We recently took the Faber Poetry Podcast to The Hague for a special event at the Crossing Border Festival. In this live recording, Rachael Allen and Jack Underwood are joined by fellow poets Anthony Anaxagorou, Momtaza Mehri and Hannah Sullivan for an evening of readings and (brief) discussion. Show notes Guest poets ANTHONY…
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Disposable Diaries: Sara Gran
Our latest ‘Disposable Diaries’ comes from Sara Gran, author of the novels Dope, Come Closer, Saturn’s Return to New York and three novels about Claire DeWitt, a talented but troubled private detective. The third and most recent instalment in the series, The Infinite Blacktop, is set partly in Los Angeles, and through a series of photographs taken in…
Extract: Normal People by Sally Rooney
Read an extract from Sally Rooney’s critically acclaimed novel Normal People. Charting the on-off relationship between two millennials in Ireland, this exquisite love story explores first love, friendship and how we change one another. Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small town in rural Ireland. The similarities end there; they are from…
Christmas Reading List
All I want for Christmas . . . From eccentric memoirs and epic novels to beautiful books and powerful poetry. Here’s what we’re reading, recommending and gifting this winter. Ruby Bamber, Senior Sales Operations Executive The book you can’t wait to read this Christmas I’m going to treat myself to The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver…
Faber announces The Rise of the Ultra Runners
Guardian Faber is delighted to announce the acquisition of The Rise of the Ultra Runners: A Journey to the Edge of Human Endurance by award-winning author Adharanand Finn. Guardian Faber acquired UK & Commonwealth rights plus Canada and EU from Oli Munson at A.M. Heath and will publish in May 2019. The Rise of the Ultra Runners is an electrifying and inspiring account of one of the toughest sports…
Pebble spotting with The Pebbles on the Beach
KEY TO IMAGES: 1 Ovoid pebble of grey granite 2 Grey granite with one surface cut and polished 3 Pebble of schist with one surface cut and polished. The laminations are more clearly seen on an uncut surface 4 Flattened ovoid pebble of crystalline limestone [unpolished] 5 Fragment of whitish chert. Its angularities show that…
Celebrating W. S. Graham
To mark 100 years since the birth of the poet W. S. Graham, here is a selection of images and quotations to celebrate his life and work.
All quotes, unless otherwise stated, are taken from W. S. Graham’s New Selected Poems (Faber & Faber, 2018). Cover image: W. S. Graham, with his painting on glass, in the Old Coastguard Cottage, Gurnard’s Head, 1958. Copyright © the Estate of Michael Seward Snow, 2018.
Read the poem ‘To Alexander Graham’, a poem that W. S. Graham wrote addressed to his father, in full here.
GOLDEN CHILD to be Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime
Claire Adam’s debut novel Golden Child is to be serialized on Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime for two weeks from 25th February. A deeply affecting debut novel set in Trinidad, it follows the lives of a family as they navigate impossible choices about scarcity, loyalty, and love. ‘In Claire’s spare and elegant prose, the remote…
Editorial Director Louisa Joyner on
acquiring Milkman by Anna Burns
HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME Now Albert’s coming back, make yourself a bit smart. He’ll want to know what you done with that money he gave you To get yourself some teeth. He did, I was there. You have them all out, Lil, and get a nice set, He said, I swear, I can’t bear…
Jay Rayner’s My Last Supper, September 2019
You are about to die. What do you choose as your final meal? Follow Jay Rayner as he embarks on a journey through his life in food and attempts to construct his perfect last supper. In My Last Supper, Jay Rayner sets out to answer the one question he is most frequently asked: ‘What would your…
Faber to publish US comedian Samantha Irby’s We Are Never Meeting in Real Life in January 2019
‘Irby’s essays are by turns eye-wateringly hilarious and down-to-earth and authentic, delivering emotional punches that tell us about what it is to be human. An utterly talented and wickedly funny writer who deserves every success.’ Nikesh Shukla As a writer and performer, Samantha Irby is a force of nature. Irby rose to prominence with her filthy, devastating and hilarious blog bitches gotta…
Faber announces unpublished Sylvia Plath story
Faber will publish ‘Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom’, a previously unpublished story by Sylvia Plath, as part of the landmark Faber Stories series to celebrate the company’s 90th anniversary. ‘Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom’ was written by Plath as an assignment in December 1952, when she was a third-year student at Smith College….
‘The Prophet’ by Ted Hughes
This is the last poem that Ted Hughes was working on before his death in 1998. It is a translation of Pushkin’s ‘The Prophet’. The Prophet Crazed by my soul’s thirst Through a dark land I staggered, And a six-winged seraph Halted me at a crossroads. With fingers of dream He touched my eye-pupils. My…
On Sylvia Plath’s Letters by Peter K. Steinberg
The conclusion of The Letters of Sylvia Plath project after the better part of a decade is bittersweet. For so long, searching for letters, transcribing, proofing and annotating has been a significant part of my life. Upon the publication of the first volume of Plath’s letters last year, I wrote a short blog piece on…
