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Faber & Faber will publish an anthology of Lyra McKee's work to mark the first anniversary of the journalist's murder. The book Lyra McKee: Lost, Found, Remembered will be published on April 2nd 2020. This anthology celebrates and defines McKee as one of the most important and formidable journalists of her generation. It will showcase a range of pieces - from her unpublished material to her lesser-known pieces. According to Louisa Joyner, Faber's publishing director: "[The anthology] reveals the sheer scope of McKee's intellectual and radically humane engagement with the world - and lets her spirit live on in her own words". Lyra McKee, an investigative journalist, was born in Belfast. She received many awards: this included the Sky News' Young Journalists Award in 2006, Forbes' 30 under 30, and was awarded rising literary star by The Irish Times. She was an influential activist for LGBTQ and women's rights in Northern Ireland: her essay, A Letter to My 14-Year-Old Self went viral in 2014 where she wrote about her experience growing up gay in Belfast. She was fatally shot by New IRA gunmen on 18 April 2019 during the riot in Derry. During the time of her death, she was working on a piece entitled The Lost Boys, which explored the disappearances of a number of children and young men during the Troubles. Their disappearances were never solved by the police, nor were they believed to be victims of the IRA or UVF. This work is still currently being reviewed by Faber, and McKee's friends and family.

There has been some fantastic coverage of Joe Hammond?s book The Short History of Falling: Everything I observed about Love Whilst Dying. For those interested, A Short History of Falling is a searingly beautiful, profound, and unforgettable memoir that finds light and even humour in the darkest of places. Joe writes about his experience dying from motor neurone disease and the process of saying goodbye. The Times featured an interview and an extract: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/joe-hammond-on-motor-neurone-disease-and-a-short-history-of-falling-cthxs2lwn?ni-statuscode=acsaz-307 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/motor-neurone-diseases-final-stages-dying-feels-like-a-slight-drop-in-temperature-j6t6hb5dk The BBC also showed a short film about Joe and the book on BBC Breakfast yesterday morning (begins at 52mins, continues a couple of hours later): https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0007zst/breakfast-27082019 Also here: https://twitter.com/BBCBreakfast/status/1166602563447222272 As a result of the coverage,A Short History of Falling spent most of yesterday in the Amazon top ten, and is currently at no. 58. As Joe states: ?A Short History of Falling is about the sadness (and the anger, and the fear), but it?s about what?s beautiful too. It?s about love and fatherhood, about the precious experience of observing my last moments with this body, surrounded by the people who matter most. It?s about what it feels like to confront the fact that my family will persist through time with only a memory of me. In many ways, it has been the most amazing time of my life.? This book will be available to buy on the 5th September 2019. We hope you enjoy it.

Carrie Gracie's upcoming book EQUAL: A story of women, men and money has been selected for the longlist of the Financial Times Business Book the Year 2019. Now in its 15th year, the award will go to the book that offers the ?most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern business issues, including management, finance and economics?. Judges will select up to six finalists and announce a shortlist on 16th September 2019. The prize will be awarded in New York on 3rd December 2019. Gracie joined a group of high-profile BBC women who challenged the national broadcaster over equal pay after enforced disclosures revealed huge gaps between top men and women. Gracie had insisted on equal pay at the time of her China posting, and after trying with other BBC women to put things right through negotiation, she eventually resigned her post complaining publicly of a 'secretive and illegal' pay culture. Her protest triggered a parliamentary inquiry into BBC pay, and after a protracted internal complaints process, she won an apology from the BBC and a settlement which she donated to the Fawcett Society. In Equal Gracie will tell her own story, explore why it is often so hard for women to assert their value in the workplace and give practical guidance on what women, men and employers can do to achieve equality for this and future generations of women.

