The new book shop from the founders of Second Home has announced its name and core team, following a series of key appointments ahead of their planned 2016 opening.

Sarah Howe, a 32-year-old British poet, was last night awarded The Sunday Times / Peters Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year Award for her first book of poems, Loop of Jade (Chatto & Windus), an enthralling personal exploration of her dual heritage.

Last night, Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty, the human rights campaign group, delivered The Reading Agency’s fourth annual lecture to a sold-out crowd at The British Library: On Liberty, Reading and Dissent, following in the footsteps of internationally renowned authors Jeanette Winterson, Neil Gaiman, and comedian Russell Brand.

Cassava Republic Press,  a leading African publishing house, is set to launch in the UK in April 2016. Introducing an eclectic list of quality literary fiction, crime, young adult fiction, children’s books, and romantic fiction under the Ankara Press imprint, the publisher aims to spotlight the vibrancy and diversity of prose by African writers on the continent and in the diaspora.   

Orion Books UK and Forever, an imprint of Grand Central Publishing (GCP), a division of Hachette Book Group, have acquired the world English rights from Andrea Barzvi of Empire Literary for two new novels by Jodi Ellen Malpas, author of the New York Times bestselling THIS MAN and ONE NIGHT erotic romance trilogies.

Local school children, much-loved children’s authors Guinness World Records adjudicators and Baroness Neville-Rolfe Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (jointly with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport), attended the launch of the Record Breakers Summer Reading Challenge 2015, organised by The Reading Agency, which has teamed up with Guinness World Records, at Canada Water Library in south east London this morning.

Now in its fifth year, the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize is the only prize to solely award British writers, unique in its aim to celebrate great British fiction. Each year it awards a group of eight writers with £5,000 each, rather than choosing one winner.

Nominations have opened for The Comment Awards 2015, the annual awards recognising and celebrating the UK’s best print and online commentators and their editors. The awards are the first of their kind in the UK, run by Editorial Intelligence, the knowledge networking business.

Today Sarah Winman kicked off the UK tour for her second novel, A Year of Marvellous Ways, with a sell-out Gliterary Lunch in Edinburgh, followed by an in-store event at the Edinburgh Bookshop. Events will be taking place at a range of award-winning independent bookshops, including the Hungerford Bookshop, regional winner of Independent Bookshop of the Year, as well as Oxford, Cambridge, Cheltenham and Truro branches of Waterstones. In addition she has already appeared at Hay Festival in May and will be appearing at Penzance Literary Festival in July.

The submission process for the Wellcome Book Prize 2016 is now open. Publishers are asked to submit books published between 1 January and 31 December 2015 by the official deadline, 4 September 2015. FMcM Associates will again handle the PR and administration of the prize.