Legend Press is an independent British book publisher founded in 2005 by Tom Chalmers, [1] specialising in original fiction, crime thrillers, and a Legend Classics series. In 2011, they were shortlisted for the Independent Publisher of the Year and their books have been longlisted and shortlisted for prizes including the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, Dylan Thomas Young Writer Prize, Historical Writers Awards and Costa Book Awards.
Legend Press is based in London and is part of the Legend Times Group. [2] The company has built a global sales and distribution network with the target of reaching readers in multiple formats across the world. In 2022 it moved its distribution to Macmillan Distribution [3]
In 2023 Legend Press announced a partnership with South African publisher Blackbird Books, with the aim of helping bring more African literary voices to a UK audience.
Tom Chalmers set-up Legend Press in 2005 aged 25 and have since expanded the company into the Legend Times group of publishing companies he has founded or acquired. [4] In March 2007, founder and Managing Director Tom Chalmers was shortlisted for the inaugural UK Young Publisher of the Year Award. [5]
In October 2007 Chalmers was shortlisted for the Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. The annual award is part of the Real Business/CBI Growing Business Awards. [6]
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Jackee Budesta Batanda is a Ugandan journalist, writer and entrepreneur. She is a senior managing partner with Success Spark Brand Limited, a communications and educational company, and a co-founder of Mastermind Africa Group Limited, a business-networking group. In 2006, Batanda worked as a peace writer at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego. She was later awarded a research fellowship at the highly competitive Justice in Africa fellowship Programme with the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2008. In 2010, Batanda was International Writer-in-Residence at the Housing Authors and Literature Denmark, where she commenced work on her novel, A Lesson in Forgetting. In 2012, she was also featured in The Times alongside 19 young women shaping the future of Africa. That same year she was also a finalist in the 2012 Trust Women journalism Awards. She has been writer-in-residence at Lancaster University in the UK. She was selected by the International Women's Media Foundation as the 2011–12 Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow. During the fellowship, she studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for International Studies and other Boston-area universities, and worked at The New York Times and The Boston Globe.
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