How Charlotte Beeston drew on the loss of her mother to write about grief and absence, friendship, isolation and creativity in her debut novel The White Flower.

Bookanista

16.11.2024

That first night - Bookanista

An extract from Nicola Dinan’s BELLIES, a tender, sassy and poignant novel about gender and sexual identity, now shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize.

Bookanista

15.11.2024

Beyond language - Bookanista

An extract from Indeterminate Inflorescence, a collection of aphorisms taken from the creative writing lectures of prominent South Korean poet Lee Seong-bok.

Bookanista

08.11.2024

Fight your own war - Bookanista

I am sitting in this small room, two or three months from now or two or three years from now, writing a story about a number of human beings marching in a…

Bookanista

05.11.2024

Dark delights - Bookanista

Jennifer Dupree selects a Top Ten darkly funny novels that combine comfort, relief and psychological insight along with the laughter.

Bookanista

01.11.2024

Disavowal - Bookanista

Slavoj Žižek embraces the bizarrely optimistic mechanisms of denial and double-think in the face of catastrophic destruction. From Against Progress.

Bookanista

19.10.2024

Going it alone - Bookanista

Preethi Nair introduces her new novel Unravelling, and tells us about the books that have changed her life.

Bookanista

17.10.2024

The Hill-Country Music Contest - Bookanista

It’s 1927, and New York R&D man John Coughlin heads for the South and a momentous encounter with a perky local agent. Extract from Xan Brooks’ The Catchers.

Bookanista

04.10.2024

The legend of Mawther Meg - Bookanista

The alarming tale of the culinary delivery of Norwich from a plague of beetles – and how the city’s children then began to disappear. Extract from Edith Holler.

Bookanista

12.09.2024

Trevor Wood: A race against time and memory - Bookanista

The acclaimed crime writer discusses The Silent Killer, the first in a new series of novels centred around DCI Jack Parker, who’s battling early-onset dementia.

Bookanista

07.09.2024

BFI London Film Festival 2024 unveils star-studded line-up - Bookanista

Previewing the stand-out screenings in the 68th edition of the LFF, delivering the best of world cinema across London and around the UK.

Bookanista

16.08.2024

Harriet Constable: The Instrumentalist - Bookanista

The author of The Instrumentalist tells Farhana Gani about reimagining the life of Antonio Vivaldi’s star student and her intense relationship with her mentor.

Bookanista

14.08.2024

Pulling it all together - Bookanista

Ava Glass, author of the Emma Makepeace espionage novels, proposes ten things she’s learned about the creative process whilst writing in a variety of genres.

Bookanista

13.08.2024

Filtering the keepers - Bookanista

Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi, author of The Centre, tells Sonia Weir how she constantly endeavours to winnow down her book collection to fit her limited shelf space.

Bookanista

13.08.2024

Thoughts from/on the frontier - Bookanista

Bruce Omar Yates draws on Wild West tropes of lawlessness, risk and encounter in his debut novel The Muslim Cowboy, as his protagonist navigates post-war Iraq.

Bookanista

09.08.2024

The Komagata Maru incident - Bookanista

How the Canadian Government turned back a boatload of 400 starving Indian refugees on the eve of WWI. Extract from Airplane Mode.

Bookanista

06.08.2024

Jessica Anthony: Orbiting the brink - Bookanista

Jessica Anthony’s latest fictional foray transports readers to 1950s suburban Delaware and a decisive moment in the story of a marriage. Q&A with Mark Reynolds.

Bookanista

02.08.2024

Without a trace - Bookanista

A young Israeli wakes to discover that his friend and neighbour – and every Palestinian – has mysteriously vanished. Extract from The Book of Disappearance.

Bookanista

01.08.2024

Keep moving – and breathe… - Bookanista

Rachel McRady shares the hints and methods that rounded out her creative writing processes as she completed her debut novel Sun Seekers.

Bookanista

31.07.2024

A precarious house of stories - Bookanista

How thousands of years of proverbs, art, myths and other cultural artefacts magnify the differences between men and women. Extract from The Shrinking Goddess.

Bookanista

26.07.2024

Bookish backdrops - Bookanista

The author of How Can I Help You picks some of her favourite novels set in libraries and bookstores, from Agatha Christie to Michiko Aoyama and Alice Slater.

Bookanista

16.07.2024

Write what you don’t know - Bookanista

How the author of Cadenza came to balance personal experiences, emotions and knowledge with flights of imagination and clear-sighted research.

Bookanista

16.07.2024

Time to say goodbye - Bookanista

Through enduring physical and emotional scars, concert pianist Jennifer Coleman invites her semi-estranged parents for a visit. From Cadenza by Justin Courter.

Bookanista

09.07.2024

Righting the canoe - Bookanista

Environmental activist and author Diana McCaulay mourns the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Beryl around the site of Jamaica’s biennial Calabash Festival.

Bookanista

06.07.2024

Vial - Bookanista

A perfectly formed poem-as-micro-fiction from Caroline Bird’s new collection Ambush at Still Lake, about the unexpected dramas that can disrupt daily routine.

