Are novelists obliged to tell the story of their private life?

My Dark Vanessa author Kate Elizabeth Russell was driven to reveal details of her past when accused of inauthenticity – but should we be seeking the truth elsewhere?Our world, more than at any time in history, is all about stories. Snapchat feeds capture your entire day, Instagram users meticulously curate their pages and stories, and detailed Twitter threads recount what happened on the morning commute. We are storytellers, narrators, transmitters of tales – occasionally those of others but mostly our own. We’ve been assured we all have a story and what we need is the courage and space to tell it. But these days it’s not enough just to have an experience, or even just to share it. People feel compelled to claim stories, to plant a flag and proclaim: “This is mine.” Instinctively, some people privilege their own experience over any other; that their story is always the “authentic” one.When that story is rooted in trauma, a whole host of ethical implications suddenly come into play. How do we tell the story of such experiences? Why should we? To what extent does it desensitise the audience to future stories? And perhaps the most pertinent question, at least in this Era of Authenticity, is: who gets to tell it?That a writer could have experienced the trauma their novel narrates has long been assumed, but demand to prove it feels new Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2020-03-02 06:00:36 UTC ]
News tagged with: #private life #reveal details #entire day #novelists

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Are novelists obliged to tell the story of their private life?

[ The Guardian | 2020-03-02 06:00:36 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #private life #reveal details #entire day #novelists

‘It would be all right’: Novelist Susanna Moore finds solace in a sometimes troubling life story

In the memoir “Miss Aluminum,” the writer and former script reader for Jack Nicholson shares a #MeToo moment, and more. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-04-22 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #memoir

A romance novelist came back to life. Angry fans say she faked her death

Scandal and despair hit the romance community when Susan Meachen was purportedly bullied into suicide. Was it a hoax?In 2020 the tightly knit and passionate world of self-published romance literature was shocked by the news that the novelist Susan Meachen, following bullying by other writers,... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-01-14 10:00:06 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #final book #anthology

The Life and Stories of Diane Oliver

On Episode 10 of Ursa Short Fiction, Deesha Philyaw and Dawnie Walton welcome writer Michael A. Gonzales for part two of our deep dive into the life and work of Diane Oliver, who published six short stories before her death at age 22. (Part one of our series is here.) Diane Oliver was just a […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-08-17 08:51:56 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #deesha philyaw #dawnie walton #deep dive #short stories

Questioning the Borders of Nonfiction to Tell the Story of an Exceptional Life

In 2014, book critic Dwight Garner published a lament in the New York Times for a seemingly forgotten literary masterpiece, the oral history All God’s Dangers. Published in 1974 by then-Harvard doctoral candidate Theodore Rosengarten, the autobiography was narrated by Nate Shaw, an illiterate... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-06-06 08:51:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #oral history #book critic

Robert Goolrick Dies at 73; Became a Successful Novelist Late in Life

Being fired as an advertising executive freed him to write a blistering memoir about his Southern family and an erotic novel that became a best seller. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2022-05-21 00:03:50 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #memoir

Before I was a novelist, audiobooks taught me how to tell a story

Lizz Huerta didn't get an MFA, but she did get an education while working on construction sites. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2022-05-05 10:00:00 UTC ]
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Richard Lipez, novelist who featured a gay private eye, dies at 83

He wrote under the pseudonym Richard Stevenson and also reviewed crime fiction for The Post. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2022-04-01 01:49:48 UTC ]
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‘We would discuss how dislikable I was’ – what’s it like to see your life story on TV?

Telling your story in a book is hard enough. But what if it ends up on screen? Adam Kay, writer of This Is Going to Hurt, and Dolly Alderton, who penned Everything I Know About Love, relive the shocksMore cultural highlights of 2022Most people find seeing themselves on screen distinctly... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2021-12-29 14:00:23 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #life story #adam kay #dolly alderton #life stories #junior doctor #ben whishaw #memoir

How Two Novelists and a Poet Made Me Change My Life

Are there certain books with topics you avoid? That you fear may leave you a little worse for wear? Here's what may happen if you read them. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2021-12-07 11:38:00 UTC ]
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How notoriously private poet Mary Oliver once saved a depressed high school student’s life.

On this day in 1935, the highly acclaimed poet Mary Oliver was born in Maple Heights, Ohio. Oliver, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1984 and later the National Book Award for Poetry in 1992, was by all accounts a private person who sought solace in the natural world. Throughout the course of her... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-09-10 15:24:16 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #natural world #national book award #pulitzer prize

Rep. John Lewis’s Life Story Continues in ‘Run: Book One’

'Run: Book One', a posthumous work by the late civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, is the continuation of his National Book Award-winning graphic memoir The March trilogy. The book will be published by Abrams ComicArts in August 2021. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-03-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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John Edgar Wideman’s Stories Vividly Evoke Life in Pittsburgh and Many Other Places

“You Made Me Love You” collects short stories from throughout Wideman’s acclaimed career. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-03-26 20:23:09 UTC ]
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Paul McCartney tells life story through lyrics for Allen Lane

Paul McCartney has written the “extraordinary” story of his life for the first time through the prism of 154 song lyrics, to be published by Allen Lane. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-24 12:41:28 UTC ]
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Pam Mandel on Discovering the True-to-Life YA Story She Was Meant to Tell: Her Own

On this episode of Personal Space: The Memoir Show, Sari Botton interviews Pam Mandel, whose book, The Same River Twice: A Memoir of Dirtbag Backpackers, Bomb Shelters, and Bad Travel, is out from Skyhorse Publishing. The book charts Mandel’s travels abroad as a young woman trying to figure out... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-29 09:48:53 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #memoir show #personal space #bomb shelters #skyhorse publishing #young woman #memoir

These women divers are living legends. How novelist Lisa See captured their story

Bestselling novelist Lisa See brings'The Island of Sea Women' to the L.A. Times Book Club Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-01-08 15:00:51 UTC ]
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Deborah Tannen’s ‘Finding My Father’ pays tribute to a man whose many jobs became his life story

With so many contemporary memoirs devoted to the sins of the author’s mother, a focus on a loving dad seems a welcome change. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-09-23 05:01:31 UTC ]
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JG Farrell's The Singapore Grip: new TV adaptation brings to life the final book by one of the UK's finest novelists

The writer was drowned at the age of 44, but he left three novels which have come to represent the decline of the British Empire. Continue reading at The Conversation

[ The Conversation | 2020-09-03 13:13:15 UTC ]
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Poets and novelists have been writing about life under COVID-19 for more than a century

From 'islands of pain' to the 'peril of exposure,' writers have captured the fear, emptiness and despair that characterize life during the current pandemic, writes a poet and English scholar. Continue reading at The Conversation

[ The Conversation | 2020-08-17 12:24:39 UTC ]
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HarperCollins lands life story of South Africa rugby captain Siya Kolisi

HarperCollins has landed the life story of Siya Kolisi, Springboks captain and star of South Africa’s 2019 World Cup-winning rugby team. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-07 05:01:43 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #life story #south africa #harpercollins