Brandon Taylor: ‘Writing is the most fun I’m capable of having’

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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How To Write About Your Mother

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[ Literrary Hub | 2023-05-12 13:21:24 UTC ]
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Book Review: ‘The Labors of Hercules Beal,’ by Gary D. Schmidt, and ‘The Storyteller,’ by Brandon Hobson

In new novels by the National Book Award finalists Gary D. Schmidt and Brandon Hobson, adolescent boys navigating parental loss find strength in ancient mythology. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-05-12 09:00:15 UTC ]
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In a PEN America Lecture, Ta-Nehisi Coates Exercises Freedom to Write

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-05-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Taylor Swift Can't Prevent Book Sales from Falling

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-05-11 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The Taylor Swift effect: why a mystery book is rocketing up US charts – despite no one knowing anything about it

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[ The Guardian | 2023-05-10 03:53:07 UTC ]
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Scholastic recognizes 100 years of teen writing.

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[ Literrary Hub | 2023-05-08 12:47:48 UTC ]
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Stephen King Has 1 Simple Demand For Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene

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[ HuffPost | 2023-05-04 08:27:12 UTC ]
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Matt Rowland Hill: ‘My mother says she will sue me if I ever write another book like it’

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[ The Guardian | 2023-04-29 17:00:41 UTC ]
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Ralph Yarl, Defunding Libraries, and (Re)Writing Kansas City: On Crafting New Narratives in a Divided City

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[ Literrary Hub | 2023-04-27 08:53:54 UTC ]
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Never too late: over-50s urged to write fiction with prize for debut novel

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[ The Guardian | 2023-04-23 09:00:35 UTC ]
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Novelist Celeste Ng: ‘There was a period when I thought I’d never write again’

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[ The Guardian | 2023-04-22 17:00:15 UTC ]
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Live from New York: Curtis Sittenfeld on Dating Up, Writing Funny, and How SNL and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop Are Alike

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[ Literrary Hub | 2023-04-20 08:53:29 UTC ]
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For teens who like to write: Miami Book Fair is offering a virtual summer camp.

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[ Literrary Hub | 2023-04-18 14:26:44 UTC ]
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[ Granta | 2023-04-12 15:52:21 UTC ]
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Brittney Griner Is Writing a Memoir About Her Detention in Russia

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[ The New York Times | 2023-04-12 14:16:29 UTC ]
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[ The New York Times | 2023-04-05 09:00:42 UTC ]
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[ Literrary Hub | 2023-04-03 08:52:43 UTC ]
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[ Literrary Hub | 2023-02-22 17:10:52 UTC ]
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