In order to share stories across cultures and nations, it is vital to provide good translations of children’s books between languages. Claire Storey and Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp are co-editors of the World Kid Lit blog, and part of the collective that runs World Kid Lit month in September, both of which draw attention to the excellent translation work that is already going on and campaign for more sharing of stories worldwide. Along with Emma Wright, publisher of children’s books in translation (among others), they will discuss the importance of translating children’s books with Deirdre O’Byrne.

Emma Daiʼan Wright is a British-Chinese-Vietnamese publisher based in Birmingham. She is the founder of The Emma Press, specialising in poetry, short stories, childrenʼs books and translations. The Emma Press has published over 500 writers across more than 100 books, and was recently awarded funding from Arts Council England through the Elevate programme, helping diverse-led arts organisations to build resilience.

Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp is a British literary translator. She translates fiction and non-fiction from Russian, German and Arabic. She has translated children’s books from Germany, Morocco, Palestine, Russia, Switzerland and Syria. As well as co-editing the World Kid Lit blog, Ruth also co-edits two region-specific blogs, Russian Kid Lit and ArabKidLitNow. Her translation of The Magical Bookshop by Katja Frixe is out in May from Rock the Boat. Her co-translation with Sue Copeland of Trees for the Absentees by Palestinian author Ahlam Bsharat was shortlisted for the GLLI Translated YA Prize 2020.

Claire Storey is a native British English speaker with a passion for foreign languages. She translates children’s and young adult books from German and Spanish, and has been shortlisted for international translation prizes. She visits schools to talk to children and young people about her experiences with language and encourage them to explore the world of language outside their classroom walls. Her translation of Me, In Between (written by Julya Rabinowich in Austrian German) is published in January 2022.

Tickets for this event are free, but you can order and pay for one or both of two related books along with your registration – UK only, P&P free. Register via Eventbrite.

The Adventures of Na Willa is translated from Indonesian and published by The Emma Press. Na Willa is a bright, adventurous girl living in Surabaya’s suburbs, her home in the middle of an alley surrounded by cypress trees. She spends her days running after trains with Dul (she always beats him), going down to the market with Mak, and thinking about how people can sing through radios. But while everyone else tells Na Willa what to do and who to be, Na Willa wants to be free. She doesn’t want to be “just” a girl, she doesn’t want to look just like Pak, or just Mak. She wants to be both and more.

 The Magical Bookshop by Katja Frixe was originally published in German, and its English translation by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp is published by Oneworld Publications.

What do you do when your best friend moves away? Clara takes comfort in her favourite place: Mrs Owl’s bookshop. Mrs Owl had a knack for finding the perfect book for every customer, before they even realised what it was they were looking for. Surrounded by books that spring to life, a rhyming cat and mounds of cinnamon buns, Clara never feels alone. But someone is determined to close the bookshop down. Now it’s up to Clara and her new friends to save it.

Sunflower Sisters is the first in a new, uplifting picture book series from Owlet Press by Monika Singh Gangotra, which centres around best friends Amrita and Kiki. While the story offers a window into the lived experiences of those affected by colourism, it also celebrates the joy of the two girls experiencing each other’s South Asian and Nigerian communities and traditions, in this case weddings. With the protection and empowerment from their mums, the sunflower sisters grow into strong independent young women who embrace and celebrate the colour of their dark brown skin and empower other women to do the same.

The book’s author and illustrator join Deirdre O’Byrne to talk about the book and the issues it addresses, and they will also touch on how picture book authors and illustrators work together.

The book will be published on July 1st – if you select the ticket type that includes a copy of the book (available in UK only) we will send your book to you as soon as copies are available to us.

Although this event is not aimed specifically at an audience of children and young people, they may well find it of interest.

Tickets: £3, £7.99 with a copy of Sunflower Sisters – register via Eventbrite.

Supported by Lottery funding from Arts Council England.

Thanks to Bounce Marketing, who helped us find publishers and authors to take part in this series, and to Owlet Press, who worked with us to find guests for this event.

This event will have BSL interpretation provided. PLEASE NOTE: because of the way Zoom works on an iPad, you will not be able to see the BSL interpretation during the talk if you’re using an iPad – please use an alternative device to view the webinar.

