Russell Hoban Info, incl. Feb. 4, 2012 plans for his birthday--

Celebrating 10 years of SA4QE

On 4 February 2012 the Slickman A4 Quotation Event celebrates 10 years of sharing Russell Hoban quotes! What are YOU doing to celebrate?

Take the SA4QE 2012 Russell Hoban Survey

russell hoban news

Our dear friend Russell Hoban passed away on 13 December 2011. He was 86. There are more details in this blog post.

Sign the book of condolence


Before his death Russell Hoban completed the young-adult book Soonchild. There are more details and an extract at the Head of Orpheus site. Illustrated by Alexis Deacon, the book is due to be published by Walker Books on 1 March 2012. Walker tweeted nice photos of Russ and Alexis at their offices in January 2011 and the official blog of the San Diego State University's Children's Literature Department posted the proposed cover art in April.

See all blog posts tagged "Russell Hoban news"

SA4QE 2011

Russell Hoban turned 86 on 4 February 2011 and fans celebrated in traditional style by leaving quotes from his books in public places. Browse their quotes here. The Russell Hoban community group The Kraken sent Russ a birthday gift of The Kraken Rum. Read a report about this at the Fantastic Reads blog.

2010-2011 activity

Between late 2010 and early 2011 Russell Hoban took part in an almost unprecedented number of media activities to promote his new book Angelica Lost and Found and the 30th anniversary of his most famous novel, Riddley Walker. SA4QE blogged about all of these events and this site contains some exclusive content from them:

On 16 October 2010 Russ made an appearance in London at the Serpentine Map Marathon event - SA4QE has an exclusive transcript of the interview and pictures and the Serpentine Gallery posted a full video in June 2011.

On 22 November 2010 Russ took part in a live interview about Riddley Walker in London for the Guardian Book Club series - the evening was fascinating, entertaining and a sell-out. SA4QE has a full report and pictures and an exclusive video clip while you can hear an edited version of the event on the Guardian podcast.

Riddley Walker was the Guardian Review's Book Club book from 13/11/10 to 4/12/10 - here are links to the articles:
Week One 13/11: John Mullan on reconstructed language
Week Two 20/11: John Mullan on catastrophe
Week Three 27/11: Russell Hoban on how being friends with his head powered the writing
Week Four 4/12: John Mullan on readers' responses

On 15 February 2011 Russ took part in a brilliant conversation with Will Self at the British Library about Riddley Walker; SA4QE has a full multimedia report including a transcript, photos and a video of Self reading a classic passage from the book.

Walker Books tweeted a photo of Russ meeting with Quentin Blake on a new, as yet unnamed project in July 2011, although following Russ's death we don't know how far that project progressed.

Between 29 September and 16 October 2011 the Trouble Puppet Theatre Company in Austin, Texas staged a version of Riddley Walker. Russell Hoban was supportive of the production. Details can be found on the Trouble Puppet site. There is currently talk of the show touring to other venues in the US.

Still available - the 2005 Russell Hoban Convention booklet

In 2005 the first international convention for Russell Hoban fans took place in London, and was marked by the publication of a fantastic 48-page booklet featuring exclusive contributions from innumerable fans and associates including novelist David Mitchell and actress Glenda Jackson. A wonderful memento of the event, it's also a beautiful collector's item and must-have for any Hoban fan. Although in limited supply, copies of the booklet are still available at £6.00 each plus p&p. Order direct from the Russell Hoban Some-Poasyum website.

Riddley Walker SA4QE special

To celebrate 30 years in print of Russell Hoban's most famous novel Riddley Walker, SA4QE broke with its February tradition and conducted an extraordinary SA4QE on 5 November 2010 in which participants shared their favourite quotes from the book. This site was updated throughout November 2010 with the quotes submitted.

images from sa4qe 2011

russell hoban in the news

• Russell Hoban dies at 86; prolific fantasy and children's author - Los Angeles Times - Tuesday, December 20, 2011
• RSC unveils Stratford 2012/13 winter season - Stage - Tuesday, January 10, 2012
• Quentin Blake is as large as life - Telegraph.co.uk - Thursday, January 12, 2012
• From "Bedtime for Frances" to "Riddley Walker," Russell Hoban won a small but ... - Salon - Wednesday, December 21, 2011
• A small work of genius - Sydney Morning Herald (blog) - Tuesday, December 27, 2011

russell hoban blog mentions

• Thankful Thursday–peckishness and “The Sorely Trying Day” by ... - Thursday, January 12, 2012 - twinklysparkles
• Russell Hoban. | nhr - Friday, December 16, 2011 - Eva Geertz
• Girl Detective - Russell Hoban - Saturday, December 31, 2011 - girldetective
• 'Frances' Creator Russell Hoban Has Died - GalleyCat - Thursday, December 15, 2011 - Maryann Yin
• Russell Hoban, 1925 - 2011 on Notebook | MUBI - Thursday, December 15, 2011 - unknown

SA4QE twitter feed

SA4QE

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sa4qe Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford (@theRSC) to stage Russell Hoban's Mouse and his Child 2012/13 http://t.co/bROjBJlu #RSCMouse 4 days ago · reply · retweet · favorite

sa4qe @AliB68 thank you :) 5 days ago · reply · retweet · favorite

sa4qe Delighted to see responses pouring into the Russell Hoban reader survey. If you've yet to take it, here's the link: http://t.co/VpCUtfqH 6 days ago · reply · retweet · favorite