Guest Northern Highlight - UCLan Publishing Bookshop

 Guest Northern Highlight 
UCLAN Publishing Bookshop




Can you tell us more about the new UCLAN Publishing Bookshop, and the reasons why you decided to set it up? 

We set the bookshop up to showcase the Publishing House within the university. We want to make staff and students more aware of what the Publishing House to offer, and to highlight the many books our own students have worked on. 

What does a typical work day look like at the bookshop and what is the most rewarding part of the job? 

Well Charlotte and I both are based within the bookshop, we manage the shop and the publishing house at the same time so it's always busy. The most rewarding part of the job is recommending books and having happy customers leave the shop with a fantastic new read. We also had a visit from the UCLan Pre School a few weeks ago. Author Jake Hope, and illustrator Genevieve Aspinall came and hosted a special story time based on their book Cheesed Off! It was lovely.


Do you have any recommendations for books created by Northern authors and illustrators, maybe from your own portfolio? 

We have LOADS. We have a student project published this month, Wendington Jones and The Missing Tree by Northern author Daniel Dockery. We're getting great reviews for this one so it's hopefully the start of a great series. Then there's the Eve Ainsworth series, Dick, Kerr Girls based on the famous Women's football team from Preston. The Gracie Fairshaw series is set in Blackpool by Northern author Susan Brownrigg. We have non fiction from Gail Newsham (Football's Forgotten Legends) and Dom Conlon (Meet Matilda Rocket Builder and Matilda Meets the Universe, coming in June) and YA by Katie Clapham (Three Girls) and Danny Weston (The Witching Stone, Inchtinn and A Hunter's Moon), all Northen based. And of course not to forget our two currently bestselling series Wildsmith by Liz Flanagan. We also have a really exiting witchy YA coming in September by Jennifer Lane, set in Lancashire.

What is for you the spirit of the North, and do you feel it's represented by UCLAN Publishing Bookshop? 

The shop has a real sense of community, during the shop launch it was so special to be surrounded by some of our Northern based authors who are always full of support for the growing business. We think that's what the spirit of the North is, a sense of belonging, community and strength.

What would you like to see from other creative industries in the North of England? 

More collaboration would be fantastic. It's also important to appreciate the North in various different representations. The North is vast, full of different cultures, big cities and small rural villages. It would be lovely to see these reflected more in our art and literature.

What was the biggest achievement for UCLAN Publishing Bookshop since its opening? 

Probably the increase of visibility on campus. A lot of people weren't sure what the Publishing House did, the amount of requests we had to publish staff academic essays was getting a little silly... So it's nice to have people come in, see what we're all about and then maybe purchase a book or two.

What does the future of UCLAN Publishing Bookshop look like, any projects and events in the works? 

We're waiting to hear if we've been successful with Arts Council funding for the next NYALitFest. So watch this space!




You can find UCLan Publishing on: 

Twitter @publishinguclan

Instagram @uclan_publishing


Comments

  1. Hetal26 June 2023 at 22:13

    Wanted to check if this book can be read by first grade students!!

    ReplyDelete

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