The new Elena Ferrante is just one of the exciting novels in translation coming next year. Lara Feigel talks to the UK editors who are rediscovering classics and finding new audiencesThere are voices that speak to us across oceans and centuries with more intimacy than the people who surround us in our daily lives. These can speak directly with clarity and honesty: think of Elena Ferrante, whose feverishly awaited new novel The Lying Life of Adults is written from the perspective of an adolescent girl disillusioned by the “unreliable animals” inhabiting the adult world; or Natalia Ginzburg, writing in The Little Virtues that after the war “we cannot lie in our books and we cannot lie in any of the things we do”. They can speak meanderingly out of troubled nights, entering our dreams: think of Vigdis Hjorth, writing in Will and Testament that “it is terrible that someone who has been destroyed spreads destruction, and how hard that is to avoid”. Or they can speak precisely and carefully, allowing us to access our own hopes and fears by describing material surroundings in minute detail. In Territory of Light, Yūko Tsushima’s autobiographical tale of motherhood in the wake of divorce, there are long descriptions of the flat where she lives alone with her daughter: “The apartment was filled with light at any hour of the day.”From postwar Italy, from contemporary Norway, from 1970s Japan, these narrators speak of love, suffering and domestic labour. That we have access to these... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2019-11-23 08:00:49 UTC ]
Independent publishers are "crucial and critical" for literary fiction writers, Costa-winning author Monique Roffey has said, enabling them to take risks no mainstream publisher would allow. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-05-11 11:27:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Sari Feldman reflects on how these “wizards of the literary world” can be the key to a lifelong love of reading. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-04-08 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Why do we assume that a work of literary fiction must be based on its author’s life? Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-03-14 12:00:33 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Tired of the subtweets? The peevish reviews? The [gasp] indecorous email sign-offs? Do you wish the literary world would just conduct its brawls out in the open for all to see? Well, now you can fight along at home with Street Writer, Maxwell Neely-Cohen’s absolutely wonderful literary homage to... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-02-04 14:06:11 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Five prominent figures from the literary world discuss the vexed debates surrounding cultural appropriation, authenticity and the growing trend for sensitivity readers. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-15 06:28:34 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Ryan Chapman (erstwhile host of Nerd Jeopardy, back episodes of which you can enjoy here) is launching the paperback edition of his novel, Riots I Have Known, tonight, and as a veteran showman of the literary world, Chapman has decided to put together something a little different. Tonight’s... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-12-09 20:04:37 UTC ]
More news stories like this
This year has been a dumpster fire and we mean that literally. But the shining bright spot in the literary world is an abundance of great new books by Indigenous writers being published in 2020. Since it’s National Native American Heritage Month, we’re focusing on books coming out of the U.S.... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-11-27 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
“We have taken a path of improvisation and experimentation.” How the literary world reinvented the book festival in real time. | Lit Hub “To be forever alone in your own kingdom seems a unique kind of heartbreak.” LA’s resident mountain lion is a lonely hunter. | Lit Hub Nature The age of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-03 11:30:17 UTC ]
More news stories like this
As the literary world moved online in 2020, a central question for many organizations was how to manage the annual festivals that gather thousands of readers from around the world. Here, the directors of five festivals—Sara Ortiz of the Believer Festival, Lissette Mendez of the Miami Book Fair,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-03 09:57:24 UTC ]
More news stories like this
LET’S DISPENSE WITH the small surprises up front. The latest outing from Smith Henderson, acclaimed author of what others might call literary fiction — his award-winning 2014 debut, Fourth of July Creek — is indeed a thriller. And it’s not a solo endeavor — he’s teamed up with a friend, Jon Marc... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-10-11 12:30:47 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Between 1,500 and 2,000 members of the North American literary world signed an open letter offering support to trans and nonbinary communities. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-10-09 21:31:58 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Bi and lesbian books from the last two decades for fans of literary fiction, from haunting collections to atmospheric historical fiction like Miss Timmins’ School for Girls by Nayana Currimbhoy. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-10-02 10:38:36 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Are you happy in your current book world job? Do you arise each morning with a sense of purpose? Does social isolation, political turmoil, and inclement fall weather agree with you? Can you turn up to work barefoot and go snorkeling on your lunch break? If you answered “no” to any of the above... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-09-24 16:47:43 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Alka Joshi’s debut novel, The Henna Artist, is taking the literary world by storm. On The Literary Life, she talks with Mitchell Kaplan about the small leap from writing ad copy to writing a novel, how both her mother and mother-in-law informed her protagonist, and the joy she’s deriving from... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-09-11 08:47:09 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Congratulations to Ethan Hawke, star of my favorite film (Gattaca) and arguably the most bookish man in Hollywood, who has, with today’s inclusion in the (web) pages of the New York Times Book Review, completed his Literary World Bingo Card! What is the Literary World Bingo Card you ask? Well,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-09-01 18:45:05 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Though you’ve probably only learned Mieko Kawakami’s name recently, with the release of Breasts and Eggs from renowned indie press Europa Editions, she’s been a well-known figure in the Japanese literary world for several years. Haruki Murakami called her his favorite young novelist, and the... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-08-28 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
“There isn’t much literary fiction that deals with evangelicalism. ‘Go Tell It on the Mountain,’ by James Baldwin, was the first book I read that spoke to that part of my life and it moved me so deeply to see faith rendered on the page with such care and brilliance.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-08-20 09:00:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Ingrid Persaud made the grandest of debuts in the literary world by winning the BBC Short Story Award in 2018 with “The Sweet Sop,” the first short story she ever wrote. After this extremely auspicious beginning, the Trinidad-born writer, whose resume includes stints in legal academia and art... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-08-04 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
A wide array of books, from literary fiction to romance to YA, have borrowed their titles from songs by The Beatles. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-07-10 10:34:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Over the past few months, as gyms and yoga studios and fitness centers have remained closed, many of you antsy yogis and barre-enthusiasts and Zumba-addicts have gone back to that most elemental of exercises: the run. For those of us who like to read and run, well, plenty of books on the subject... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-06-23 08:49:25 UTC ]
More news stories like this