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23.
July
2020.
News: Hashtag Press win Publisher of the Year & Non-Fiction Awards

Press Release London, United Kingdom, 23rdJuly 2020

 

Hashtag Press named Publisher of the Year and wins the non-fiction category in the 2020 People's Book Prize

 

Press Release: Female-led, Kent and London-based, independent publishing house Hashtag Press (www.hashtagpress.co.uk) scooped the Publisher of the Year Award in the 11thPeople's Book Prize this evening. Helen Lewis and Abiola Bello celebrated their success alongside their author, Jessica Taylor-Bearman, whose bestselling memoir about being diagnosed with M.E. as a teen and spending four years in hospital, won the Non-Fiction Prize.

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Recognised for its passion for diversity and inclusion in publishing, Hashtag Press proudly had four books in the finals across the three categories. Emily Knight I am... Awakened by A. Bello (children's), Ticking Off Breast Cancer by Sara Liyanage and A Girl Behind Dark Glasses by Jessica Taylor-Bearman (non-fiction) and Pivotal by Nikki Vallance (fiction).

The prize for A Girl Behind Dark Glasses comes at a brilliant time, as the publishing house gears up to release the sequel - A Girl In One Room - in January 2021. A Special Edition version of A Girl Behind Dark Glasses was released earlier this month and is available to buy in bookshops and online now.

Helen Lewis says: "It is the most amazing feeling to know that all the hard graft of the past four years, starting a publishing house at such a difficult and competitive time, with no investors or in-house publishing experience, is finally paying off. We are grateful to every person who has bought a Hashtag Press book, every bookseller and librarian who has chosen to stock one of our 20+ titles and every author who has worked with us. I am proud of Sara Liyanage, Nikki Vallance, A. Bello and Jessica Taylor-Bearman for being finalists." 

Abiola Bello says: "I'm gutted I didn't win the children's fiction prize, but I couldn't be prouder of Jessica and our publishing house winning! The timing of this award is perfect. We cannot wait to reveal the next exciting steps that we've been working on behind the scenes over the past year, including the release of some amazing books and the first three under our new imprint for under-represented voices - Hashtag BLAK. Thank you to everyone who voted for us and our books!"

 

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Notes to editors

Helen Lewis and Abiola Bello are available for media interviews.

info@literallypr.com

www.hashtagpress.co.uk

@Hashtag_Press

For more on Jessica Taylor-Bearman:

Twitter:https://twitter.com/jayletay

https://twitter.com/DarkGlassesBook

Website:http://www.jaytay.co.uk

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/AGirlBehindDarkGlasses/