Jackie Lees and KG Miles will be in conversation with Michael Eaton about their new book, Bob Dylan in London – which talks about exactly what it says on the cover. This event is one day after Dylan’s eightieth birthday.

This is the story of Dylan’s earliest visits to London as an unknown folk singer, crashing in friends’ bedsits, right through to his sell-out concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and Earls Court. We’ll hear about the venues and key Dylan related places in London (maybe with an added slide showing Dylan in Nottingham, since we are a Nottingham bookshop…)

Astonishingly, Jackie is only the second woman to write a Dylan book ever, and the first since 1982. That will be one thing to talk about!

Jackie Lees first heard Bob Dylan sing Lay Lady Lay on the radio when she was 13. A career of writing and editing for a homelessness charity was interrupted to co-curate the Dylan Room at the Troubadour, to provide amateur management for the Dylan Band and to write Bob Dylan in London: Troubadour Tales. 

K G Miles. From an awestruck child at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1969, Bob Dylan has taken Londoner K G Miles on an emotional musical journey lasting over 50 years. Now, as he is co-curator of the Dylan Room at London’s Troubadour Club and organises Dylan tours.

Michael Eaton is a Nottingham writer – his latest book is Based on a True Story, a collection of essays, playscripts and local history. He knows a thing or two about Dylan too.

Free. Register via Eventbrite.

Bob Dylan in London is available from our webshop.

Alex Wheatle spent most of his childhood in the notorious Shirley Oaks children’s home near Croydon, spending many lonely hours reading comics. His first novel, Brixton Rock, was published to critical acclaim by BlackAmber Books in 1999, and his novel Crongton Knights won the Guardian children’s fiction award and the Renaissance Quiz Writers’ Choice Award. The Humiliations of Welton Blake is a laugh-out-loud tale of the disasters that happen to Welton when he asks the best-looking girl in the school out, and she says yes… but then his phone breaks and everything goes wrong.

A. M. Dassu writes fiction and non-fiction. She is the Deputy Editor of SCBWI-BI’s Words & Pictures magazine and a Director of Inclusive Minds, a unique organisation for people who are passionate about inclusion, diversity, equality and accessibility in children’s literature. Her widely-acclaimed novel Boy, Everywhere, which tells the story of a young Syrian refugee’s journey to the UK, is one of the Guardian’s, Bookriot’s, BookTrust’s and CLPE’s Best Children’s Book of 2020, it features on Amnesty’s ‘Books That Inspire Activism’ list, and was given a Kirkus Star. A. M. Dassu has used her publishing deal advances for Boy, Everywhere to assist Syrian refugees in her city and set up a grant to support an unpublished refugee/recently immigrated writer.

Alex Wheatle and A. M. Dassu join Deirdre O’Byrne to read from and talk about their books and the issues they address, and about cultural diversity in children’s books in general.

Although this event is not aimed specifically at an audience of children and young people, they may well find it of interest.

Tickets: £3, £7.99 with a copy of Boy, Everywhere, £7.99 with a copy of The Humiliations of Welton Blake, £15.50 with a copy of both books – register via Eventbrite.

Supported by Lottery funding from Arts Council England.

Thanks to Bounce Marketing, who helped us find publishers and authors to take part in this series.

This event will have BSL interpretation provided. PLEASE NOTE: because of the way Zoom works on an iPad, you will not be able to see the BSL interpretation during the talk if you’re using an iPad – please use an alternative device to view the webinar.

Sita Brahamachari is a writer of award-winning children’s and YA novels and short stories. She has an MA in Arts Education and a background in theatre education, including a celebrated adaptation of Shaun Tan’s Arrival. She is an Amnesty Ambassador, was an Online Writer in Residence for Book Trust and is Writer In Residence at Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants. Corey’s Rock (from Otter-Barry Books) is a short tale of a family dealing with the loss of a child, which touches on the plight of refugees drowning at sea, and reflects on ideas of families and togetherness, despite the losses that may come.

Miriam Halahmy writes contemporary and historical realistic novels for children, teens and adults. She is a frequent guest at book festivals, conferences, and in colleges and schools. During the Pandemic she has developed videos of her books for her YouTube channel and she carries out regular virtual visits. Saving Hanno (also from Otter-Barry Books) is inspired by the real events of the Kindertransport and the real experiences of refugee children who came to England that way. Nine-year-old Rudi has to leave his dog behind, but Hanno is smuggled into the country – and the danger to Hanno is not over.

