Knights Of, also known as Knights Of Media, is a London-based independent publishing house, specialising in publishing inclusive children's books.
Knights Of was founded in 2017 by Aimée Felone and David Stevens, who previously worked for Scholastic. [1] In 2018 the company set up a pop-up bookshop, #ReadTheOnePercent, on Coldharbour Lane in Brixton, [2] and in 2019 they established a permanent bookshop, Round Table Books, in Brixton. [3] In 2020 Knights Of and Jacaranda Books launched a crowdfunding appeal to try to assure their survival in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It won Children's Publisher of the Year 2022 at the British Book Awards.
Knights Of authors include the BAME writers Jason Reynolds and Sharna Jackson and deaf author Samantha Baines. In 2020 Knights Of published A Kind of Spark , the debut novel of Elle McNicoll, a Scottish children's writer; the book's plot follows the efforts of an eleven-year-old autistic narrator, Addie. [4] [5]
Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer.
The Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF) is a book festival that takes place during two weeks in August every year in the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland. Described as The largest festival of its kind in the world, the festival hosts a series of cultural and political talks and debates, along with a well-established children's events programme.
Geraldine McCaughrean is a British children's novelist. She has written more than 170 books, including Peter Pan in Scarlet (2004), the official sequel to Peter Pan commissioned by Great Ormond Street Hospital, the holder of Peter Pan's copyright. Her work has been translated into 44 languages worldwide. She has received the Carnegie Medal twice and the Michael L. Printz Award among others.
Otto Penzler is an American editor of mystery fiction, and proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City.
Lightning Source is a printer and distributor of print-on-demand books. The company is a business unit of Ingram Content Group. Originally incorporated in 1996 as Lightning Print Inc., the company is headquartered in La Vergne, Tennessee, United States. Its UK operations are based in Milton Keynes. They also have operations in Maurepas, France and Melbourne, Australia.
Gillian Schieber Flynn is an American author, screenwriter, and producer. She is known for writing the thriller and mystery novels Sharp Objects (2006), Dark Places (2009), and Gone Girl (2012), which are all critically acclaimed. Her books have been published in 40 languages, and according to The Washington Post, as of 2016 Gone Girl alone has sold more than 15 million copies.
National Book Trust (NBT) is an Indian publishing house, which was founded in 1957 as an autonomous body under the Ministry of Education of the Government of India. The activities of the Trust include publishing, promotion of books and reading, promotion of Indian books abroad, assistance to authors and publishers, and promotion of children's literature.
Alex Alphonso Wheatle MBE is a British novelist, who was sentenced to a term of imprisonment after the 1981 Brixton riot in London.
Sarah McIntyre is a British American illustrator and writer of children's books and comics. She graduated in 1999 from Bryn Mawr College with a degree in Russian and a minor degree in History of Art and earned her Master's Degree in Illustration at Camberwell College of Arts in 2007. She works from a studio in Bovey Tracey, Devon and lives with her husband, Stuart.
Lionel Leventhal is a British publisher of books on military history and related topics, whose eponymous company was established in 1967.
Cassava Republic Press is a steering African book publishing company established in Nigeria in 2006 and headed by Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, with a focus on affordability, the need to find and develop local talent, and to publish African writers too often celebrated only in Europe and America. Cassava Republic's stated mission is "to change the way we all think about African writing. (...) to build a new body of African writing that links writers across different times and spaces." The publishing house is considered to be "at the centre of a thriving literary scene" that has seen Nigerian writers in particular, as well as writers from elsewhere on the African continent, having considerable success both at home and internationally. ThisDay newspaper has stated of the publishing house that "it is credited with innovation. From driving down the cost of books to using digital media to drive sales, Cassava has invariably sought to redefine the African narrative."
Atria Publishing Group is a general interest publisher and a division of Simon & Schuster. The publishing group launched as Atria Books in 2002. The Atria Publishing Group was later created internally at Simon & Schuster to house a number of imprints including Atria Books, Atria Trade Paperbacks, Atria Books Espanol, Atria Unbound, Washington Square Press, Emily Bestler Books, Atria/Beyond Words, Cash Money Content, Howard Books, Marble Arch Press, Strebor Books, 37 Ink, Keywords Press and Enliven Books. Atria is also known for creating innovative imprints and co-publishing deals with African-American writers as well as known for experimenting with digital or non-traditional print formats and authors.
Book fairs and literary festivals are held throughout South Africa each year to promote literacy among children and adults. A country's literacy rate is often a key social indicator of development. In 2005, UNESCO Institute for Statistics reported a literacy rate of 94.37% among the population aged 15 years and older. The literacy rate among the male population in this age group was 95.4% and 93.41 for female counterparts. According to Statistics South Africa, functional illiteracy among those aged 20 years or older, was recorded at 15.4% in 2005. This has improved from 2002's 27.3%. Women are more likely to be functionally illiterate across all age groups, apart from those aged between 20 and 39 years old.
Jacaranda Books is a Black-owned British independent book publishing firm launched in 2012 and known for their effort promoting diversity in United Kingdom's publishing industry.
The Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) are publishers' and literary awards held by the Australian Publishers Association annually in Sydney "to celebrate the achievements of authors and publishers in bringing Australian books to readers". Works are first selected by an academy of more than 200 industry professionals, and then a shortlist and winners are chosen by judging panels.
Bookshop.org is an online book marketplace launched in January 2020. Its stated mission is "to financially support local, independent bookstores."
Sharna Jackson is a British writer of children's fiction. She is the author of a mystery series, aimed at middle-grade readers, featuring Nik and Norva, a pair of black sisters, who solve crimes on an estate, the Tri Estate, in South London. Jackson is also an influential curator in the arts, including working with Tate, Victoria and Albert Museum and Design museum in London, and working as artistic director for Site Gallery in Sheffield from July 2018 to November 2020, engaging children in developing digital initiatives in the arts.
David Shelley is a British publisher who is Chief Executive Officer of Hachette UK, the second-largest trade publisher, with divisions including Hodder & Stoughton, Orion, Headline, John Murray, and Little, Brown. Shelley is also Vice-President of the executive board of the Publishers' Association. He began his publishing career at the age of 23 working as an editorial assistant at the independent company Allison and Busby, founded in 1967 by Clive Allison and Margaret Busby, and after five years running the company he moved on to become editorial director of Little, Brown in 2005, publisher at Sphere in 2007, then in 2009 Deputy Publisher at Little, Brown, and Publisher there in 2011. Shelley oversees Hachette's inclusion initiative, "Changing the Story", which he founded in 2016.
Elle McNicoll is a Scottish and British bestselling children's literature writer. McNicoll has been described as "undoubtedly an outstanding new talent in children's books [who] will inspire readers young and old for generations to come".
A Kind of Spark is a middle grade novel by Elle McNicoll, published on 4 June 2020, by Knights of Media. The book follows Addie, "an autistic 11-year-old [who] seeks to memorialize the women once tried as witches in her Scottish village." The book was commissioned as a 2023 CBBC television adaptation, with McNicoll acting as head writer for the series