"More Dickens" competition (UK)

"To celebrate the bi-centenary of Charles Dickens' birth in 1812, the Dickens Fellowship and the English Association announce the More Dickens competition, to be first awarded in 2012. First prize of £500 will be awarded for an extended class project based on one of Dickens' works. The runner up will receive £250. The competition is open to classes of all ages in primary schools in the UK and can be completed at any time during 2011. Projects may link with regular literacy and numeracy work and include other areas of the curriculum, for example, art, geography, history, music, science. The judges will be looking for originality and lively outcomes, but are also very much interested in hearing about the teaching and learning processes that are part of everyday good practice"

2011 Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival (UK)

"The 2011 Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival runs from Saturday 2 to Sunday 10 April, and offers a wonderful range of talks, discussions, debates, readings, Literary Lunches and Dinners in the exceptional and beautiful surroundings of Christ Church and Corpus Christi and Merton Colleges - with many major events staged in The Sheldonian Theatre, The Bodleian Library and other prestigious venues.

The Festival reflects the great literary traditions of The University of Oxford, and its historic Colleges, as well as the contemporary reputation of its Departments and Institutes in every field of scholarship, research and enquiry.

Novelists, biographers, historians, poets, critics, politicians, soldiers, public servants, scientists, and medics will be joined by artists, philosophers, theologians, architects, engineers, botanists, environmentalists and children's writers.

The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival is widely acclaimed for its stimulating and provocative programme and the quality and fearlessness of its debates. This year we extend our series of major lectures and presentations at The Sheldonian Theatre, with World-class speakers, and have developed the Children's Festival under the direction of Nicolette Jones, Children's Editor of The Sunday Times.

But above all the unique feature of The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival is the warmth of the welcome for all who attend, and the opportunity for the general public to meet and mix with authors, writers and public figures, from breakfast in hallowed halls through lunch, tea or drinks in the Festival Marquee to nightcaps in bars, inns and hotels throughout the city"

Booker Prize Foundation to honour Beryl Bainbridge (UK)

"The late, much-loved novelist Dame Beryl Bainbridge was shortlisted five times for the Booker Prize, but never actually won. Despite many other literary accolades, the press's phrase - the 'Booker bridesmaid' - stuck. In her honour, the Booker Prize Foundation has created a special prize, The Man Booker Best of Beryl, and asks the public to consider which of her five shortlisted novels deserves the accolade. No author has ever been shortlisted as many times for the prize. Her shortlisted books were The Dressmaker (1973); The Bottle Factory Outing (1974); An Awfully Big Adventure (1990); Every Man for Himself (1996) and Master Georgie (1998) all of which are now published in paperback by Abacus"

Redwall author Brian Jacques dies aged 71 (UK)

"A former merchant sailor whose children's books sold millions worldwide has died aged 71. Brian Jacques' Redwall series of books were translated into 29 languages and sold 20m globally. He first wrote the series, set in an abbey populated by animals, for children at the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind in Liverpool. The Liverpool-born writer's weekly show, Jakestown, ran on BBC Radio Merseyside for more than 20 years. He died after a heart attack at the weekend and leaves a wife and two grown up sons"

Lightship Literary Competitions (UK)

"Lightship Publishing will publish literary fiction and poetry. To help fund our lists and discover new voices, we will run annual international writing contests: the Lightship International Short Story Prize, the Lightship International Poetry Prize, the Lightship International Flash Fiction Prize, and First Chapter. This is our inaugural year and we are absolutely thrilled to have writers, agents and editors of the highest calibre, Toby Litt, Kachi A. Ozumba, Jackie Kay, Tibor Fischer, Simon Trewin and Alessandro Gallenzi, as our respective judges in the 2010-2011 competitions. Experienced readers will assist the named judges in selecting the shortlists. Our named judges will select the winners"

Waterstone's Children's Book Prize 2011 winner (UK)

"The winner of this year's Waterstone's Children's Book Prize is Artichoke Hearts by Sita Brahmachari. It is an insightful, honest novel exploring the delicate balance, and often injustice, of life and death - but at its heart is a celebration of friendship, culture - and life"

Derek Walcott wins TS Eliot poetry prize

Caribbean poet Derek Walcott has won this year's prestigious TS Eliot Prize for Poetry for his latest collection, White Egrets. Walcott, 81, was up against several other well-known poets including Simon Armitage and Seamus Heaney. Judges' chair Anne Stevenson said the judges had found it difficult to choose a winner. But they concluded White Egrets "was a moving, risk-taking and technically flawless book by a great poet." The collection includes two poems written to Barack Obama. Walcott wins £15,000, while his fellow nominees pick up cheques for £1,000 each

BBC Year of Books 2011 (UK)

"The BBC has announced its Year of Books 2011 which will celebrate books and matters related by inviting audiences to free their imagination with a broad range of quality programmes. From established literary strands to new documentaries, readings, debates and dramas, the year will champion the power of books with a host of new programmes, as well as drawing upon the BBC's extensive literary archive and regular programming strands"

2010 Costa Book of the Year award winner

"Poet Jo Shapcott has won the 2010 Costa Book of the Year for her collection Of Mutability, her first new work in over a decade and in part influenced by her experience of breast cancer. In Of Mutability, Shapcott is found writing at her most memorable and bold. In a series of fresh, unflinching poems, she movingly explores mortality and the nature of change: in the body and the natural world, and in shifting relationships between people. By turns grave and playful, arresting and witty, the poems in Of Mutability celebrate each waking moment as though it might be the last and, in so doing, restore wonder to the smallest of encounters"

Royal Society of Literature announces masterclasses (UK)

"The Royal Society of Literature, in collaboration with the Booker Prize Foundation, has announced a series of masterclasses for 2011. The masterclasses will be given by four exceptional writers, two of whom - Ali Smith and William Boyd - have been previously shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and a third, Candia McWilliam, is a former judge. Also included in the programme is the award-winning British travel writer, novelist and President of the RSL, Colin Thubron. The masterclasses are open to members of the RSL and non-members. They offer a unique opportunity for both established writers and newcomers to writing to learn what it takes to become a successful writer and to have their work professionally critiqued"

Authors to lobby Scottish parliament on Save Our Libraries Day (UK)

"Gruffalo creator Julia Donaldson and fellow children's writer Julie Bertagna will be among a group of authors and illustrators protesting to the Scottish parliament about library closures north of the border this Saturday, the national Save Our Libraries Day. The cutbacks will hit the most vulnerable the hardest, warn the authors in a formal statement to be handed to the Edinburgh parliament. "The cuts to book budgets, library opening hours, mobile services, branches, and the drastic and unnecessary deletion of professional posts strike at those most in need of a library service and those least able to protest against the cuts in that service – the less affluent, the elderly, the frail, people who are challenged mentally and physically and their carers, those who look after babies and toddlers and, crucially, our children – who are our future," they say. Authors Theresa Breslin, Nicola Morgan, Gill Arbuthnott , Vivian French and Alan Temperley will also be among the protesters"