Sita Brahmachari and Miriam Halahmy join Deirdre O’Byrne to read from and talk about their books and the issues they address, and about cultural diversity in children’s books in general.

Although this event is not aimed specifically at an audience of children and young people, they may well find it of interest.

Tickets: £3, £10.99 with a copy of Corey’s Rock, £7.99 with a copy of Saving Hanno, £18.50 with a copy of both books – register via Eventbrite.

Supported by Lottery funding from Arts Council England.

Thanks to Bounce Marketing, who helped us find publishers and authors to take part in this series, and to Otter-Barry Books, who worked with us to find guests for this event.

This event will have BSL interpretation provided. PLEASE NOTE: because of the way Zoom works on an iPad, you will not be able to see the BSL interpretation during the talk if you’re using an iPad – please use an alternative device to view the webinar.

Susan Cousins will talk about the psychological impact of racism and discrimination on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people, and offer steps to improve wellbeing. She will discuss definitions of race, racism and other commonly used terms, such as microaggressions, and evaluate the effect of definitions used to describe BAME people. As in her book, she will cover self-acceptance, personal growth, purpose in life, positive relations with others, environmental mastery, autonomy – and include examples and creative exercises.

Susan is the author of Overcoming Everyday Racism: Building Resilience and Wellbeing in the Face of Discrimination and Microaggressions, which was written for use as a tool within counselling and therapeutic settings as well as for individuals to use as a self-help tool. Each category provides a framework for thinking about how to manage everyday racism, live with more resilience, and thrive.

There’s an interview with Susan here: https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-32/december-2019/we-need-support-our-diverse-population, which includes material on her own background in India.

Copies of her book are available from our webshop.

This is a free online event. Register via Eventbrite

Do join us for this free online book launch.

The stories in Frances Thimann’s new collection are concerned mostly with ideas relating to words and communication – with writing itself, and with books, signs, and meaning. Frances will be in discussion with Felicity Whittle, who organises bookish walking tours in Nottingham.

“An old city: its narrow streets twist like the lines of a snail’s shell outwards from the centre, away to the furthest edges. There are fine old buildings, steep slanting roofscapes and tall spires; ancient stairways, where ancient figures might climb forever, always failing to find their destination.

The city still holds its memories of East and West, North and South – it was once the centre of a great empire. But it is not as it once was; at its outer limits the splendour has faded, and mixes with the dust of the everyday. There are deserted, derelict places now along the streets, and though tourists and travellers still come to study and enjoy, strange people wander through the stately parks sometimes, lingering in corners to surprise the passer-by.

A small square, shaded with trees, enfolded within the oldest part of the city: in it stood the clock museum, almost hidden, obscure in its corner, drawing no attention to itself. I lingered at the entrance for a while, for I had time, all the time in the world. Then I paid the entrance fee – I thought it high for this small place, which appeared so insignificant – and entered. I walked along the dim corridor towards the galleries, and I was aware that there were no other visitors in the museum – though I had thought that someone entered the doorway behind me…”    From The Clock Museum

The Clock Museum will be available from bookshop@fiveleaves.co.uk or through our webshop from early June. Published by Chaffinch Press in Ireland.

Frances was born in London, but was brought up in Sherwood, Nottingham, very close to where she now lives once more. She studied Music at Bristol University then pursued a career in libraries and information work, which included several years working abroad with the British Council.

Free, register via Eventbrite

Free to be Me, edited by Jane Traies, is a collection of refugee stories from the Manchester-based Lesbian Immigration Support Group. Tonight, Jane will be joined by women from LISG and the equivalent Nottingham group, Kairos.

The book is a new collection of interviews with lesbian and bi women seeking asylum in the UK, and the campaigners working with them. Here in their own words are their stories of love, trauma, struggle and friendship, courage and solidarity.

Free to be Me is available to buy from our webshop.

This is a free event. Register via Eventbrite

For more information on the support services provided by Nottingham Kairos, please call or email: 07938 556788, kairos.nottingham@gmail.com and for Greater Manchester,  lisg.manchester@yahoo.co.uk or telephone 07503 351922.

