Renard Press bags Ann Morgan's celebration of 'the power of reading across cultures'

Renard Press has bagged Relearning to Read: Adventures in Not Knowing by Ann Morgan. 

Publisher Will Dady acquired world English rights directly from the author for publication. 

Relearning to Read follows from a year Morgan spent reading a book from every country which became the subject of a TED talk. The book "invites the reader to embrace the gaps in their knowledge in order to get more from books and other cultures". 

The publisher added: "Drawing on an approach to reading developed over more than a decade of interactions with stories and book-lovers around the world through the author’s hit blog ayearofreadingtheworld.com, the book puts not-knowing centre stage and plays with what examining the gaps in our understanding and the assumptions we use to plug them can teach us about ourselves and our world." 

Dady said: "I’ve long been in awe of Ann’s Reading the World project, and Relearning to Read really builds on her work there, celebrating the power of reading across cultures, and considering how important it is as readers to leave our baggage at the door. What a pleasure it is to be part of this extraordinary, empathetic project; and, though written in a playful, fun style, how timely – isn’t it absolutely vital, with international distrust rife and social media amplifying hate, to be building bridges across cultures, to aid understanding?" 

Morgan added: "Will Dady’s faith in the project from the moment he heard about it has been a huge encouragement. It has helped me take risks and follow my intuitions. As a result, I’ve been able to pour my heart and more than 10 years’ worth of interactions with book-lovers around the world into Relearning to Read, and dare to push my writing and thinking ever further. I’ve long said that indie presses are the heroes of the publishing industry. Now I am experiencing that for myself."