Border crossing: How translated fiction can open up the world

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 ]

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8 Eerie Reads From the Literary Fiction Shelves

While you're perusing the literary fiction shelves, create a haunting atmosphere with these eerie literary fiction titles for Halloween and beyond. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2019-10-31 10:40:16 UTC ]
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For Some Horror Writers, Nothing Is Scarier Than a Changing Planet

While literary fiction often sidesteps the climate crisis, eco-horror is filling the breach. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-10-19 09:00:04 UTC ]
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Aging Gently, Messily: On Elizabeth Strout’s “Olive, Again”

SEQUELS IN LITERARY FICTION are rare. There’s a risk in returning to characters whose arcs have been resolved or purposely left in ambiguity. A second book may rob readers of the pleasure of imagination, thus undoing some of the magic of the original novel. But sometimes a character so compels... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-10-16 17:00:57 UTC ]
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Ed Needham: ‘Top editors’ jobs have all vanished’

The founder and editor of literary magazine Strong Words on his appetite for tales of financial chicanery and why he won’t be returning to Jane AustenEd Needham is the editor of Strong Words, a magazine about books that he writes and edits on his own from his flat in Camden Town, a feat that has... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-10-05 17:00:51 UTC ]
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2019 National Book Award for Translated Literature Longlist Announced

News and Events The Editors of WLT Today the New Yorker announced the longlist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature. With such a wealth of talent on display, we don’t envy the judges’ task. To aid you, the reader, in appreciating the... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2019-09-17 16:53:18 UTC ]
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Hamish Hamilton scoops Avni Doshi's 'sharp' betrayal novel

Hamish Hamilton has bought a book by author Avni Doshi, billed as “a sly and searing debut from an unmissable new voice in literary fiction”. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-13 07:57:52 UTC ]
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12 Books That Prove the Literary/Genre Distinction is Bogus

When I first joined a workshop in 1994, American literary fiction was dominated by and continually lauded a “quiet” kind of writer, one often influenced by J.D. Salinger, Ernest Hemingway, or Raymond Carver. I loved literary fiction—I’d been reading, writing, and submitting it since high school.... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-08-16 11:00:22 UTC ]
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Who Needs an MFA When You Have This Literary Fiction Trope Checklist?

Writing literary fiction stories? Forget what you’ve learned about complex characters and earned endings. What you really need is to include the required tropes. To help you out, we’ve created this handy checklist. Literary Fiction Trope Checklist _____ 1. Starts with character waking up _____... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-07-26 11:00:50 UTC ]
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Literary Fiction Literary Agents Open to Submissions

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[ Writer's Digest | 2019-07-26 11:00:18 UTC ]
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8 Beer and Book Pairings

It’s a cliché among authors that we write the books we wish existed, but two of the many reasons I set out to write The Lager Queen of Minnesota was because I wanted to read literary fiction set in a brewery, and frankly, I also wanted a reason to bum around the country researching contemporary... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-07-19 11:00:19 UTC ]
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What to Expect When You’re Expecting Evil

Literary fiction is increasingly borrowing from the horror genre to explore the fears and anxieties of modern motherhood. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-07-06 09:00:14 UTC ]
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The Literary World of Comic-Con

San Diego Comic-Con isn’t just a place for authors to promote their work—it’s got a literary tradition of its own. Here are some of the books and graphic novels set at or about SDCC. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-07-05 04:00:00 UTC ]
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How the New York Public Library Brought Novels to Instagram With Unexpectedly Huge Results

The idea makes practically no sense at all. Full works of long-form literary fiction uploaded to ... Instagram? And specifically to Instagram Stories, a format known for its fast and fleeting posts about nights on the town and outfits of the day? But the New York Public Library pulled it off,... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2019-06-14 20:20:07 UTC ]
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Book Expo 2019: Adult Breakfast Authors Say Crime Pays in Literary World

Thursday morning's Adult Book & Author Breakfast featured Rachel Maddow, Malcolm Gladwell, Karin Slaughter, Marjorie Liu, and Ta-Nehisi Coates introducing their newest books, with presentations emphasizing the true crimes that inspired each to write. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-05-30 04:00:00 UTC ]
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BookExpo 2019: Literary Fiction Gets the Buzz

Indie booksellers raved about both fall/winter fiction and nonfiction offerings at BookExpo, but literary fiction with plots inspired by today's news headlines is what they were most excited about. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-05-30 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Creative writing graduates will 'never make a living as novelists', says Self

Will Self has declared literature to be "morphing into a giant quilting exercise", suggesting that no current creative writing graduates will make a living from literary fiction. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-05-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sweden’s Dorotea Bromberg Is London Book Fair’s Lifetime Achievement Laureate 2019

Dorotea Bromberg co-founded Swedish book publisher Bromberg Bokförlag with her father. The company still punches far above its weight in the literary world. The post Sweden’s Dorotea Bromberg Is London Book Fair’s Lifetime Achievement Laureate 2019 appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2019-02-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Small Island author Andrea Levy dies, aged 62

Andrea Levy, writer of bestselling Windrush generation novel Small Island (Headline), has died from cancer at the age of 62, with the publishing community paying tribute to how she "reshaped the literary world". Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-02-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Late-Night TV Hosts Give Publicity-Starved Novelists the Star Treatment

TV coverage of literary fiction has dwindled, but Trevor Noah and Seth Meyers are exceptions. “Who would have guessed that a 700-page novel would be on national TV?” one publishing executive said. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2018-12-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Joy of Waterboiling is hot tip for oddest book title prize

This year’s shortlist also includes Jesus on Gardening, Equine Dry Needling and Why Sell Tacos in Africa?A book that celebrates Germany’s timesaving contribution to global cuisine is among the contenders for the 2018 Diagram prize for the oddest title of the year. The Joy of Waterboiling may... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2018-10-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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