Shetland literature has a short history. Or, more accurately, the long history of Shetland literature has been truncated — the result of a double disadvantage, as far as official histories are concerned: an oral culture, in which few people could read or write, and a language that died out before literacy became widespread.The Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland would once have been rich in songs, poems and stories, spoken and sung in Norn (the closest extant relative of which is Faroese). But after Shetland became part of Scotland, in the late fifteenth century, the language was gradually replaced by a distinctive local variant of Scots. And by the time cultural collectors began to take an interest in such things, a few hundred years later, Norn was pretty much gone. Only a single full-length ballad, ‘Hildina’, was ever transcribed.Romanticising the pastWhen writers from Shetland did begin to publish their work, in the early nineteenth century, the islands were already being written about by authors from elsewhere. Most significantly, Walter Scott used the islands as the setting for his 1822 novel The Pirate, in which he imagined a rather glamorous version of Shetland’s history, with a particular emphasis on its Norse heritage. That portrayal, by one of the world’s most famous authors, was influential, but it also highlights a conundrum for writers in the islands: A romanticised, exoticised depiction of Shetland may be more appealing to readers than one that shows the... Continue reading at 'British Council global'
[ British Council global | 2020-02-13 12:54:04 UTC ]
Mirror Books has acquired worldwide rights from The Can Group to Christine McGuinness' first book A Beautiful Nightmare. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-18 11:33:49 UTC ]
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As she releases her memoir "All In," tennis icon Billie Jean King discusses her career, her causes and "living truthfully." Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-08-17 13:00:35 UTC ]
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Fiona Sampson’s biography reads like a thriller, a memoir and a provocative piece of literary fiction. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-08-17 12:00:00 UTC ]
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“Don’t Forget Us Here,” by Mansoor Adayfi with Antonio Aiello, is the memoir of a Yemeni man who claims he was kidnapped in Afghanistan, sold to the C.I.A. and sent to the detention camp in a case of mistaken identity. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-08-17 09:00:05 UTC ]
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In 2008, I published my first book, Please Excuse My Daughter, a memoir about my mother and me and how I grew up, and it dipped a little into my mother’s family’s history, which was rich and interesting. Her mother’s uncle, Sam Golding, developed the neighborhood of Rego Park in Queens during... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-08-16 08:49:26 UTC ]
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Yellow Kite has signed Hope is Coming, Louise Blyth’s “extraordinarily powerful” memoir of grief, gratitude and enlightenment. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-16 07:57:45 UTC ]
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In “I Live a Life Like Yours,” Jan Grue, a Norwegian professor, writes of living with a rare form of spinal muscular atrophy. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-08-15 09:00:03 UTC ]
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I was called aggressive for criticising passages in Kate Clanchy’s memoir. But the real problem lies deep in the overwhelmingly white world of publishingIt started with a tweet. Kate Clanchy, author of Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me posted on her Twitter account that a reviewer on... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-08-13 13:51:20 UTC ]
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Icon has landed journalist and debut author Marianne Eloise's memoir of life with obsessive compulsive disorder and autism. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-11 20:18:23 UTC ]
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Headline will publish the memoir of Tarana Burke, the founder and activist behind the "Me Too" movement. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-11 20:11:16 UTC ]
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The “Saturday Night Live” comedian’s “This Will All Be Over Soon” looks back at her beloved cousin’s cancer diagnosis and death. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-08-11 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Yesterday morning, Rita Glavin—an attorney for Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, who has vigorously defended her client (including in a fifty-one-minute live interview on CNN) since a state report concluded that he sexually harassed eleven women—came out swinging again in a virtual... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2021-08-11 12:45:23 UTC ]
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Hollywood. It’s one of those locations—it’s hard, somehow, to call it a concrete place—that conjures up all sorts of archetypes: the ruined writer, egomaniacal director, sleazy executive, out-of-control star. In writing my memoir Always Crashing in The Same Car—a book with elements of criticism,... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-08-11 11:00:00 UTC ]
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The pandemic memoir “American Crisis” has become a financial and ethical headache for Penguin Random House, dragging the company into the scandals that prompted the governor’s resignation announcement. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-08-10 22:21:07 UTC ]
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Poet and teacher has apologised for ‘overreacting’ to scrutiny of book’s portrayals of autistic pupils and children of colourKate Clanchy is rewriting her critically acclaimed memoir after widespread criticism of her portrayal of her pupils, particularly children of colour and autistic... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-08-10 18:58:54 UTC ]
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In “Blind Man’s Bluff,” James Tate Hill opens up about the measures he took to avoid admitting that he had lost his eyesight. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-08-05 09:00:03 UTC ]
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She took the music seriously at a time when not many writers did. Among her books was a memoir of her life with one of its biggest stars, Jim Morrison. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-08-04 22:08:44 UTC ]
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Canongate has landed Time on Rock, an outdoor climbing guide and memoir of self-discovery by Anna Fleming. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-04 21:31:00 UTC ]
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Claire Wilcox has won the PEN Ackerley Prize 2021 for her "vivid" memoir Patch Work: A Life Amongst Clothes (Bloomsbury). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-04 21:28:36 UTC ]
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In his memoir about being drafted into the Vietnam War, Jeff Danziger lays bare the futility and waste, as well as his own naiveté. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2021-08-03 20:35:22 UTC ]
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