Latest news with #BritishBookAwards
BBC News
18-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Kings Heath bookshop owners overwhelmed after winning award
When Catherine Gale and Claire Dawes signed up for a virtual course to learn about running a bookshop, they had no idea where it might take years later, they are co-owners of The Heath bookshop in Kings Heath, Birmingham, and have won an award for Independent Bookshop of the Year. Their success was announced at the British Book Awards. The pair said they were "completely overwhelmed" by the news and had received so many positive messages."We are absolutely delighted and are so lucky to be in such a lovely area, we've had so much support," Catherine Gale said. Ms Gale and Ms Dawes became friends in 2021 after meeting on the bookshop training course and opened their shop a year later to share their love for reading and coffee with others."It's a lot of hard work but it is really fun. We are book lovers and we enjoy being in the shop, at events and speaking to people," Ms Gale said. Ms Gale said she had dreamt of opening a bookshop since she was young, but she didn't think it was something she would ever be able to achieve. However, after lockdown she gave up her job as a behaviour analyst after more than two decades and made the leap to change careers. The British Book Awards, also known as the Nibbies, has been showcasing authors since 1990 and described the bookshop as a "thriving community hub" in Kings Heath. The pair received a golden nip-shaped trophy from the awards on Monday, which now sits proudly on a shelf in their bookshop, and has been named Nancy. Since opening the bookshop, the pair launched their Literature and Music Festival last year to celebrate authors and musicians in the area."It's that balance of small authors with important voices and bringing celebrities to Birmingham because we haven't had many bookshops here for a long time," Claire Dawes co-owners thanked their assistant Abi Buller for volunteering in the shop before they could afford extra staff."We created a space where we love to spend our time and it turns out that other people love it here too," Ms Dawes said. Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Daily Mirror
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Translated fiction boom as younger generations scope out 'adventurous' reads
Polly Barton, the celebrated translator of the bestselling book Butter, puts the rise of translated fiction in perspective and explains why its so important to expand our horizons There's a reason you've been seeing 'Butter' by Asako Yuzuki in the windows of Waterstones all over the country and carried around on tubes and buses. The cult Japanese novel has taken the UK by storm after being translated into English by Polly Barton, becoming a Sunday Times bestseller and winner of the Waterstones Book of the Year 2024 and shortlisted for the 2025 British Book Awards Debut Novel of the Year. The popularity of Butter is just one example of the rising popularity of translated fiction in the country, but who is driving this booming market? According to a study by the esteemed Booker Prize Foundation, millennials and Gen Zers - Generation TF ('Translated Fiction') are the ones driving demand. In 2023, the charity behind the prestigious Booker Prize awards revealed that in the year prior, 48% of translated fiction buyers in the UK were under the age of 34. The genre also doesn't seem to be favoured by any particular gender, with a near-even split between male and female buyers. Polly Barton, Butter's celebrated translator, has one theory about why translated fiction appeals so strongly to younger audiences. She speculates that the digital landscape that defined their upbringing may mean they are 'more accustomed to interacting with content from all over the world, without necessarily being conscious of where it comes from'. According to Barton, younger readers also aren't as likely to have a pressing sense of anglophone literary works and can thus 'go where their nose takes them' and 'pursue whatever strikes them as the most appealing'. Though she believes that the rising popularity in translated works is evidence that people of all demographics are reading more adventurously'. Publishers, particularly independent publishers by Barton's estimation, are more willing to take chances on translated works that don't fit comfortably into the mould of other books. She particularly applauds independent publishers 'taking risks to publish the kind of books that haven't been released before.' "Much of the work we've read in recent years that feels genuinely new in terms of content, style, form, and expectations around narrative, is in translation," say Barton. "It is often these books that produce our biggest mind-expanding, jaw-dropping, total-joy-inducing moments in reading." The rising push for translated fiction also has political implications, Barton explains. 'At this moment in history when it feels like insularity and cultural homogeneity is being presented around the world as a solution to deep-rooted economic issues, standing behind translating literature signifies resisting xenophobia and prejudice, and embracing the richness, joy, and understanding that encounters with difference can bring," she tells The Mirror. Naturally, this raises questions about what works get translated. What type of books should be prioritised for translation? Who are they written by? And into what languages should they be translated? 