Older generations argue that young people’s insistence on equality in all things – including books – threatens to stifle free speech. But is that always true?I wouldn’t normally air my dirty literary linen in public, but here goes. When I finished writing my novel Putney, about a 13-year-old girl who has a “love affair” in the 1970s with an older man and realises decades later that it was actually abuse, my previous editor at Jonathan Cape chose not to publish it. The reasons emerged this year when he was interviewed in the Spectator. “If Lolita was offered to me today,” Dan Franklin said, “I’d never be able to get it past the acquisition team – a committee of 30-year-olds, who’d say: ‘If you publish this book we will all resign.’” He pointed to #MeToo and social media as fundamental factors: “You can organise outrage at the drop of a hat.”Fortunately, Bloomsbury’s acquisition team – overwhelmingly female and mixed aged – were brave enough to take on Putney, which was described in the Observer as “a Lolita for the era of #MeToo”. Whether there was any truth in his words or not, Franklin’s position reveals how much fear now exists in publishing. Related: Putney by Sofka Zinovieff review – a Lolita for the age of #MeToo ‘It’s only about not being an arsehole,’ my daughter said. ‘That’s not so difficult’ Related: Nabokov's Lolita: the latest thing millennials have apparently ruined Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2019-07-10 10:03:01 UTC ]
Jill Ciment’s 1996 memoir “Half a Life” described her teenage affair with the man she eventually married. Her new memoir, “Consent,” dramatically revises some details. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-06-10 09:02:59 UTC ]
More news stories like this
From Richard Osman and Millie Bobby Brown to the upcoming book by Keanu Reeves, celebrity novels are everywhere. What’s behind the boom? And how do non-famous writers feel about it?I understood that if I was going to do it, I would have to put 100% of myself into it,” says Richard Osman about... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-01-13 09:00:12 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Though they’re sometimes characterized as attention-addled homebodies, younger people see a real value in libraries − one that goes beyond books. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2024-01-12 13:28:57 UTC ]
More news stories like this
With a first novel that chronicles a love affair between two young men, 23-year-old Ani Kayode Somtochukwu asserts a commitment to “queer resistance.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-06-05 16:02:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Formative love affairs and sentimental educations are classic novelistic territory. And for good reason— these connections serve as catalysts, tell stories taut with tension, and leave characters forever changed. Madelaine Lucas’s debut novel Thirst for Salt describes such a relationship, set in... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-03-09 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Check out these new March children's book releases, including books by Indigenous creators Joy Harjo, Michaela Goede, and Carole Lindstrom. Start off with Link + Hud: Heroes by a Hair by Jarrett Pumphrey & Jerome Pumphrey. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-03-08 11:31:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Spiracle will feature titles from independent presses, while last month, Spotify also began offering audiobooks to US customersA new audiobook platform which aims to create a “lovely, welcoming, independent bookstore kind of vibe” has launched, as audio giant Spotify also enters the fast-growing... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-10-03 18:09:30 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Have teenagers taken control of publishing? With some authors notching up a billion views, we look at how TikTok is electrifying the world of books – creating bestsellers, reviving classics and rescuing neglected genresIt’s four o’clock on a sunny Saturday afternoon and the Krispy Kreme doughnut... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-06-08 05:00:14 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The Booker prize-winning author’s new novel Lessons is ‘a powerful meditation on history and humanity told through the prism of one man’s lifetime’Ian McEwan’s “most epic book to date”, moving from the end of the second world war to the current pandemic and exploring the impact of childhood... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-01-19 12:00:11 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Ian McEwan’s “ambitious and mesmerising” new novel Lessons will be published by Jonathan Cape in September. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-19 02:10:47 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Britney Spears’s younger sister has had her offer to give proceeds from her forthcoming book to the non-profit organisation This Is My Brave turned downJamie Lynn Spears’s offer to donate some of the proceeds from her forthcoming memoir to a mental health organisation has been declined after a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-10-20 11:37:23 UTC ]
More news stories like this
A new children’s bookshop in Hitchin is specialising in inclusive titles, including books that celebrate neurodiversity. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-10-11 14:30:39 UTC ]
More news stories like this
What are the best book club books for 2021? We’ve got 20 of ’em, including books like Beautiful World, Where Are You? Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-10-01 10:37:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The four-strong shortlist for this year's Laurel Prize for nature and eco-poetry has been announced, with two nominations for Jonathan Cape titles. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-26 07:25:12 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The following is excerpted from 1984: The Graphic Novel _______________________________________________ 1984: The Graphic Novel by George Orwell, adapted and illustrated by Fido Nesti. Copyright © 2021 by the Estate of Sonia Brownwell Orwell and Frederico Carvalhaes Nesti. Reprinted by... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-08-26 08:55:09 UTC ]
More news stories like this
This excellent cradle-to-grave biography of a much loved novelist who goes in and out of fashion captures her alarming habits and tormented love affairsIn 1971 the author Barbara Pym was at her day job at the International African Institute when she noticed “Mr C” laboriously attacking his... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-04-08 06:30:07 UTC ]
More news stories like this
For Christmas 1972, I was given a present that changed the way I viewed the world. It was a folder of facsimile documents called Tutankhamun & the Discovery of the Tomb. My family didn’t manage to visit the ‘Treasures of Tutankhamun’ exhibition at the British Museum that year, so my Jackdaw... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-27 01:02:55 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Megan Nolan's "Acts of Desperation," about a woman in thrall to an older man, stands out from similar tales with an uncannily self-aware narrator. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-03-03 15:00:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this
“DER LETZTE TANZ” (“The Last Dance”) — a story by Hungarian American author Susan Taubes written in German and published posthumously — tells the story of Mary Ann, a young girl who has an on-and-off love affair with a man she calls Death. He visits her in dreams, for the first time at the age... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2021-02-26 16:00:55 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Women’s issues, particularly those related to #ChurchToo and #MeToo, prompt religion publishers’ continuing interest in titles that address the silencing and abuse women face in the church and religious institutions. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-02-19 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this