Bookanista

05.07.2024

Meeting Monsieur - Bookanista

An extract from Célina, narrated by a real-life servant in Victor Hugo’s home in exile on Guernsey, who was prey to the author’s insatiable sexual appetites.

Bookanista

22.06.2024

Susan Muaddi Darraj: Origins and uncertainties - Bookanista

The author of Behind You Is the Sea tells Mark Reynolds about launching a novel about the Palestinian diaspora as death and devastation rains on Gaza.

Bookanista

21.06.2024

Dark mysteries on Gothic shores - Bookanista

Mary Horlock reveals favourite thrillers set around coastal waters – and the real-life double disappearance that inspired her novel The Stranger’s Companion.

Bookanista

18.06.2024

Among the Hemingways - Bookanista

The author of The Future of Geography considers the haphazard scattering of sci-fi, war, current affairs, football and Lost Generation classics around his home.

Bookanista

18.06.2024

Before my story had a hero, it had a villain - Bookanista

How Jack Anderson found inspiration in the archetype of the principled villain in detective novels and thrillers while plotting his debut novel The Grief Doctor.

Bookanista

08.06.2024

Holding on to the plot - Bookanista

Monica Heisey takes a break from idling away in bed and planning mid-budget writing retreats to give us a glimpse into her creative impulses and rituals.

Bookanista

07.06.2024

Bent coppers - Bookanista

From Inspector Rebus to James Ellroy’s L.A. Quartet, via the Met’s ‘Ghost Squad’, Dan Malakin picks a gallery of villainous lawmakers in fiction and real life.

Bookanista

04.06.2024

‘Yellow Peril’ - Bookanista

In an insightful extract, the author of Catland explores how the introduction of Siamese breeds into the West gave rise to racial stereotyping and suspicion.

Bookanista

31.05.2024

From Still City: Diary of an Invasion - Bookanista

Three poems by Oksana Maksymchuk that vividly depict the direct experience and universally mediated absorption of the protracted Russian war on Ukraine.

Bookanista

23.05.2024

Too many and not enough - Bookanista

Fleur Sinclair of Sevenoaks Books marks her appointment as President of the Booksellers Association with a personal tour of her home bookshelves.

Bookanista

17.05.2024

Look to nature - Bookanista

Miranda Darling embraces our interconnectedness to the natural world, and to each other, in order to inhabit different states and draw creative inspiration.

Bookanista

17.05.2024

One person trying to be three or four - Bookanista

A slice of Miranda Darling’s writing life, as she juggles with a deadline, family illness, grocery shopping stormy weather, and finding inspiration in nature.

Bookanista

16.05.2024

Catskills karma - Bookanista

Judith Heneghan reflects on many trips to upstate New York, early encounters with experimental living, and found phrases that all coalesce in her novel Birdeye.

Bookanista

15.05.2024

A jumble of many things - Bookanista

Agnes Arnold-Forster, author of Nostalgia, houses her books in aesthetic disarray among family photos, postcards, knick-knacks, lamps and plants.

Bookanista

14.05.2024

The Tree of Ecstasy and Unbearable Sadness - Bookanista

Introducing Matt Ottley’s luminous, multifaceted art book and orchestrated film exploring the beauty and terror of living with bipolar disorder.

home›Bookanista›Books & Literature

Bookanista - Books & Literature

Beauty out of grief - Bookanista

That first night - Bookanista

Beyond language - Bookanista

Fight your own war - Bookanista

Dark delights - Bookanista

Disavowal - Bookanista

Going it alone - Bookanista

The Hill-Country Music Contest - Bookanista

The legend of Mawther Meg - Bookanista

Trevor Wood: A race against time and memory - Bookanista

BFI London Film Festival 2024 unveils star-studded line-up - Bookanista

Harriet Constable: The Instrumentalist - Bookanista

Pulling it all together - Bookanista

Filtering the keepers - Bookanista

Thoughts from/on the frontier - Bookanista

The Komagata Maru incident - Bookanista

Jessica Anthony: Orbiting the brink - Bookanista

Without a trace - Bookanista

Keep moving – and breathe… - Bookanista

A precarious house of stories - Bookanista

Bookish backdrops - Bookanista

Write what you don’t know - Bookanista

Time to say goodbye - Bookanista

Righting the canoe - Bookanista

Vial - Bookanista

Meeting Monsieur - Bookanista

Susan Muaddi Darraj: Origins and uncertainties - Bookanista

Dark mysteries on Gothic shores - Bookanista

Among the Hemingways - Bookanista

Before my story had a hero, it had a villain - Bookanista

Holding on to the plot - Bookanista

Bent coppers - Bookanista

‘Yellow Peril’ - Bookanista

From Still City: Diary of an Invasion - Bookanista

Too many and not enough - Bookanista

Look to nature - Bookanista

One person trying to be three or four - Bookanista

Catskills karma - Bookanista

A jumble of many things - Bookanista

The Tree of Ecstasy and Unbearable Sadness - Bookanista

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