Keeping you up to date with all things OWN IT!

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OWN IT! NEWS

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OWN IT! launches the New Voices Award 2022

In partnership with Amazon Publishing

This competition is aimed at unagented writers from traditionally under-represented backgrounds, to address issues around inclusion and representation in commercial fiction.

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OWN IT! AGENCY NEWS

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Mrs Death Misses Death by Salena Godden

Has both won and been shortlisted for several brilliant awards, including the Indie Book Awards, the Peoples Book Prize, British Book Awards: Book of the Year Fiction Debut, Gordon Burn Prize and Bad Form: Book of the Year.

Get your copy of Mrs Death Misses Death here
Mrs Death has had enough. She is exhausted by her job and now seeks someone to unburden her conscience to.

She meets Wolf, a troubled young writer, who – enthralled by her stories – begins to write Mrs Death’s memoirs. As the two reflect on the losses they have experienced (or facilitated), their friendship flourishes. All the while, despite her world-weariness, Death must continue to hold humans’ fates in her hands, appearing in our lives when we least expect her . . .

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OWN IT! PUBLISHING NEWS

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Footage is now available from the Sasha Knight publication day launch, check out our YouTube channel to see more OWN IT! content.

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WHAT’S GOING ON THIS MONTH?

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The Royal College of Art has partnered with Samuel Ross for the Samuel Ross Black British Artist Grant Programme in 2022.

Keeping you up to date with all things OWN IT!

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OWN IT! AGENCY NEWS

ANNOUNCEMENT

A RIVER CALLED TIME by Courttia Newland

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD

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ANNOUNCEMENT

KEEPING THE HOUSE by Tice Cin

SHORTLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOT PRIZE

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Poet, Lemn Sissay, with the help of London’s Foundling Museum, has gathered 59 athletes/artists/CEOs & others who, like him, spent part of their childhoods in care.

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Ewan McGregor speaks to GQ magazine about his iconic character from Trainspotting

Ewan McGregor speaks on one of the most iconic characters from one of the most iconic films in British Cinema, Trainspotting, and how his character was partially inspired by Ray Shell’s character, Cornelius Washington, from his cult classic book, Iced.

Click here to watch the full video

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OWN IT! ANNOUNCEMENTS
We are excited to announce two new team members joining the OWN IT! Family

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Announcement

Reggie Nelson’s Opening Doors work experience programme leads to full-time job for its first candidate, Isabella Boyne, at our first partners of this brilliant initiative, Bonnier Books UK.

This fully paid 4-week work experience programme is aimed at helping candidates from an underrepresented background take their first steps on the path to a career in publishing (and soon other industries).

Follow @openingdoors_uk on Instagram to stay in the loop for all future updates on the initiative.

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OWN IT! PUBLISHING NEWS

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Click here to download the audiobook

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Endless Fortune by Ify Adenuga

Click here to download the audiobook

Keeping you up to date with all things OWN IT!

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OWN IT! PUBLISHING NEWS

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SASHA KNIGHT by Sean Godfrey – OUT NOW

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR COPY

This debut novel picks apart the puzzle left behind when 11-year-old Sasha disappears. It alternates between past and present, shifting back and forth from Jamaica and the United States.Portraying the perils of toxic masculinity and the damaging effects of emotional trauma, it touches on religion and the deep-seated class and colour divide in Jamaican society. This is a genre-bending mashup that shakes the senses and tears at the heart.

WATCH THE BOOK TRAILER HERE

We had so much fun hosting the Publication Launch Event for #SashaKnight at The Museum of Youth Culture Shop

Check out these photos from the night:

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CLCK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

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ANNOUNCEMENT: Toni Tone signs 2-book deal

From the best-selling author of I Wish I Knew This Earlier, Take Note is the follow-up book of Toni’s best-selling debut. This time Toni will be sharing life lessons to help you fulfil your fullest potential. Topics covered in this book include: ways to improve self-belief and self-esteem, manage friendships, and making the most out of a career.

CLCK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

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DOUBLE ANNOUNCEMENT

We are so excited to welcome two new members to the OWN IT! family.

Keeping you up to date with all things OWN IT!

OWN IT! NEWS

HUGE NEWS:

We’re launching OWN IT! Productions, a Film/TV company. Alongside this, OWN IT! Agency is joining forces with The Partnership Group. We’re still fiercely independent and uncompromisingly ourselves but now with the backing The Artist Partnership, Sayle Screen, Sara Putt Associates and Be Heard Voices.

> READ MORE HERE <

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Start your OWN IT! Career today.

Applications are now open for the following positions:
❗️TALENT AGENT (SALARY: 35-50k dependent on experience)
❗️EDITORIAL AND LITERARY ASSISTANT (SALARY: 22k)

Applications close June 3rd.

