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 ]
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Pan Macmillan is the latest publisher to start offering creative writing tutoring. It will begin... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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One of the writers behind disaster-prone Spider-Man Broadway musical, Glen Berger, will reveal all in a "fly-on-the-wall" book. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2012-10-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A group of writers are quids in following an experiment to sell a bundle of DRM-free ebooks. Sales of The Humble Bundle, which included works from authors Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman and the much-loved xkcd comic strip, have been anything but humble, with over 84,000 bundles sold, earning the... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2012-10-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Australia's first major literary prize for women's writing, the Stella Prize, said to be... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-10-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Syrian writer Samar Yazbek, author of A Woman in the Crossfire (Haus Publishing), has been chosen... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-10-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Author JK Rowling has promised fans that her next published book will be for children. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2012-10-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pulitzer Prize-winner Junot Diaz, reporter David Finkel, and writer Dinaw Mengestu were honored by the MacArthur Foundation, each receiving a $500,000 grant. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-10-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Booksellers have become book writers for a popular science project from Icon Books. Icon’s... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-09-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When a man routinely hailed as one of America’s “greatest living writers” publishes a new novel, one hardly expects it to draw reviews posing questions along the lines of “Can he do it? Can he actually pull it off?” Because when you’re Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize winner, the act of writing a... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2012-09-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Throughout its 17-year history, Amazon has helped change the way that books are sold, the format in which they’re read and how they are published. Now it could change how they’re written. In addition to the Kindle Fire HD and the Kindle Paperwhite, Amazon introduced a subscription book format... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2012-09-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Kobo is to up the level of royalties self-published authors earn on its Writing Life platform by... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-08-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hamish Hamilton has signed up a novel from South American writer Daniel Galera, a... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-08-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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To him, the world was both subject and spectacle. Yet he remained, always, an author difficult to categorize.Gore Vidal, who died Tuesday night at age 86, was a fixture on the American cultural landscape for so long that it seems hard to imagine our literature without him. From 1946, when his... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-08-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Chen Guangcheng, whose nighttime escape and conflict with the Chinese government led to a diplomatic crisis for the United States last spring, is writing a memoir to be published next year. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2012-07-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The foundation behind a proposed museum honoring American authors has published a plan for the building. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-07-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The television star mines childhood fascination in writing 'The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell.' When Chris Colfer was just 20, he'd already been named one of GQ magazine's men of the year, having sung and acted his way into the hearts of America as Kurt, the high-pitched, openly gay brunet... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-07-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Nobel Prize-winning author's brother says the effects of dementia mean Márquez may be unable to write. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-07-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Ford talks about his new novel "Canada," his memories of the late Raymond Carver, and how art makes life. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-06-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Writer Tod Goldberg couldn't quite grasp the essence of Los Angeles as a young first-time visitor, but that had as much to do with the city as with him.I can still remember the first time I saw Los Angeles. It was December 1980, I was 9 years old, and the view came from the back seat of my older... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-04-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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