'Translation is the dissemination of ideas and worldviews, and so it always comes with the attached questions of, which ideas and which worldviews,' says Barton. 'In that sense, the publishers and translators are involved in a hugely political form of decision-making.' That said, translated Japanese fiction has experienced a particularly notable uptick in recent years. According to the Booker Prizes' study, while 1.9 million translated titles were sold in the UK in 2022, 14 out of the 30 biggest-selling titles were translated from Japanese. In addition to Butter, Barton has also translated the newest buzzed-about Japanese novel, Hunchback. The provocative novel was longlisted for this year's International Booker Prize and won the Akutagawa prize, Japan's most prestigious literary award. In fact, 2025 saw several Akutagawa Prize-winning novels translated into English, including May You Have Delicious Meals by Junko Takase (translated by Morgan Giles) and Tokyo Sympathy Tower by Rie Qudan (translated by Jesse Kirkwood). Despite the fact that translated fiction is on the rise, it has not necessarily led to a greater appreciation for the work of translators "or much consideration of the act of translation itself," says Barton. That's why she founded the Translated By, Bristol festival along with the independent bookshops Gloucester Road Books and Storysmith. The festival which launched this month 'celebrates the art and practice of literary translation, foregrounding the translators themselves'. The festival is taking place in Bristol and will from May 12 to May 25 2025.
Kyodo News
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Kyodo News
Japanese novelist Yuzuki's "Butter" wins British book award
KYODO NEWS - 3 hours ago - 19:06 | Arts, All, Japan Japanese novel "Butter" by Asako Yuzuki has won the debut fiction section at the 2025 British Book Awards, its Japanese publisher said Tuesday, as translations of the work enjoy a boom in critical and commercial recognition abroad. Yuzuki's novel, her first to be published in Britain, received the award on Monday local time, Shinchosha said. Since its release in the country in 2024, the book has won acclaim for exploring themes of misogyny, fatphobia and sexism in modern Japan. Yuzuki said it was "a great honor" and thanked English translator Polly Barton, her British publisher and booksellers and readers in a statement issued by the publisher. "Butter" follows journalist Rika Machida as she investigates Manako Kajii, a woman accused of killing men she has seduced with elaborate meals. Through exchanges on food, Machida becomes fascinated by Kajii's tastes and faces some of the same body shaming as her subject. Overseas sales of "Butter" have overtaken the around 300,000 copies sold in Japan since its 2017 release, with over 400,000 in Britain and more than 100,000 sold in the United States, Shinchosha said. Last year, "Butter" was named the Waterstones Book Of The Year by the major British bookshop chain. The win comes amid high interest in translated Japanese fiction in Britain. According to the sponsor of Britain's prestigious International Booker Prize, 14 of the top 30 translated novels sold in Britain in 2022 were Japanese works. Related coverage: FEATURE: Yuzuki's "Butter" achieves success abroad as feminist novel S. Korea's Han Kang receives Nobel literature prize amid turmoil at home Japan novelist Haruki Murakami to be given honorary doctorate by alma mater
The Mainichi
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Mainichi
Japanese novelist Yuzuki's 'Butter' wins British book award
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japanese novel "Butter" by Asako Yuzuki has won the debut fiction section at the 2025 British Book Awards, its Japanese publisher said Tuesday, as translations of the work enjoy a boom in critical and commercial recognition abroad. Yuzuki's novel, her first to be published in Britain, received the award on Monday local time, Shinchosha said. Since its release in the country in 2024, the book has won acclaim for exploring themes of misogyny, fatphobia and sexism in modern Japan. Yuzuki said it was "a great honor" and thanked English translator Polly Barton, her British publisher and booksellers and readers in a statement issued by the publisher. "Butter" follows journalist Rika Machida as she investigates Manako Kajii, a woman accused of killing men she has seduced with elaborate meals. Through exchanges on food, Machida becomes fascinated by Kajii's tastes and faces some of the same body shaming as her subject. Overseas sales of "Butter" have overtaken the around 300,000 copies sold in Japan since its 2017 release, with over 400,000 in Britain and more than 100,000 sold in the United States, Shinchosha said. Last year, "Butter" was named the Waterstones Book Of The Year by the major British bookshop chain. The win comes amid high interest in translated Japanese fiction in Britain. According to the sponsor of Britain's prestigious International Booker Prize, 14 of the top 30 translated novels sold in Britain in 2022 were Japanese works.