Olivia Laing has been awarded the James Tait Black Prize for her novel, Crudo, alongside Lindsey Hilsum, who was awarded the non-fiction prize for her biography of Marie Colvin. The ?10,000 prizes, awarded each year by the University of Edinburgh, were announced by broadcaster Sally Magnusson at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on Saturday (17th August). Fiction judge Dr Alex Lawrie, of the University of Edinburgh, said of Crudo: ?This is fiction at its finest: a bold and reactive political novel that captures a raw slice of contemporary history with pace, charm, and wit.? Laing was chosen from a shortlist of Murmur by Will Eaves (Canongate), Sight by Jessie Greengrass (John Murray) and Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires (Chatto & Windus). In Extremis: The Life of War Correspondent Marie Colvin (Chatto and Windus) picked up the biography prize. Hilsum, international editor at Channel 4 News, chronicled Colvin?s extraordinary life and career reporting on some of the world?s most devastating conflicts from 1985 until her 2012 death in Syria. The books were judged by senior staff from the university?s English Literature department, assisted by a reading panel of Edinburgh postgraduate students.

Derek Miller's American by Day has been shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award 2019. This award is for the best crime novel by an author of any nationality, originally written in English, first published in the UK during the Judging Period. The broadest definition of the crime novel defines eligible books including thrillers, suspense novels and spy fiction. In the Gold Dagger category, Derek Miller is up against M W Craven's The Puppet Show (Constable) and What We Did (Sphere) by Christobel Kent. Donna Leon's Unto Us a Son is Given (William Heinemann); Claire Askew's All the Hidden Truths (Hodder & Stoughton) and Benjamin Wood's A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better (Scribner) are also in contention. Linda Stratmann, chair of the Crime Writers? Association, said: ?The Daggers are unparalleled for their longevity and reputation. Receiving a Dagger award is a something of a holy grail for authors. The CWA prides itself on supporting crime authors by not just recognising established names but as a platform for debut novelists and emerging writers.? The winners will be announced at the Dagger Award ceremony at the Grange City Hotel, London, on 24th October where Robert Goddard will be awarded the lifetime achievement award.

Anna-Marie Crowhurst's The Illumination of Ursula Flight and Ian Ross' Triumph In Dust have been longlisted for the Historical Writers Association Crown Award 2019, announced on the 23rd July. Crowhurst and Ross are two of thirty-six hopeful authors, divided into three categories: Debut, Non-Fiction and Gold. The prize is designed to reflect the HWA?s remit ?to promote and support historical writing in all its forms?. The Illumination of Ursula Flight is in the Debut category, accompanied by Janklow & Nesbit Associates author Namwali Serpell with her novel, The Old Drift. They are both joined by: The Familiars by Stacey Halls Only Killers and Thieves by Paul Howarth The Conviction of Cora Burns by Carolyn Kirby The Glass Woman by Caroline Lea As the Women Lay Dreaming by Donald S Murray Dear Mrs Bird by A J Pearce Blood and Sugar by Laura Shepherd Robinson The Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg The Age of Light by Whitney Scharer Blackberry and Wild Rose by Sonia Velton Triumph in Dust is in the Gold category, and is joined by: Little by Edward Carey The Lighthousekeeper?s Daughter by Hazel Gaynor The Murder of Harriet Monkton by Elizabeth Haynes Lancelot by Giles Kristian Dark Water by Elizabeth Lowry Smoke and Ashes by Abir Mukherjee Mrs Whistler by Matthew Plampin Tombland by CJ Sansom Treachery of Spies by Manda Scott Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield Caligula by SJ Turney The 2019 judges are: HWA Debut Crown Elizabeth Fremantle, Susan Heads & Ayo Onatade (Chair) HWA Sharpe Books Non-Fiction Crown Richard Foreman, Jason Goodwin (Chair), Roger Moorhouse, Alex von Tunzelmann HWA Gold Crown Kate Atherton, Victoria Blake, Robin Carter, Helen Nugent, Antonia Senior (Chair) The winners will be announced later this year.