A Nottingham Refugee Week event

Five Leaves is pleased to present a series of online events on New Irish Writing. Tonight and the readings from Belfast Stories are in association with Doire Press, a leading publisher in the West of Ireland. Galway was the European Capital of Culture in 2020.

Both Doire Press events will include readings followed by discussion about the landscape and urban areas that inspired the Stories, and about Irish writing in general. The talks will be hosted by Deirdre O’Byrne from Five Leaves Bookshop and Nottingham Irish Studies Group and the Doire evenings will also be joined by a representative from Doire Press.

Galway Stories will feature June Caldwell and editor Alan McMonagle.

June Caldwell currently lives in Dublin. Her stories probe sexuality and disturbing psychology, and the darkness and light that lives within us all. If you know Galway City, her story – which performs well! – is set in Barna. Her latest book published in the UK is Room Little Darker.

Alan McMonagle had a story included in the original Galway Stories, published in 2013, and is the joint editor of Galway Stories 2020. His latest book published in the UK is Laura Cassidy’s Walk of Fame, set in the era of Hollywood’s silver screen and told in a voice that blends devil humour, quiet mayhem, and a single-minded optimism that might just lead to disaster.

This event will be BSL interpreted. PLEASE NOTE that due to the way Zoom is implemented on the iPad you will not be able to see the interpreter during any screensharing – if this is a problem for you please use another device to access the event.

Supported with National Lottery funding by Arts Council England.

Tickets £3, or £13 including a copy of Galway Stories (2013), or £15 including a copy of Galway Stories 2020, or £27 including a copy of both books (UK only for tickets including books, P&P free). Register via Eventbrite

A mix of memoir, nature writing and history: Thin Places is Kerri ní Dochartaigh’s story of a wild Ireland, an invisible border, an old conflict and the healing power of the natural world.

Kerri ní Dochartaigh was born in Derry, on the border of the North and South of Ireland, at the very height of the Troubles. She was brought up on a council estate on the wrong side of town. But for her family, and many others, there was no right side. One parent was Catholic, the other was Protestant. In the space of one year they were forced out of two homes and when she was eleven a homemade petrol bomb was thrown through her bedroom window. Terror was in the very fabric of the city, and for families like Kerri’s, the ones who fell between the cracks of identity, it seemed there was no escape.

In Thin Places, a mixture of memoir, history and nature writing, Kerri explores how nature kept her sane and helped her heal, how violence and poverty are never more than a stone’s throw from beauty and hope, and how we are, once again, allowing our borders to become hard, and terror to creep back in. Kerri asks us to reclaim our landscape through language and study, and remember that the land we fight over is much more than lines on a map. It will always be ours but, at the same time, it never really was.

Kerri will be in discussion with Patrick Limb, a barrister and Trustee of Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature.

This event will be BSL interpreted. PLEASE NOTE that due to the way Zoom is implemented on the iPad you will not be able to see the interpreter during any screensharing – if this is a problem for you please use another device to access the event.

Supported with National Lottery funding by Arts Council England.

Tickets £3, or £14.99 including a copy of Thin Places (UK only, P&P free). Register via Eventbrite

In the wake of the global financial crisis, water services have come under renewed neoliberal assault across Europe. At the same time, the struggle against water privatisation has continued to pick up pace, from the re-municipalisation of water in Grenoble in 2000 to the United Nations declaration of water as a human right in 2010.

In Fighting for Water, Andreas Bieler draws on years of extensive fieldwork to dissect the underlying dynamics of the struggle for public water in Europe. By analysing the successful referendum against water privatization in Italy, the European Citizens’ Initiative on ‘Water and Sanitation are a Human Right’, the struggles against water privatisation in Greece and water charges in Ireland, Bieler shows why water has been a fruitful arena for resistance against neoliberal restructuring.

Fighting for Water can be ordered from bookshop@fiveleaves.co.uk. It is published on 17th June.

In association with the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice, University of Nottingham.

Andreas Bieler is Professor of Political Economy in the School of Politics and International Relations, and Fellow of the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ) at the University of Nottingham/UK. His general research is on resistance to neo-liberal globalisation with a particular emphasis on the possible role of labour movements understood in a broad sense. Andreas runs the blog Trade Unions and Global Restructuring.

Free to attend, register via Eventbrite.