A Bite of the Apple by Lennie Goodings – essential literary memoir

The Virago publisher is eloquent and inspiring on writing – but her memoir lacks grit and gossipLennie Goodings has had a long and highly respected career in publishing. She is chair of Virago Press, the pioneering publishing house that champions women’s writing. She’s been with Virago since the 1980s and A Bite of the Apple is an account of the company’s journey from punkish upstart to literary stalwart. It’s also – more juicily – about her experiences as an editor working with authors including Sarah Waters, Maya Angelou, Margaret Atwood and Sarah Dunant.For the historical lead-in, Goodings maintains a careful, stately tone, like the voiceover in a prestigious BBC period drama about ladies: The House of Elliot, but for books. The story is one of artistry, ambition, activism and a fierce desire to marry the three. Putting women’s lives, women’s stories and women’s words back into history requires work. A Bite of the Apple is about the women who did this work from the 1970s onwards, a time of huge activism around race, class and sex, when “women wanted a voice, women wanted to understand their history, women wanted to see themselves on the page… women wanted their share”. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2020-02-23 09:00:48 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "A Bite of the Apple by Lennie Goodings – essential literary memoir"


Belvoir's Tell Me I'm Here looks at the impact of mental illness on the whole family. It is a wrenching and beautiful work

Based on Anne Deveson’s 1991 memoir about her son’s experience with schizophrenia, this play can be achingly sad. But it also offers hope. Continue reading at The Conversation

[ The Conversation | 2022-08-26 01:01:35 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Michelle Tea’s memoir exposes the pain — and comedy — of infertility

"Knocking Myself Up," Michelle Tea’s "memoir of (in)fertility," will resonate across generations. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2022-08-25 12:00:17 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Chateaubriand on Writing Memoir between Two Societies

“It was an ‘I‘ of early days long gone who lived in these places, and that ‘I’ has already succumbed, for our days die before us.” Continue reading at The Paris Review

[ The Paris Review | 2022-08-22 15:42:39 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Jared Kushner memoir chronicles frustrations of negotiating trade deal with Canada

A memoir by Jared Kushner chronicles U.S. frustrations in negotiating a trade deal with Canada. It offers a peek into historic talks and insists there was method to the madness of his father-in-law, Donald Trump. But it sidesteps more disturbing... Continue reading at CBC

[ CBC | 2022-08-20 08:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Don’t Judge I’m Glad My Mom Died by Its Title

The actor Jennette McCurdy’s memoir is a confessional feat that asks what, if anything, adult children owe an abusive parent. Continue reading at The Atlantic

[ The Atlantic | 2022-08-19 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


This Week's Bestsellers: August 22, 2022

Former child star Jennette McCurdy has the #5 book in the country with the memoir 'I'm Glad My Mom Died.' Plus director Michael Mann writes a sequel to 1995's 'Heat,' and the Netflix adaptation of Neil Gaiman's 'The Sandman" drops. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-08-19 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Book Deals: Week of August 22, 2022

Former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu sells an autobiography to Simon & Schuster, Gallery Books takes a memoir by ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-08-19 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


A Former Nickelodeon Star’s Memoir Has Become the Summer’s Big Hit Book. It’s Very Clear Why.

I’m Glad My Mom Died details the abuse the iCarly actor suffered as a child star. Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2022-08-18 20:31:47 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Watch the trailer for Tegan and Sara’s High School and fuel your inner indie teenage angst.

TEGAN AND SARA TRAILER DROP, TEGAN AND SARA TRAILER DROP—this is not a drill! If you clicked on this, you’re probably well aware that the beloved sister indie pop duo published a memoir in 2019 called High School. Amazon Freevee (boo) is adapting it into a TV show (yay) starring Railey and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-08-18 16:25:50 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Why is it so hard to talk about marriage?

Elizabeth Crane's new memoir is an excavation of a 15-year union that proves just how hard it is to talk about marriage, even when it's your own. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-08-18 13:00:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Here are the meanest lines from the Times review of Jared Kushner’s book.

The first major review for Breaking History—odious lickspittle Jared Kushner’s memoir about his tenure at the Trump White House—has dropped, and it is a doozy. Published by Broadside Books (a lamentable neocon imprint of Harper Collins which boasts a stable full of prize grievance ponies like... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-08-17 15:19:36 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Review: 'Edie came from California': A Sedgwick sister on the original influencers, Edie and Andy

Alice Sedgwick Wohl's 'As It Turns Out,' on power duo Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick, is not a memoir but an investigation of a cultural obsession. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-08-17 13:00:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Jennette McCurdy opens up child stardom in her memoir I'm Glad My Mom Died

Jennette McCurdy's memoir I'm Glad My Mom Died has garnered attention for both its shocking title and her relationship with her abusive mother Debra. Continue reading at CBC

[ CBC | 2022-08-16 14:00:59 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Messy and Honest Is My Memoir M.O.

In Knocking Myself Up: A Memoir of My (In)Fertility, Michelle Tea chronicles her path to pregnancy and motherhood as a 40-year-old, queer, uninsured woman. The tone is irreverent, the storytelling is hilarious, and the topic—choosing to exercise one’s reproductive freedoms—is extremely timely.... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2022-08-15 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


I could not believe how bravely Salman Rushdie faced the threats to his life. That’s true courage | Hadley Freeman

In our conversations and emails, his determination to not let the fatwa define him has been evidentThat Salman Rushdie was nearly murdered at an event in New York while talking about whether the United States was a safe haven for exiled writers is an irony he’d have rejected as too far-fetched... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2022-08-14 12:39:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


How Should Feminists Have Sex Now?

A new memoir on the unfinished sexual revolution explores the difficulty of enacting one’s political beliefs in intimate spaces. Continue reading at The Atlantic

[ The Atlantic | 2022-08-14 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Lit Hub Weekly: August 8-12, 2022

Meeting language at its most elemental place: Belinda Huijuan Tang reflects on re-learning Chinese. | Lit Hub Memoir What do animals understand about death? | Lit Hub Science “When people try too hard to pin it down, they often ruin everything that makes poetry magical.” Chris Martin on poetry,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-08-13 10:30:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this


‘The Man Who Could Move Clouds’ is a memoir full of magic

Ingrid Rojas Contreras tells the story of her grandfather Rafael Contreras Alfonso, a Colombian healer with otherworldly gifts. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2022-08-11 14:57:38 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Ingrid Rojas Contreras on Unraveling Her Memoir (and Listening to Her Mother)

Ingrid Rojas Contreras is the author of the memoir The Man Who Could Move Clouds, available from Doubleday. Subscribe and download the episode, wherever you get your podcasts!  From the episode: Brad Listi: I want to hear you talk about creative strategies that you undertook to overcome... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-08-10 08:50:58 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Book Review: “Mothercare,” by Lynne Tillman

Lynne Tillman’s taut memoir of caring for an aging parent runs an emotional gamut. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2022-08-08 19:30:06 UTC ]
More news stories like this