On Friday 19 July 2019, crime and thriller lovers came together at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate to celebrate their favourite books and authors at the fifth annual Dead Good Reader Awards. The award for Most Recommended Book went to Janklow & Nesbit author, Elly Griffiths, for her atmospheric thriller, The Stone Circle. The other shortlisted titles for the award were: The Death of Mrs Westaway by Ruth Ware Now You See Her by Heidi Perks The Passengers by John Marrs Skin Deep by Liz Nugent Sleep by C L Taylor

The famous Proms season opens with Zosha Di Castri's latest work Long Is the Journey - Short Is the Memory, which marks the 50th anniversary of the lunar landings. The piece examines how humanity has "looked to the moon over different time periods and different cultures," she told BBC News. It's not only the composer's Proms debut, but the first time her music has ever been played in the UK. "It's a crazy way to begin but I'm very honoured," she told BBC News. The 1969 moon landings are a running theme in this year's Proms season, with highlights including a Sci-Fi prom featuring scores from films such as Gravity and Alien: Covenant. Di Castri's work was inspired by three pieces of writing - Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi's haunting Alla Luna, in which a man sees his grief reflected in the moon's face; Sappho's The Moon, in which the ancient Greek poet writes about the silvery brightness of the night sky; and a new text by Xiaolu Guo, which reflects both ancient Chinese legends and the recent Chang'e-4 exploration of the far side of the moon. Their words are fragmented throughout the piece, while the title, Long Is the Journey - Short Is the Memory, is lifted from Leopardi's verse.

The Royal Society of Literature elected 45 new Fellows and Honorary Fellows in a ceremony last night in London, including Janklow & Nesbit author Olivia Laing. To be elected as a Fellow, a writer must have published at least two works of outstanding literary merit (or equivalent material), in any literary form. The total number of Fellows currently stands at around 600. Elected alongside Olivia Laing as 2019 Fellows were David Baddiel, Mary Beard, Stephen Fry, Hanan al-Shaykh, Monica Ali, Elleke Boehmer, Jez Butterworth, Vahni Capildeo, Debjani Chatterjee, Esther Freud, Peter Gill, Armando Iannucci, Catherine Johnson, Cynan Jones, Patrick McGuinness, Jonathan Meades, Sin?ad Morrissey, Sarah Moss, Virginia Nicholson, David Olusoga, Susie Orbach, Nina Raine, Denise Riley, Lawrence Scott, Elif Shafak, Nikesh Shukla, Dorothea Smartt and Stella Tillyard. The Council of the RSL elects as Honorary Fellows those who have rendered special service to the Society, or who have made a significant contribution to the advancement of literature, for example as publishers, agents, booksellers, literature professionals or producers. New Fellows signed the RSL Roll Book using George Eliot?s pen. The new RSL Honorary Fellows for 2019 are Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, Syima Aslam, Pete Ayrton, Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, Sharmilla Beezmohun, Xandra Bingley, Michael Codron, Dan Franklin, Richard Hollis, Nicholas Hytner, Susheila Nasta, Stephen Page, Stuart Proffitt, William Sieghart, Nicola Solomon and Nicholas Spice.

English PEN has announced the shortlist for the 2019 PEN Ackerley Prize for memoir and autobiography, featuring William Miller for his remarkable tales of growing up on Gloucester Crescent. The other shortlisted authors are Yrsa Daley-Ward for The Terrible (Penguin), and Christian Donlan for The Unmapped Mind (Viking). The PEN Ackerley Prize was established in memory of Joe Randolph Ackerley (1896-1967), the author and long-time literary editor of The Listener magazine. The prize is awarded annually to a literary autobiography of outstanding merit, written by an author of British nationality and published in the UK in the previous year. The PEN Ackerley prize is judged by biographer and historian Peter Parker (chair), writer and painter Colin Spencer, author Georgina Hammick and writer and critic Claire Harman. The winner receives a cheque for ?3,000. Peter Parker, chair of judges said: 'We called in 26 autobiographies published in 2018, far fewer than last year but once again including books by both long-established and first-time authors. We eventually arrived at a shortlist of three, all of them very impressive debuts. There seemed to be an unusually large number of books about serious illness and death this year, but none in the same class as Christian Donlan?s account of his searching engagement with multiple sclerosis, which we included on our shortlist alongside William Miller?s very funny recollections of growing up among the London intelligentsia and Yrsa Daley-Ward?s utterly original book about perilously emerging into adulthood after a childhood among Seventh-Day Adventists in the north-west. It would be hard to imagine three books more different from each other, but we urge everyone to read them and offer our congratulations to their authors.' The winner will be announced on Tuesday 9 July at a special prize event at Free Word.