The Independent
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Margaret Atwood tells authors to be brave while ‘under threat' after award win
The Handmaid's Tale author Margaret Atwood has told authors to 'be brave' while 'under threat' after she won the Freedom To Publish Award at The British Book Awards 2025. The 85-year-old was presented with the award at a ceremony at Grosvenor House in London on Monday for advocating for 'reading as an act of resistance'. In a video acceptance speech, the Canadian said: 'I cannot remember a time during my own life, when words themselves felt under such threat. 'Political and religious polarisation, which appeared to be on the wane for parts of the 20th century, has increased alarmingly in the past decade. The world feels to me more like the 1930s and 40s at present than it has in the intervening 80 years. 'I have worked as a writer and in my youth in small press publishing for 60 odd years. Those years included the Soviet Union, when Samizdat was a dangerous method of publishing. Hand-produced manuscripts were secretly circulated, and bad luck for you if you were caught. '(They now include) the recent spate of censorship and book banning, not only in the oppressive countries around the world, but also in the United States. (They also include) the attempt to expel from universities anyone who disagrees with the dogmas of their would-be controllers. 'This kind of sentiment is not confined to one extremism or the other – the so called left or the so called right. 'All extremisms share the desire to erase their opponents, to stifle any creative expression that is not propaganda for themselves, and to shut down dialogue. They don't want a dialogue, they want a monologue. They don't want many voices, they want only one. 'In a free world publishers and booksellers stand for the many. 'If free governments and the free human intelligence are to survive, the guardians and transmitters of words in all their multiplicity must be brave. I wish you strength and hope, and the courage to withstand the mobs on one hand and the whims of vengeful potentates on the other.' Other winners at the ceremony included the late Russian politician Alexei Navalny, who won Overall Book Of The Year for his posthumous memoir Patriot – beating Boris Johnson, Gillian Anderson and Sir Chris Hoy to the gong. Accepting the award in his honour, Mr Navalny's widow Yulia Navalnya said: 'This book was never meant to be published after Alexei's death, Alexei wrote it with all the strength, wit and honesty that defined him. 'He wrote in secret from a prison cell under the most brutal conditions with no access to books, to the internet, to anything but his own memory and will. And yet he created a manuscript that speaks with clarity and conviction not only about Russia, but about freedom, justice and what it means to remain human. 'After he was killed, publishing this book became more than a responsibility – it became a mission. I worked closely with his editors and friends to preserve every word, every sentence, just as he intended. 'I'm profoundly grateful for the compassion and solidarity with which readers around the world have embraced it. 'Receiving this award, from across the book community is a powerful recognition of the strength of Alexei's voice. It tells us that truth still matters, that integrity matters, that words can break through even the hardest walls and reach hearts everywhere.' Percival Everett took home Author of the Year and Fiction Book Of The Year for his 24th novel James, Asako Yuzuki's Butter won Debut Fiction Book Of The Year, and Jamie Smart's Bunny Vs Monkey and Marian Keyes' My Favourite Mistake were joint winners of Book Of The Year – Audiobook: Fiction. Isabella Tree and Angela Harding won Children's Non-Fiction Book Of The Year for Wilding, Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler won Children's Illustrated Book Of The Year for Jonty Gentoo: The Adventures Of A Penguin, and Len Pennie's Poyums won Discover Book Of The Year. Stanley Tucci's bestselling food diary What I Ate In One Year won Book Of The Year – Non-Fiction: Lifestyle And Illustrated, Abir Mukherjee won Crime And Thriller Book Of The Year for Hunted, and Patric Gagne won Audiobook Non-Fiction for Sociopath. Saara El-Arifi's Faebound won Pageturner Book Of The Year, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hot Mess by Jeff Kinney won Book Of The Year – Children's Fiction, and Kate Mosse was awarded The British Book Award For Social Impact In Celebration Of Allen Lane.
