The novelist and short story writer on her new book about Azrael, the angel of death, her encounters with Raymond Carver and Richard Yates, and why fiction should be uncannyJoy Williams, 80, has written five novels and four story collections and is the recipient of numerous awards. Her most recent book of short stories, Concerning the Future of Souls: 99 Stories of Azrael (Tuskar Rock), was published earlier this year. Her work ranges from the philosophical examination of being, belief and morality to urgent engagements with environmental catastrophe; James Salter wrote of her that she belongs in the company of Céline and Flannery O’Connor. Born in Massachusetts, she now lives in the Sonoran desert.An earlier collection of yours was called 99 Stories of God, and now you’ve moved on to Azrael (the angel of death and transporter of souls) as the subject. What drew you to him?I read in a WS Merwin collection his translation of Hadrian’s deathbed poem to his soul – Animula vagula blandula – so sorrowful and succinct. The soul, a worthy subject. And Azrael has always fascinated me: he was death, but not death exactly. He was more a gorgeous creation of Islam. I picture him as responsible for all the souls of this ensouled Earth. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2024-10-19 17:00:20 UTC ]
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Award-winning author Benjamin Myers and the Society of Authors (SoA) have criticised the pressure on writers to become “personalities” rather than be judged on their work as literary events increase. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-09 07:55:03 UTC ]
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The enormous popularity of Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man graphic novel series, trends in the changing U.S. comics and graphic novel retail landscape, and the growing popularity of manga and anime-influenced Japanese light novels, were among PW’s most-read stories about comics in 2019. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-01-09 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Ocean Vuong, bestselling author of "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous," joins the L.A. Times Book Club on Jan. 27. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-01-09 00:57:08 UTC ]
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HarperCollins has wrapped up a deal for the "life-changing" freezer-filling cookbook from Shivi Ramoutar. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-08 12:50:12 UTC ]
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Charles Sprawson, author of celebrated swimming memoir Haunts of the Black Masseur (Vintage), has died. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-08 07:22:55 UTC ]
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The Romance Writers of America has cancelled its annual RITA awards ceremony after hundreds of authors staged a boycott over an ongoing race row. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-07 22:15:04 UTC ]
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Essay John Weir Adapted from a photo by Jake weirick on Unsplash Like a dead pop star, Susan Sontag left behind a lot of fans who claim they knew her. After the release last September of Benjamin Moser’s new biography, Susan Sontag: Her Life and Work,... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-01-07 22:09:56 UTC ]
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Wurtzel, who had breast cancer, gave new breath to the memoir and was a new voice for those struggling with clinical depression and addiction. Continue reading at HuffPost
[ HuffPost | 2020-01-07 21:47:12 UTC ]
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Author of bestselling memoir about clinical depression, which made her ‘a hashtag before there was Twitter’, died from metastatic breast cancer Elizabeth Wurtzel, journalist and author of bestselling memoir Prozac Nation, has died at the age of 52.Writer David Samuels, Wurtzel’s friend since... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-01-07 16:51:54 UTC ]
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Elizabeth Wurtzel, author of Prozac Nation, has died at the age of 52, the Washington Post reported Tuesday. Wurtzel’s 1994 memoir, in which she chronicled her experiences with drug use and depression, became a New York Times bestseller and was adapted into a 2001 film starring Christina Ricci.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-01-07 16:23:12 UTC ]
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Headline is going big on its marketing and PR campaign to launch American Dirt in the UK, with widespread review coverage and "major statement advertising" in the UK and Ireland. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-07 16:08:36 UTC ]
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My Afghan godfather, a bristling military man, who at one time back in the 1930s held the all-India motorcycle speed record, spoke of A Sportsman’s Notebook as one of the two or three books that formed and continued to inform his mind. I remember his copy of it lying on his bedside table,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-01-07 09:48:06 UTC ]
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Publishing’s long established boys’ club in espionage fiction is having its cover blown by a new school led by Stella Rimington, Manda Scott and Charlotte PhilbyWhen Stella Rimington, the former director general of MI5 and spy author, wrote a new foreword last year to The Spy’s Bedside Book,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-01-07 09:00:54 UTC ]
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Yes, much of it looks at how we will survive the apocalypse. But we also have the more hopeful genre of solarpunk Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-01-06 23:50:02 UTC ]
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Candice Carty-Williams has joined the Guardian as a columnist, writing a weekly piece for the paper’s Review supplement about "literature in its many forms" Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-06 19:55:03 UTC ]
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Authors including Joanna Harris and Richard Flanagan are raising money for firefighters battling bushfires in Australia by offering signed books, illustrations, experiences and writers' services in a Twitter auction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-06 19:12:57 UTC ]
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Poets for the Planet, a creative community using its voice to engage with the climate and ecological emergency, is teaming up with the Society of Authors on an all-day poetry event headlined by Poet Laureate Simon Armitage. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-06 18:39:22 UTC ]
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The Street is a groundbreaking work of American literature that is as relevant today as when it was published in 1946. When it won Ann Petry the Houghton Mifflin Prize for Debut Writers, the literary world was put on notice. Everyone agreed that the novel was brilliant, but, as is the case with... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-01-06 09:47:44 UTC ]
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Big changes in the bookselling landscape were the subject of several of the industry’s top stories in 2019, along with publishers’ relationships with different partners. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-01-03 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Kerri Greenidge traces the life of the early-20th-century activist who scolded a president and exemplified black pride. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-01-03 01:21:59 UTC ]
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