Fundraiser’s, festivals, publications and more. This is what’s been happening at Midas this week.
Women’s Prize ‘Big Give’ Christmas fundraiser
On Tuesday, the Women’s Prize Trust launched their ‘Big Give’ Christmas fundraising appeal, seeking financial support from readers, writers and publishers to expand its 2025 Writers’ Room programme. This coincides with the publication of the Trust’s Impact Report marking 30 years of the Woman’s Prize for Fiction, revealing that it is significantly more challenging for women from lower socioeconomic and global majority backgrounds, and those living with disabilities and chronic illnesses to launch and sustain a writing career in the current book ecosystem.
The Women’s Prize Trust is aiming to raise £20,000 between 3-10 December, all donations made on the Big Give Christmas Challenge website here will be doubled. These vital funds will make it possible for the Trust to continue working to develop a practical, inclusive, free-to-access writers’ programme that targets these underrepresented groups, enabling them to reach 5,000 aspiring writers in the first year and 15,000 over three years. For more information about the Women’s Prize Trust, Big Give Christmas Fundraiser and the Impact Report, see the full press release here.
St Andrews Book Festival 2024
Congratulations to St Andrew’s Book Festival by Scots in London, which began on Monday 25 November and will end on Sunday 1 December. Events took place in various beautiful locations around London, including the Caledonian Club, Scotland House and St Columba’s Church. Featuring an extraordinary line up of the finest literary talent Scotland has to offer – from established authors including Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith, Judy Murray and Andrew O’Hagan to newcomers celebrated by Scotland’s National Book Awards – there was certainly something for everyone at the inaugural edition of the festival. Don’t miss this exciting addition to London’s literary calendar, find out more about St Andrew’s Book Festival and get your tickets for Saturday and Sunday’s talks here.
London Book Fair ‘Authors of the Day’
On Wednesday, we were thrilled to reveal The London Book Fair 2025 Authors of the Fair line-up, including:
Best-selling novelist & Women’s Prize for Fiction judge Monica Ali; Argentine author and International Booker Prize shortlistee Claudia Piñeiro; the current Waterstones Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce; and comics artist Jamie Smart as the first ever Creative of the Fair.
Undeterred: My MND Story by Naima Chakkour
This week we celebrated the publication of Naima Chakkour’s inspiring memoir.
In 1993, Naima Chakkour – a mother of four young children – was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND) and given less than five years to live. Since, Naima has defied the odds to become one of the world’s longest ever survivors of this terrible disease. Undeterred tells her remarkable story – it is an uniquely powerful reflection on family, friendship, endurance, resilience, loss, grief, hope and love. All proceeds from Undeterred will go to ‘My Name’5 Doddie Foundation’, a charity committed to funding research to find effective treatments to motor neuron disease. You can get your copy here
Waterstones Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce named in Christmas Guest Editor 2024 line up
Mark your calendars: Waterstones Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce will be kicking off this year’s BBC Radio 4 Today programme Guest Editor series, with a very special show dedicated to exploring the role reading can play in shaping children’s lives and what happens to a child’s brain when they are read to.
Since being crowned Waterstones Children’s Laureate in July of this year, Frank has been all over the country, speaking to frontline childcare workers as part of his Reading Rights campaign, in partnership with UK children’s reading charity, BookTrust.
Frank will share some of the learnings from his important campaign, which is calling for national provision so that every child – from their earliest years – has access to books and reading, in his Radio 4 Guest Edit, scheduled to air on Tuesday 24th December, 6am-9am (the perfect Christmas Eve treat!).
The Unwin Award announces key dates for 2025
The Unwin Award has announced the key dates for the inaugural year of this new, literary award recognising non-fiction authors in the earlier stages of their careers, whose work is considered to have made a significant contribution to the world.
The shortlist will be revealed on Tuesday 18 February 2025, and the winner announcement will take place on Tuesday 1 April 2025 during a ceremony at The Royal Institution.
The Unwin Award – administered by The Publishers Association – is intended to champion and showcase the value of the UK publishing industry to the world. The Unwin Award has been made possible following a donation from the Unwin Charitable Trust. You can read more here
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