Welcome to The Writer's Year. Throughout 2008, Waterstone's have been highlighting the role of the author in a series of activities that have celebrated our favourite authors, old and new. There has been something different every month, kicking off with The Waterstone's Guide to Getting Published. Later in the year we helped you to discover our New Voices, showcased the Theakstons Crime Novel Award, and gave you an insight into the influences and favourite books of a bestselling author as Sebastian Faulks chose the titles to feature on the first Writer's Table. Then came the fantastic What's Your Story? campaign, and we are currently showcasing the second Writer's Table, from Philip Pullman, and our Featured Poet, Andrew Motion. Keep checking back here to discover what is happening during The Writer's Year.
October - Featured Poet - Andrew Motion
The Writer's Year has so far encompassed many areas of writing, from discovering new children's talent with the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize, finding out what books influenced and inspired Sebastian Faulks and Philip Pullman on their Writer's Tables, to inviting the world, and thirteen very special authors, to answer the question "What's Your Story?"
Although poetry seldom gets the column inches or space on the bestseller shelves that other areas of writing receive, it occupies a special place in the nation's heart. Most poeple, whether they would describe themselves as poetry fans or not, will be able to recite some lines of verse or have a favourite poem. Even if we don't realise it, poetry touches our lives nearly every day, be it through an incredible piece of work inspired by poetry, or just one of the many millions of small, poetic messages sent in greetings cards every day. As National Poetry Day falls in October, this month's aspect of the Writer's Year is poetry and we are launching the Waterstone's Featured Poet.
Our first Featured Poet is Andrew Motion. Now entering the final furlong in his run as Poet Laureate, he has fulfilled his duties as Laureate with aplomb and, although he has made no secret about the challenges of the position, whoever succeeds him will have a tough act to follow. His poetry has massive scope, he has been a great champion of poetry with countless appearances at Literary Festivals and in the media. His biography of one of the greatest of 20th Century poets, Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life, is one of the greatest studies of a poet's life in print. We hope you enjoy discovering Andrew Motion's work.
Read more about Andrew Motion
Read Andrew Motion's reflections on Old Man by Edward Thomas
September - Philip Pullman and the Writer's Table Read more
The Writer's Table is a major promotion at the forefront of The Writer's Year, Waterstone's calendar of monthly initiatives and activities designed to highlight the role of the author. Philip Pullman, whose bestselling Northern Lights was last year named 'Best Book of the Last 25 Years' by Waterstone's Booksellers, was given free rein in choosing every title that appeared in the promotion. Pullman has also written about why he chose each book in his selection, and links to his hand-written thoughts can be found on the Pullman Writer's Table page.
"Our first Writer's Table was a great success, and really captured the imaginations of our booksellers and customers. We are extremely excited that Philip has agreed to choose the titles for our second Writer's Table. We are absolutely delighted with this eclectic and thought-provoking selection of books from one of the nation's greatest and most popular writers."
Toby Bourne, Head of Fiction, Waterstone's.
Read more about Philip Pullman
July - Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Award Read more
Europe's largest crime writing festival ran from 17th to 20th July this year, at the Crown Hotel in Harrogate.
There were appearances from some of the very best crime authors around. Special guests included Andy McNab, Jeffery Deaver, Peter Robinson, Tess Gerritsen, Simon Kernick and MC Beaton. The topics under discussion included religious symbolism, James Bond and cosy crime.
See featured books from the festival
We are delighted to announce that Stef Penney's The Tenderness of Wolves won the the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2008, which was open to any crime novel by a British author published for the first time in paperback in 2007. It is the only prize of its kind to be voted for by the general public, the final shortlist of 12 titles was chosen by Waterstone's customers who voted right here on Waterstones.com.
June - What's Your Story? Read more
To celebrate the National Year of Reading we asked 13 world-class authors and all of our customers to tell us their story. You can see our customers' stories in our gallery, and the authors' stories in our postcard book.
About the competition
They say everyone has a story in them, and over 4,000 of you told us yours on Waterstones.com, with hundreds more customers taking their story cards to their local Waterstone's to be displayed.
The three lucky winners - two adults and one child - from the Waterstones.com and store entries appeared in a postcard book with our authors' stories.
As well as appearing alongside some of the world's greatest living writers, the national winners aged over 18 will also won an Arvon Writing Course and the under 18 winner received £500 of Waterstone's vouchers.
All profits from the sale of the postcard book went to Dyslexia Action and English PEN.
An 800 word prequel to the Harry Potter series, handwritten and signed by JK Rowling, sold for £25,000 at a charity auction at Waterstone's Piccadilly to benefit English PEN and Dyslexia Action. The card is one of 13 story cards donated by world famous authors for our What's Your Story? campaign, raising a total of £47,150 for the two charities.
May - Waterstone's Writer's Table
The Writer's Table is a major promotion at the forefront of The Writer's Year, Waterstone's calendar of monthly initiatives and activities designed to highlight the role of the author. Sebastian Faulks, whose highly anticipated James Bond novel Devil May Care is published at the end of May, has been given complete free rein in choosing every single title in the promotion - any book, any author, any subject, so long as the titles were in print in the UK. Faulks has also written about why he chose each book in his selection, and his hand-written thoughts are revealed on the Writer's Table page.
More about the Writer' Table
April - The bookseller's bursary
This month, Waterstone's launches a search for the next great writing talent to emerge from within its stores and offices. The Bookseller's Bursary will offer two booksellers the chance to go on one of the Arvon Foundation's renowned creative writing courses, as well as give them a cash prize of £500. .
"We have a pretty impressive history in this area," said Waterstone's MD, Gerry Johnson. "David Mitchell, Ray Monk, Jeremy Dyson and Dan Rhodes are just a few of the authors who worked for Waterstone's at some point in their career. We know there are more talented writers out there, and the Bookseller's Bursary will help them develop their skills."
For further information please contact Jon Howells at Waterstone's Press Office:
Telephone: 0208 9964385
Email: jon.howells@waterstones.com
March - New Voices
One of the most exciting things for readers every year is watching new writers appear on the literary scene and discovering their work. Late last year we asked publishers to tell us which of their books from new and emerging writers they were most excited about. We were inundated with titles from fantastic new authors from across the globe, demonstrating a real wealth of talent and variety. From those submissions, a Waterstone's panel has chosen its favourite twelve - our New Voices.
These dozen titles are by some of the authors that we expect to find shaping the world of fiction for years to come. We believe that readers will enjoy their work as much as we have, and we look forward to seeing these names on future Booker, Orange and Costa shortlists. We hope that you enjoy our New Voices as much as we enjoyed identifying them.
See our New Voices selections here and read more about the authors
February - Waterstone's Children's Book Prize
Our Children's Book prize has been introducing the best new writers to young readers for four years. Created to uncover hidden talent in children's writing, it is open to authors who have written three children's fiction titles or fewer and is the only children's award where publishers, booksellers and the public join forces to recommend books to the panel of judges.
This year's winner was Sally Nicholls, with her novel, Ways to Live Forever.
January - How to get published
There's a lot written about how difficult it is to get published, how important it is to have an agent and how some books sell in their hundreds of thousands whilst others struggle to sell in three figures. The classic quote states that everyone has a book in them, but how does one go about getting it published?