Anna-Marie Crowhurst has been shortlisted in the literature category for the Times Breakthrough Award at the South Bank Sky Arts Awards 2019. The other nominees are: Jessie Cave (Comedy) Chance Perdomo (TV Drama) Jessie Buckley (Film) Haroon Mirza (Visual Art) Nadine Benjamin (Opera) Alpesh Chauhan (Classical) Joseph Sissens (Dance) Toby Marlow & Lucy Moss (Theatre) Freya Ridings (Freya) The nominees are chosen by a panel of Times critics, and the South Bank Sky Arts Awards will be held at the Savoy Hotel in London on Sunday, July 7 and shown on Sky Arts on Wednesday, July 10 at 8pm. Image credit: Sarah Cresswell for The Times

The Wilbur Smith Adventure Prize shortlist has been revealed with Henry Porter's Firefly being one of six novels nominated for the ?15,000 prize. Celebrating the best adventure novels published between 1st May 2018 and 30th April 2019, the prize is open to writers of any nationality, writing in English. The complete shortlist is as follows: J. D. Fennell, SLEEPER: THE RED STORM (The Dome Press) Zeyn Joukhadar, THE MAP OF SALT AND STARS (Weidenfeld & Nicolson/Orion) Henry Porter, FIREFLY (Quercus) Craig Russell, THE DEVIL ASPECT (Constable/Little, Brown) Jock Serong, PRESERVATION (Text Publishing) Holly Watt, TO THE LIONS (Raven Books) Niso Smith, Founder of The Wilbur & Niso Smith Foundation, says: ?This is a shortlist of heroes. The protagonists in these six novels inspired us with their courage, determination to pursue the truth, and stamina for survival in harsh surroundings. Each of these stories gave us what an adventure does in real life ? a chance to learn about ourselves and the world, while getting the adrenaline pumping. All we can say is go and read these unique and wonderful books, we couldn?t put them down." The shortlist will be celebrated at Stanfords, Covent Garden, on 23rd May 2019, with a discussion on the nature of adventure in fiction. The event is ticketed, and open to the public.

W H Smith has announced the Richard and Judy Summer Book Club choices for 2019, featuring The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths , recently released in paperback. The Book Club is run exclusively with WHSmith, with all the selections available to buy throughout the 1000 plus stores in high streets and travel locations across the UK. Each list is compiled after going through a rigorous selection process, the available titles are whittled down to a longlist which Richard and Judy (alongside a group of book industry experts) read before settling on a final selection of titles. Richard said about The Stranger Diaries: "It is wonderfully enjoyable and presses all the right buttons to make you shiver and shudder as you read of ghosts, portents, draughty old towers and elderly strangers aboard a Victorian train who engage guileless young travellers in the kind of stories best enjoyed around a Christmas fire, logs crackling and chestnuts roasting. We both loved it. So will you." Judy said: "This is a deliciously creepy book containing all the features of good old-fashioned ghost stories: terrifyingly dark passageways in old haunted houses, dense sea-mists, a deserted old warehouse with mysterious flashing nocturnal lights, and even a self-proclaimed witch. What?s not to love? It?s terrific."

Laura Freeman has been shortlisted for both the First Book award and the Food Book award by the 2019 Guild of Food Writers Awards, for The Reading Cure, released in paperback earlier this year. The Guild of Food Writers state that the shortlists highlight emerging talent as well as featuring some of the best-known current food writers and broadcasters, including Anna Jones, Gill Meller, Diana Henry, Rowley Leigh, Tom Parker Bowles and Grace Dent. The Guild of Food Writers Awards celebrate the breadth of knowledge and expertise at work in a thriving creative field. Also up for the First Book award are Maryam Sinaiee for Nightingales and Roses: Recipes from the Persian Kitchen, and Frankie Unsworth for The New Art of Cooking: A Modern Guide to Preparing and Styling Delicious Food. And on the shortlist for the Food Book award Laura is joined by Caroline Eden for Black Sea: Dispatches and Recipes - Through Darkness and Light, and Niki Segnit for Lateral Cooking. The winners will be announced on Thursday 27 June 2019 at Studio Spaces in London, and they will be presented with a beautiful trophy.