News from the world of books

Five things that happened in the world of books this week:

1. HarperCollins announced their plans for a Graduate Scheme specifically for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates to launch in May. This effort to ‘diversify’ comes after a series of articles and research into the ‘whitewashed’ publishing industry and how this affects the kind of literature it produces.

2. London Book Fair is underway and kicked off with seven figure sales of fiction books including Good Me, Bad Me, a debut thriller from Ali Land which follows the life of the daughter of a serial killer who has a new foster family.

3. Amazon has launched the Kindle Oasis at £269, its thinnest and lightest e-reader yet, “designed to feel weightless”.

4. The shortlist for the €100,000 Dublin Literary Award 2016, the world’s most valuable annual literary award, was announced with debut authors up against Marlon James, the Man Booker Prize Winner. Other contenders include Mary Costello and Scholastique Mukasonga.

5. Television network HBO is to shoot a new Fahrenheit 451 film adaption with Ramin Bahrani purportedly directing and screenwriting.