The American author talks about growing up queer in a family of ‘wolves’, poverty and class in the US, and the 19th-century writers who inspired his latest novelBrandon Taylor writes quickly. “I can type almost as fast as I can think,” he says. The first draft of his debut novel, the Booker-shortlisted Real Life, took him five weeks; last June he challenged a writer friend to a race. The friend had been 30,000 words ahead on his book, with Taylor going from a standing start, but by August, Taylor had finished, while his friend was still ploughing on.Since Taylor says that “everybody in my family dies young”, one might assume that this is a rush to seize the day. But writing, he says, is also “the most fun I’m capable of having”. When he discovered the internet aged 12, via his parents’ dial-up modem in rural Alabama (the web being “this beautiful land that I could only visit temporarily because somebody wouldn’t pay the phone bill”), Taylor used to produce 8,000 words a day, writing five collaborative stories at once on roleplay forums. “That was good training for having stamina as a writer,” he explains, a genial 34-year-old in a blue denim shirt sitting at a table in the Guardian’s London offices. “As long as I have a good sense of scene or character, when I get a good first line there is nothing standing between me and the end.” Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2023-06-03 10:00:28 UTC ]
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The American author talks about growing up queer in a family of ‘wolves’, poverty and class in the US, and the 19th-century writers who inspired his latest novelBrandon Taylor writes quickly. “I can type almost as fast as I can think,” he says. The first draft of his debut novel, the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-06-03 10:00:28 UTC ]
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Tonight, The Story Prize announced that the 2021 winner is Brandon Taylor for Filthy Animals. The Story Prize’s $20,000 top prize is among the largest first-prize amounts of any annual U.S. book award for fiction. Now in it’s 18th year, The Story Prize annually honors the author of an... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-04-14 01:11:02 UTC ]
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Taylor's second book, published by Riverhead, won the $20,000 prize honoring an outstanding story collection published in 2021. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-04-13 04:00:00 UTC ]
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In the debut novel “Real Life,” a biochemistry Ph.D. candidate confronts the harder lessons of how to be a gay black man in a white world. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-02-18 10:00:07 UTC ]
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In the debut novel “Real Life,” a biochemistry Ph.D. candidate confronts the harder lessons of how to be a gay black man in a white world. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-02-18 10:00:07 UTC ]
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Constable has signed a fresh biography of George Orwell by D J Taylor, whose earlier book on the writer, published in 2003, won the Whitbread Prize. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-04 09:52:59 UTC ]
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I was balancing a plate of honeydew in the green room of a book festival when I walked by a white man bemoaning the state of the publishing industry. The man wore a suit, and he spoke to a white woman; both of them looked to be in their 40s. As the man speared a […] The post I Don’t Have To... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-03-27 11:05:00 UTC ]
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In her latest short story collection, White Cat, Black Dog, MacArthur “Genius Grant” fellow Kelly Link reinvents seven fairytales into modern, realist short stories about, for example, an aging billionaire choosing a successor, and a house-sitting gig that goes awry. Link is also the author of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-03-28 08:54:06 UTC ]
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Malorie Blackman advises budding authors to pick up on news stories, but Julia Donaldson warns of pitfalls – and Alan Moore says you should read terrible books as well as good onesThe key to being a good writer? It’s being a good reader, authors including Carol Ann Duffy and Alan Moore have said... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-03-02 15:43:52 UTC ]
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If you love Jane Smiley, this episode is for you. Eve and Julie are joined by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author in an interview that was recorded live for Miami Book Fair 2021. They discuss Jane’s most recent book, Perestroika in Paris, as well as Jane’s writing process, beloved pets, and what... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-12-23 09:51:41 UTC ]
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On Sunday night, I May Destroy You showrunner Michaela Coel won an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. In the context of yet another melanin-deficient awards show that had people tweeting #EmmysSoWhite, it was refreshing (and simultaneously frustrating) that... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-09-20 16:39:44 UTC ]
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Sarah M. Broom’s The Yellow House is a feat—a memoir and historical narrative created amid governmental bureaucracy and resistance from some of her subjects. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2019-09-25 16:27:00 UTC ]
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Sarah M. Broom’s The Yellow House is a feat—a memoir and historical narrative created amid governmental bureaucracy and resistance from some of her subjects. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2019-09-25 16:27:00 UTC ]
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New Writing North, working with Channel 4, Northumbria University and Lime Pictures, is offering aspiring TV writers from the North of England 12-month placements in either soap or children’s drama production companies. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-01-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Earning a living as a writer is as likely as winning the lottery. Instead of writing books and persuading others to buy them, find out what people want to write, then do it for themPhilip Pullman: professional writers set to become ‘an endangered species’ due to low wagesI left school with a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-01-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Welcome to NaNoWriMo! MG Leonard (who wrote her first book Beetle Boy in six months, one hour a day) has tips on how to do it. And it starts with writing EVERY SINGLE DAY NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and takes place every November. It’s for anyone thinking about writing a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-11-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It’s 2015. My partner and I are in Moab, Utah, for the summer, far from our home of Philadelphia. He is doing research for his dissertation. I am struggling to rewrite a novel that my editor says—and I agree—isn’t working. The desert landscape in southwest Utah is magnificent and to us wholly... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-04-19 08:53:24 UTC ]
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I first met Crystal Hana Kim at Women and Children First Bookstore in Chicago in 2017 for a book event, just after she just won the 2017 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. She greeted me with warm enthusiasm and we spoke about Korean history. Her debut novel, If You Leave... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-04-02 08:54:17 UTC ]
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The Suede bassist and author on writing without a safety net, terrifying himself for his next novel and which of the Thursday Murder Club books – by his brother Richard – he likes bestMat Osman is, along with Brett Anderson, a founding and current member of the band Suede, and the author of two... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-03-23 18:00:26 UTC ]
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