Fresh off its successful launch of stand-up turned historical novelist Rob Newman’s The Trade Secret, indie publishing house Cargo has announced a few of its acquisitions for 2013 and 2014, with the promise of more forthcoming along with the soon to be released details of the first leg of its Margins Book and Music Festival to venture outside of Glasgow. It’s a typically eclectic mix, both in terms of subject matter and in pedigree of author.
Dig out your Ladz On Tour t-shirts: Beloved Glasgow indie Cargo Publishing has announced a jaunt up north for the third year of its Margins book and music festival, expanding its cavalcade of novelists, poets, indie and folk musicians, and other assorted drunks to encompass, for the first time, Margins Aberdeen. The festival’s inaugural northern leg will see it take over Woodend Barn Arts Centre in the rural town of Banchory – around a half hour drive from Aberdeen city centre – from 31 May to 2 June.
For all that BookMachine is emphatically not a site about the merits of individual books, it hopefully doesn’t come as a shock to any regular visitors that we’re all readers nonetheless, and that, as readers, we enjoy some books more than others. For my last post of the year, then – and, to be honest, mainly so I seemed less onanistic than if I had done this alone – I asked my fellow contributors to the site to pitch in on the best things we read this year. Stick two fingers up to the Mayans and join us when we return in January.
Yeah, so Mo Yan won the Nobel, and it’s a big deal because he’s the first Chinese citizen to be made a laureate, and it’s all very exciting, but another, usually far more low-key prize has also seen more than its share of thrills, spills and assorted other rhymes over the past few days: Ewan Morrison’s Tales From The Mall took this year’s Guardian-arranged, self-explanatory Not The Booker Prize but, as is inevitable with the ever-provocative author, took it with no small dose of controversy.
(N.B.: in the interests of full disclosure, I am acquainted with several people involved in the publication of the book, and so am going to try to keep this account as straightforward and impartial as I can, but feel free to argue the ins and outs in the comments. Please, do read the source articles linked to above and below for a full picture of exactly what has transpired over the past couple of days.)
Comprising the Jazz Festival, the Art Festival, the Film Festival and of course the world famous Comedy Festival; Edinburgh International Festival has just drawn to a close. It’s a month of make or break for the brash and the brave talents of the arts scene. The book festival itself has been going since 1983 and like a fine cheese, gets bigger (admittedly, this is not necessarily true of cheese) and better with age. 2012 saw upwards of 190,000 bibliophiles trying to dodge the street performers cluttering up the city’s streets and investing in cultural hangovers. The obligatory actual hangovers may still be clouding a few brows, but Mark Buckland, head of Cargo Publishing, the Glasgow based Indy and future publisher of @50shadesglasgow – managed a few coherent sentences.
On BookMachine over the past couple of weeks it was all Fitba, Shades and Gray as Cargo announced three new signings, there were 6 Questions for Jon Reed and we asked Should Children’s Books Come with Age Certifications?
In the news it was announced They’re Making Another Hobbit Film Now, and while Steidl launches book-scented perfume, Fifty Shades beats Harry Potter into submission on Amazon.
We had a guest post from Kathy Meis on why It’s a Brand New World, and if you find yourself in Edinburgh over the festival period, do amble along to BookMachine Edinburgh – 17th August.
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