Amitav Ghosh, one of India’s best-known writers, talks about his recent book 'Sea of Poppies', which has been shortlisted for the 2008 Man Booker Prize.

The shortlist for the Guardian First Book Award 2009, in association with Waterstone’s, has been decided. The shortlisted books are:

This 50th issue is a special one and one of the special things is an extra featured book

The Lighted Rooms by Richard Mason

Go to Features Page to see what Melissa has to say about life, books and embarrassing moments.

The shortlist for the Guardian First Book Award 2009, in association with Waterstone’s, has been decided. The shortlisted books are:

In September I went to the glittering offices of my publishers, Random House, to meet Reina James so that we could interview each other for New Books Magazine. When the idea was first mooted I thought, who is this Reina James, must be some chicklitter I've never heard of? Then while I was in Ibiza a book arrived direct from a publisher with no covering letter which I assumed had been sent to me to review. It was only a fortnight later

Alison Glinn reveals your chosen winner – along with a complete top ten of this year’s picks

Celebrating Sanctuary, the annual festival which celebrates the work of refugee artists in London and the UK, is pleased to announce that Book Slam will be bringing a vibrant literary strand, produced especially for the 2008 National Year of Reading, to this year's festival to be held on Sunday, 15 June 2008, 2 - 7pm, at Bernie Spain Gardens, Upper Ground, South Bank, London SE1 (adjacent to Oxo Tower Wharf; nearest train/tube: Blackfriars, Southwark, Waterloo). Admission is free.

Sathnam Sanghera Wins Mind Book Award

Sathnam Sanghera has won the Mind Awards Book of the Year for

The Boy with the Topknot

A memoir of coming of age in 1980s Britain, it tells how, while balancing his life with the expectations of his traditionalist Punjabi parents, his world changed after a discovery about his family's mental health.

Read on for the six authors on the shortlist