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AGENCY NEWS

LOSING THE PLOT BY DEREK OWUSU – POETRY COLLECTION / NOVEL-IN-VERSE

Told through the eyes of both mother and son, Losing the Plot is at once emotionally raw and playful as Owusu experiments with form to piece together the immigrant experience and explore how the stories we share and tell ourselves are just as vital as the ones we don’t.

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OPENING DOORS BY REGGIE NELSON

OUT NOW

Inspiring, moving and empowering,#OpeningDoors is a story of how the power of guidance, visibility and mentoring can give anyone the platform to learn and succeed. Because when one door closes, another door will always open…

GET YOUR COPY HERE

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DOUBLE ANNOUNCEMENT

We are so excited to welcome two new members to the OWN IT! family.

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PUBLISHING NEWS

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A coming-of-age novel, alternating between past and present and shifting back and forth from Jamaica and the United States, SASHA KNIGHT picks apart the puzzle left behind when 11-year-old Sasha disappears.

‘Godfrey has crafted a whole host of characters and a world that feels new, but somehow familiar. I flew through the pages.’Candice Carty-Williams, Author of Sunday Times Bestseller People Person

GET YOUR COPY OF SASHA KNIGHT HERE

Keeping you up to date with all things OWN IT!

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AGENCY NEWS

OWN IT! collaborates with Reggie Nelson to launch the #OpeningDoorsInitiative.

We are so excited to announce that we will be collaborating with Reggie Nelson to launch the #OpeningDoorsInitiative, in celebration of the publication of his book.

PRE-ORDER OPENING DOORS HERE

If you are interested in learning about or working in publishing, this initiative is for you!

The work experience placement will offer the successful candidate an insight into two sides of the industry, comprising two weeks based in the adult editorial team at Bonnier Books UK’s HQ at Victoria House and two weeks at OWN IT!’s offices in Piccadilly Circus. 

The candidate will also receive a coaching session from Bonnier Books UK CEO Perminder Mann and separately from OWN IT! CO-CEO Crystal Mahey-Morgan.

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE + APPLY

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ANNOUNCEMNT

We are so excited to welcome Marienna Pope-Weidemann to the OWN IT! family.

Marienna Pope-Weidemann is a writer, activist and journalist with a decade of experience in storytelling for social justice. She is now working on her first book, Justice For All Of Us, a creative nonfiction collection of stories from families like Marienna’s, who have lost someone they loved at the hands of the state and are fighting for change.

Click here to read more about Marienna.

Justice For All Of Us collects the stories of ten lives lost. Some, like Sean Rigg, Matthew Leahy and Olaseni Lewis, are well known. Others are names you’ve never heard before. In custody, in hospital or in the streets, all died in hands of services we are taught to trust. As inspiring as they are devastating, these are stories of love, loss and what keeps us going against all the odds.

The book was inspired by Marienna’s experience working with other bereaved families and leading the Justice for Gaia campaign on behalf of her own. Her cousin Gaia Pope, a survivor of sexual violence, was let down by the mental health system and the police after they took no further action following her rape allegation against a known child sex offender.

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Check out Jude Yawson’s interview with John Boyega for COMPLEX UK

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PUBLISHING NEWS

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SASHA KNIGHT by SEAN GODFREY – PUBLISHING JUNE 23rd 

NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER – CLICK HERE

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This April we celebrated the 2-year anniversary of Stuart Goodman‘s passing.

An East London native, former fleet street photographer and talented Jazz trumpeter, who played in an early incarnation of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. Stuart was a dear friend and member of the OWN IT! family and his memory continues to live on through his work.

It is our absolute honour that we were able to publish Stuart’s brilliant photography book ONE SATURDAY IN 82 ON BROADWAY MARKET.

To see more of Stuart’s work, click here. 
To purchase Stuart’s book and prints in various sizes, visit WWW.OWNIT.LONDON/SHOP

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As a result of the pandemic and losing Stuart Goodman in 2020, this meant that we were unable to hold a publication day event for Stuart to celebrate his photography book ONE SATURDAY IN 82 ON BROADWAY MARKT.

This year, we were finally able to come together with Stuart’s family and friends and celebrate his life, his work and the book. 

Check out some photos from the event below.

GET YOUR COPY OF AN ABOLITIONIST’S HANDBOOK HERE

At its heart, this is a book which allows us to re-imagine the world, making it a better and more equal place for all. 

NOW AVAILABLE

If you loved Stuart Goodman’s photography book ONE SATURDAY IN 82 ON BROADWAY MARKET as much as us, then you’ll love this…

Prints now available in various sizes.

Hahnemüle Fine Art Print on Hahnemüle FineArt Baryta.

CLICK HERE to order now.