Interviews Renee H. Shea Monique Truong / Photo © Haruka Sakaguchi Monique Truong, who came to the United States in 1975 as a refugee from Vietnam, began exploring untold and ignored histories in her first novel, The Book of Salt (2003), told through the voice of Binh, the cook of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas in Paris. Her autobiographical second novel, Bitter in the Mouth (2010) is a coming-of-age story set in North Carolina. In her most recent novel, The Sweetest Fruits (Viking, 2019), Truong tells the story of Lafcadio Hearn from the perspective of three women: his mother, Rosa; his first wife, Alethea; and his Japanese wife, Setsu. Shea: At its core, The Sweetest Fruits is a story about storytelling—and it’s Russian dolls of narrative! It’s not only that three different women have their say about Hearn and their relationship with him, but each is telling her story to a specific audience—so issues of mediation and agency add further complications, as do oral vs. written stories and translation. How did you arrive at this approach instead of just telling the story in the voice of one person, then the next, then the next? Truong: This question is a Russian doll of inquiries! You’re absolutely right that the novel is interested in the different ways that stories are transmitted to us: oral vs. written, in our mother tongue vs. in translation, private story vs. public history, women’s voices vs. men’s, face-to-face vs.... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2019-09-17 13:54:26 UTC ]
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Writing for The Atlantic, Kate Newman wonders why memoirs aren't fact-checked more closely and questions whether a lack of resources is really to blame. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-09-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Quadrille has appointed Sarah Lavelle as its new publishing director, replacing Jane O'Shea,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-07-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Buoyed by marketers' growing interest in Hispanic millennials as consumers and trendsetters, the Hispanic media market continues to outpace overall growth in the U.S. ad industry. Ad Age's eleventh-annual Hispanic Fact Pack, distributed with the July 28 issue of the magazine, includes... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2014-07-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Thom Shea, author of "Unbreakable: A Navy Seal’s Way of Life" (Clovercroft Publishing, 9781940262376), will appear on the "Sean Hannity Show" on Thursday, June 5. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-06-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A visit to the Gwanghwamun branch of Kyobo, Korea’s largest bookstore chain, provides many clues to the country’s present book market. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Check out the top-10 hardcover fiction titles on the PW 2013 fiction bestseller chart; it resembles the decade-old list from 2003. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-03-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Our annual collection of sales numbers for books sold in the last calendar year provides a granular portrait of the book business. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-03-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Reports from the Association of American Publishers on ebook sales suggest that the industry is maturing and growth will plateau soon. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-03-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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"There are a lot of people doing a lot of things we used to do," Stephen Page told the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'The Invention of Wings' by Sue Monk Kidd is receiving rave reviews and was recently selected as the latest pick for Oprah Winfrey's revamped book club. But how much of the book actually comes from history? Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-01-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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At the Frankfurt Book Fair, VP of Kindle Content, Russ Grandinetti, shared some numbers about consumer usage of Kindle ebooks around the world. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-10-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Let's say it like Comic Book Guy: Best. Collaboration. Ever. Fox's dysfunctional yet loving animated family, The Simpsons, have joined with Converse for a line of screen-printed Chuck Taylor sneakers. Through Converse retailers and Journeys.com, you can get your paws on these colorful high-tops... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2013-06-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A snapshot of the ebook industry today shows more than 1,000 ebooks with sales of 25,000+. And while our survey of publishers is by no means complete, it's more than enough to prove that the book business is quickly moving to digital. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-03-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Looking at 2012’s huge drop in the number of mass market bestsellers with sales of more than 500,000 copies is alarming. In 2012, only 26 titles hit that figure and only three in the group reached the million mark. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-03-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Last year at the end of this annual bestseller article, we made the obvious prediction that unit sales for hardcover bestsellers would be even lower for 2012 books and that the “ebook explosion could be the culprit.” Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-03-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Southern California author's first story collection draws from his experiences in high school basketball, plumbing sales and more.There's a subtle arc to Jim Gavin's first book, "Middle Men" (Simon & Schuster: 224 pp., $23). Gathering seven stories largely set in Southern California, it... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-02-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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10 facts about media and content industries 1. Digitization has increased book sales. Expenditure on electronic books almost doubled each year in 2006-2010 but still amounts to only 3% of global book sales. Forecasts however predict that reve ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-10-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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If you've ever been so embroiled in a chat or sharing splurge that you've been told to "take it off of Twitter," you now can -- sort of. Twitter co-creators Biz Stone and Ev Williams have launched Branch and Medium, two companion services that (naturally) use a Twitter sign-in but narrow the... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2012-08-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The story is about a criminal who wins the lottery, and the author has moved to America, land of the super PACs, so money is on his mind.Martin Amis, once dubbed "fiction's angriest writer," continues dissecting the absurdity and excesses of postmodern society in his latest novel, "Lionel Asbo:... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-08-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'The Lifespan of a Fact' lays out a thought-provoking debate of the issue between authors John D'Agata and Jim Fingal.The key passage in John D'Agata and Jim Fingal's "The Lifespan of a Fact" (W.W. Norton: 124 pp., $17.95 paper) comes late in the book, during an exchange on the role of fact in... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-02-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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