winner will be revealed on the 24th April at a ceremony at the Wellcome Collection.

Keggie Carew's remarkable debut Dadland: A Journey Into Unchartered Territory has won the Costa Biography Award 2016. The book was hailed as "hilarious and heartbreaking" by the judges. Keggie grew up under the spell of an unorthodox, enigmatic father. An undercover guerrilla agent during the Second World War, in peacetime he lived on his wits and dazzling charm. But these were not always enough to sustain a family. As his memory began to fail, Keggie embarked on a quest to unravel his story once and for all. Dadland is that journey. It takes us into shadowy corners of history, a madcap English childhood, the poignant breakdown of a family, the corridors of dementia and beyond. Judge Sarra Manning tweeted to say she "knew how special Dadland was as soon as I read the first chapter." Keggie Carew said of her success: "It?s a lovely feeling that the book has resonated with other people in such a strong way.? You can find the full list of winners here. Previous praise for Dadland: "OH THIS BOOK. Beautiful and fierce and brave. Memory and war and family and loss and, well, wow" - Helen MacDonald, author of H is for Hawk "Compelling and moving from start to finish... Carew's funny, fascinating and unflinching tribute to her father is a portrait of a complex man: not just a war hero but a much-missed dad" - Financial Times "A beautifully written, funny and tender ode to an adventurous, occasionally frustrating, man who lived life at full tilt" - Good Housekeeping "A rich and stunning achievement, a feat of imagination that sews together many parallel true stories. Above all it is a labour of shining daughterly love" - Sunday Express

Alex Bellos and Ben Lyttleton's Football School: Where Football Explains the World has been selected for the shortlist of the Blue Peter Book Awards 2017 for the Best Book with Facts category. The shortlist contains three titles in total, with another three titles in the Best Story category. The enormously popular and influential Blue Peter Book Awards have been recognising and celebrating the best authors, the most creative illustrators and the greatest reads for children since 2000. The judges are Blue Peter editor Ewan Vinnicombe, Waterstones Children's Book Buyer Florentyna Martin, Radio DJ Nihal Arthanayake and author and illustrator Sarah McIntyre. Go to the Booktrust website here for more details.

Keggie Carew's debut, Dadland, has been selected for the Biography category shortlist for this year's Costa Book Awards. The Costa Book Awards honour some of the most outstanding books of the year written by authors based in the UK and Ireland. There are five categories - First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children?s Book - with one of the five winners chosen as Book of the Year, announced at an awards ceremony in London in January. Melding memoir, biography, history, travel and urgent story-telling, Dadland takes us on an unforgettable journey. As her octogenarian father?s mind dissolves into dementia, Keggie Carew uncovers a story whose facts could hardly survive in fiction. Tom Carew was a SOE officer in a special unit of the British Army, called the Jedburghs, who parachuted into occupied enemy territory to raise local resistance and carry out sabotage, first in WW2 with the maquis in France, and then into Burma, working to liberate the country with Ang San (Suu Kui?s father). Keggie?s lens is at once intimate and personal but it pans out to a global perspective, into the shadier areas of British history and beyond. The narrative continues through a century, to the present day, woven with fragments and snapshots of a family history that, though unusual, speaks to us all. Tom Carew was a rule breaker and a maverick. Dadland is his daughter?s road to truth and attempt at reconciliation. It is a manhunt. In which she finds a technicolour life caught in the web of a slowly unravelling mind. Written with great fluidity, blazing with love and intelligence, this is a deeply human work that defies genre. The judges said that the book was ?A bravura tale of derring-do ? stylish, unconventional and utterly hilarious.?

Anna Smaill has won Best Novel at this year's World Fantasy Awards for her debut novel, The Chimes, which was also longlisted for the 2015 Man Booker Prize. The Chimes is set in a reimagined London, in a world where people cannot form new memories, and the written word has been forbidden and destroyed. In the absence of both memory and writing is music. In a world where the past is a mystery, each new day feels the same as the last, and before is blasphony, all appears lost. But Simon Wythern, a young man who arrives in London seeking the truth about what really happened to his parents, discovers he has a gift that could change all of this forever. The World Fantasy Awards are voted on by attendees and judges at the annual World Fantasy Convention, held this year in Ohio. Other shortlisted titles for this year's Novel category included Kazuo Ishiguro's The Buried Giant and N. K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season. Previous winners in this category include Ursula Le Guin, Gene Wolfe, Jack Vance, China Mi?ville and David Mitchell.

Diana Athill's memoir, Alive, Alive Oh! has been selected for the Biography & Autobiography shortlist of the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards 2016. As she approaches her 100th year, Athill recalls in sparkling detail the exact layout of the garden of her childhood, a vast and beautiful park attached to a large house. She relates with humour, clarity and honesty her experiences of the First and Second World Wars, her trips to Europe as a young woman and in the remarkable title chapter, describes her pregnancy at the age of forty-three, losing the baby and almost her life. With vivid memories of the past mingled with candid, wise and often very funny reflections on what it?s like to be very old, Alive, Alive Oh! reminds us what really matters, and of the joy to be found at every stage of life. The BAMB Readers Awards are sponsored by National Book Tokens, and are unique in being the only book awards with shortlists curated by bookshops, and voted for by ordinary booklovers. Voting closes on 14th November 2016, and the winners will be announced on 24th November 2016. To view the shortlists and vote for your favourites, click here!

M. J. Arlidge's popularity continues, with the paperback release of Hide and Seek at number 5 on the Sunday Times bestseller list in the first week of publication. Arlidge's debut thriller, Eeny Meeny, was the UK's bestselling crime debut of 2014. Hide and Seek is the sixth thriller in the bestselling DI Helen Grace series. DI Grace is one of the country's best detectives. Until - framed for murder - she became one of its most high-profile prisoners. HMP Holloway is a place of dark days and long nights with dangers at every turn. Despised by the inmates and reviled by the guards, Helen must face her nightmare alone. And then a carefully mutilated body is found in a locked cell. Now Helen must find a ruthless serial killer. Before the killer finds her.

Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec's stunning book Dear Data is a 2016 finalist for Graphic Design & Data Vizualization in the Innovation by Design Awards. This year?s entries represented an astonishingly strong survey of innovation around the globe?over 1,700 designs. Of those, only 321 finalists were crowned. Each of those projects represent what's best about design today: Big ideas, meticulously thought-out details, and a clear viewpoint about how we live now?and how it could be better. Dear Data represents a years' worth of correspondence between authors Lupi and Posavec. The two exchanged hand-drawn postcards with sketches illustrating different, delightful compositions?say, chronicling a week of what made them laugh, or how many times they said ?good night??that allowed them to look at their lives and friendship with a whole new perspective.