When I first joined a workshop in 1994, American literary fiction was dominated by and continually lauded a “quiet” kind of writer, one often influenced by J.D. Salinger, Ernest Hemingway, or Raymond Carver. I loved literary fiction—I’d been reading, writing, and submitting it since high school. But what nagged at the corners of my mind […] The post 12 Books That Prove the Literary/Genre Distinction is Bogus appeared first on Electric Literature. Continue reading at 'Electric Literature'
[ Electric Literature | 2019-08-16 11:00:22 UTC ]
In They Said They Wanted Revolution: A Memoir of My Parents, Iranian American author and Vice journalist Neda Toloui-Semnani reconstructed the story of her parents as young, leftist Iranian activists radicalized at Berkeley in the late ’60s and who came to see communism as the political answer... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2022-02-08 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
I have always held a keen interest toward the processes of myth formation and how beliefs about family identity are handed down through generations. My debut novel Defenestrate tells the story of a family in the midst of reckoning with superstition and inheritance, the long-held beliefs that can... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2022-01-31 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
A nonbinary teenager on their way home from an eating -disorder treatment center who tries to convince a stranger she is not a vampire, an aspiring fashion designer/dry-cleaning worker who develops an obsession with a customer, a community of people with Hansen’s disease that welcome and attempt... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2022-01-27 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
At Electric Literature, Diane Cooke speaks to Jessamine Chan about The School for Good Mothers, Chan’s incisive debut novel that revolves around how a young mother’s error lands her in a government reform program and at risk of losing custody of her child. They discuss one of Chan’s main... Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2022-01-18 21:30:56 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The ’90s are back, as if they could ever truly peace out. Between Fear Street and Captain Marvel and the Alanis Morissette musical, the last mostly-offline decade is getting a gargantuan nostalgia polish. For my memoir Sticker—an exploration of my childhood in Charlottesville, Virginia via 20... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2022-01-14 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The Asian American women writers in this reading list explore the existential. They seek to do anything but simplify. They live with and write through some very dense, tangled complexities, even mysteries. Some, perhaps many, unsolvable, with wounds that perhaps cannot be closed, not in this... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2022-01-03 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
For those of us who want to become real writers—whatever that means—the countless resources available can feel a bit dry and uninspired, ranging from tired but true clichés to well-lauded craft books (Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir on Craft sits dustily on my shelf). Many of us find... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-12-31 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The celebrity cookbook is a curious genre: its essential premise is that a person who is famous for something other than cooking can, on the basis of that fame, also teach us how to cook. At the same time, it’s a tried-and-true publishing gambit: Gwyneth Paltrow and Stanley Tucci are following... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-12-23 12:05:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Spanning dreamy teenagers to furious parents, violence to kindness, each of the ten short stories in Five Tuesdays in Winter is rendered with Lily King’s signature longing and wit. We are all learning to carry our grief, this collection argues, yet still hoping to scrape together a few more... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-12-21 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
A few years ago, I found myself a bit tipsy at the National Book Award ceremony. It was my first—and so far, only—time there. The experience felt grand; it was a red-carpeted “benefit dinner” on Wall Street. People wore tuxedos and gowns. I couldn’t look around the room without seeing a writer I... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-12-20 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
When it comes to great novels, this year felt like an embarrassment of riches. The books collected here are ambitious—in intellect, in scope, in subject matter, and in size. Some are perfect encapsulations of the unique problems of our time, while others illuminate the human threads that connect... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-12-16 12:05:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Lee Lai’s Stone Fruit is the kind of book that stays with you. Since I finished reading it, the graphic novel has been lingering in the corners of my mind, sticky and sweet as a nectarine. It’s a book about family, breakups, queerness, childhood, sisters, and healing, but most of all, Stone... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-12-09 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Little A, the literary fiction and non-fiction imprint of Amazon Publishing, has acquired a "powerful" memoir by Paul Burston, founder of the Polari Prize, the UK’s first and largest LGBTQ+ book award. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-12-09 09:18:56 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Last week, the Electric Lit team stayed glued to our phone screens as we tasked our social media followers with anointing the best book cover of 2021. The tournament was full of close calls determined by razor-thin margins (Mona at Sea prevailed over Black Girl Call Home by just five votes in... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-12-06 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Back by popular demand, Electric Literature is hosting our second annual “Best Book Cover of the Year” tournament, where readers determine which cover designs impressed in 2021. Just as the Italian Renaissance was born of the bubonic plague, will covid’s enduring grasp on society inspire... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-11-29 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Here are Libro.fm's top 10 bestselling audiobooks of 2021, including book club picks, mysteries, memoirs, nonfiction, and literary fiction. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-11-18 15:24:26 UTC ]
More news stories like this
It was just a rumor, but a persistent one. Whispers in the halls of the DC Comics offices; buzz among fans as they gathered at annual conventions. That the legendary Alan Moore, writer and creator of From Hell and V for Vendetta, had written another masterpiece, something no one had ever seen.... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-11-17 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Monica Ali, Jennifer Egan and Laline Paull were among those headlining the Little, Brown Literary Fiction Spring Showcase 2022. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-11-11 16:38:57 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Take a kaleidoscope, peer inside its lens and turn the dial: the jeweled-mosaic pattern within deforms and reforms anew. Asako Serizawa mirrored her debut short story collection Inheritors after this complex design. Out of chronological sequence, the thirteen short stories locate twelve related... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-11-11 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Over the past few years, there’s been a lot of heated discourse surrounding a trend in book covers in which many new releases opt for variations of the same colorful abstractions: The Blob. Somehow deemed appropriate for everything from dystopian debuts to literary fiction bestsellers, these... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-11-05 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this