12 Books That Prove the Literary/Genre Distinction is Bogus

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 ]

Other news stories related to: "12 Books That Prove the Literary/Genre Distinction is Bogus"

Our 15 Most-Read Posts Of All Time

Fifteen years ago, Electric Literature started as a print and digital quarterly journal during the glory days of the print magazine era. Our very first issue surpassed 10,000 copies in sales, we were stocked in newsstands and bookstores, and as an e-book. We were one of the first to publish... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-09-27 11:10:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

All the times Sally Rooney was saner than Book Media.

It’s delightful, on the one hand, to have a feverish Book Event. I’m as excited as anyone that we’re doing midnight release parties for literary fiction in the year of our lord 2024. That said, we need to talk about the Rooneyverse. This week, we’re getting a novel—Intermezzo—from Sally Rooney,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-09-23 13:55:56 UTC ]
More news stories like this

7 Small Press Books About Motherhood You Might Have Missed

When I started to write about motherhood a decade ago, the topic still carried a tinge of shame. Writers tended to fear motherhood would push them into some unsightly box, as if they’d succumbed to something less serious than the laudable material of their (non-mothering) peers. In the Los... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-09-18 11:05:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Exclusive Cover Reveal of “When the Harvest Comes” by Denne Michele Norris

Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover of When the Harvest Comes by editor-in-chief Denne Michele Norris, which will be published by Random House on April 15, 2025. You can pre-order your copy here. In this heart-wrenching debut novel, a young Black gay man reckoning with the death... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-09-18 11:04:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Tracy O’Neill’s Mid-Pandemic Search for Her Birth Mother Became A Globe-Trotting Memoir

Tracy O’Neill’s Woman of Interest is a quest memoir: a voyage there and back, out and in. The book recounts the author’s search for her birth mother during the frightening heights of covid, “a pandemic that had miniaturized life.” Enlisting the help of a PI named Joe, a former CIA operative,... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-09-13 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

In “Brothers and Ghosts,” a Vietnamese Diaspora Family Cannot Escape Their Generational Wounds

At the beginning of Khuê Phạm’s debut novel Brothers and Ghosts, translated by Charles Hawley and Daryl Lindsey, the narrator makes a confession: “I don’t know how to pronounce my own name.” It’s not something you hear often and something unimaginable for many. But for Kiều, the young Vietnamese... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-09-10 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Tim O'Connell Takes the Reigns at Saga Press

O’Connell comes to Saga from the flagship Simon & Schuster imprint, for which he will continue to acquire literary fiction and select nonfiction. Joe Monti, who founded Saga in 2015, has been promoted to VP, associate publisher, and editorial director. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-09-10 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

We’re Turning 15 And We’re Throwing Our Readers a Party

We’re celebrating our 15th birthday, which makes us about as old as Poe would have been in literary magazine years. In honor of this glorious milestone, we’re throwing a party! Join our esteemed hosts, Emma Copley Eisenberg, Vanessa Chan, Deesha Philyaw, and Clare Sestanovich, as well as EL... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-09-06 11:15:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Exclusive Cover Reveal of “Sky Daddy” by Kate Folk

Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover of Sky Daddy by Kate Folk, which will be published by Random House on April 08, 2025. You can pre-order your copy here. Cross the jet bridge with Linda, a frequent flyer with a dangerous obsession, in this hilarious and provocative debut novel... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-09-05 11:03:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

For Ledia Xhoga, “What If…” Became a Debut Novel

Ledia Xhoga’s debut novel Misinterpretation opens with the unnamed narrator, a translator from Albania, accepting an assignment to interpret for a Kosovar torture survivor named Alfred. Elements of Alfred’s story map onto her own family’s experience, and the narrator becomes all-consumed by his... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-09-04 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

How 10 Days Off-Roading in Mexico Helped Me Navigate A Shifting Publishing Landscape

Except for a brief period, a few years ago. My wheels had finally found the ruts of a writer’s path: I had a viral essay and New York Times bylines. I had kneeled before Poets & Writers with a writing book and been tapped by their sword on my shoulder, included on their Best Books […] The... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-09-03 11:10:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Exclusive Cover Reveal of “Better” by Arianna Rebolini

Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover of Better: A Memoir About Wanting to Die, the debut memoir by Arianna Rebolini, which will be published by Harper on April 29, 2025. You can pre-order your copy here. After a decade of therapy and a stint in a psychiatric ward to treat suicidal... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-08-29 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Esmeralda Santiago Felt Invisible in Mainland United States, So She Wrote Herself Into Existence

Esmeralda Santiago’s book When I Was Puerto Rican debuted 30 years ago. This memoir introduced us to Negi (Santiago), a pre-teen with a captivating voice who chronicles her life in rural Puerto Rico in the 1950s. In Santiago’s own words, the memoir captures a world that no longer exists in... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-08-28 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Martha Baillie on the Ethics of Making Literature From a Loved One’s Suffering

In all of Martha Baillie’s books you can feel her sister. Her words offer a portal to the multiplistic experiences of existence—to understand better how cut off we can be from each other and where true connection flickers too. This year, Baillie’s memoir There is No Blue was published by Granta... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-08-23 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

More Than One Life: A Conversation with Lyn Coffin, by Alaaeldin Mahmoud

More Than One Life: A Conversation with Lyn Coffin, by Alaaeldin Mahmoud Interviews [email protected] Mon, 08/19/2024 - 14:53 Lyn Coffin / Photo by Irmaguru / WikimediaDescribed by Iron Twine Press as “the most accomplished writer most Americans... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2024-08-19 19:53:51 UTC ]
More news stories like this

9 Books About Haunted Asian Girls

Though they’ve been icons of cinema for a while—see: Sadako, Shutter—it’s taken English literature a little longer to catch up to Asian women front and centre in stories of ghosts and horror. The prevalence of female ghosts across Asia has always interested me: how often their origin is rooted... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-08-16 11:05:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

The International Indie Publishing Houses Shaking Up the Book World

Contemporary literature is one of those four-dimensional things that seem to expand whenever you take a closer look. No one really knows more than a corner of it, perhaps a very large one, but a corner nevertheless. This quality, this mercuriality, of literature makes it more endless than any... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-08-16 11:05:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

8 Books Reimagining the Monstrous Women of Mythology and History

In the first drafts of my debut novel Medusa, I was consumed by the idea of what it meant to be a monster in a story you didn’t control. Medusa is one of the most recognizable monsters of Greek mythology, with the writhing mass of snakes for hair and the turning people to stone with […] The post... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-08-12 11:05:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this

Suzanne Scanlon’s Memoir Confronts the Stories We Don’t Tell About Women and Madness

Suzanne Scanlon’s book, Committed: A Memoir of Finding Meaning in Madness, is a memoir unlike any I’ve read. Scanlon returns to the landscape of the past, reflecting on her experience of being committed in the New York State Psychiatric Hospital while a student at Barnard in the late 1990s.... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-07-23 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this