Saturday, April 25, 2015

Fantasy author Alan Garner celebrated in new tribute, First Light

Philip Pullman, Margaret Atwood and Stephen Fry will write tributes to the author in a crowdfunded anthology marking his 80th birthday and his abiding influence on their work. 

‘The most important British writer of fantasy since Tolkien’ ... Alan Garner.

‘The most important British writer of fantasy since Tolkien’ ... Alan Garner. Photograph: Eamonn McCabe for the Guardian
For Philip Pullman, Alan Garner is “the most important British writer of fantasy since Tolkien”; for Rowan Williams, Garner is the author of one of “the most explosively powerful narratives” he has ever read. Pullman and Williams will be joined by Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, Helen Macdonald and Stephen Fry to celebrate the author of The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (1960) and Red Shift (1973), in a crowdfunded anthology marking his 80th birthday and his abiding influence on their work.

Edited by the literary journalist and novelist Erica Wagner, First Light will be published by Unbound, a crowdfunding publisher that enables readers to pledge money in support of a proposed title, with the book written and printed once its target is reached. Contributors, who also include the acclaimed writers David Almond, Susan Cooper, Robert Macfarlane and Ali Smith, as well as artists, archaeologists and historians, will write tributes to Garner’s “far-reaching influence”, said Wagner, whether this is in the form of “a literary essay or a personal response to Alan’s work, a memory of the time they first read his work, or a story about the man himself”.
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