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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Barnes & Noble has been revamping its digital audiobook offerings, and yesterday announced the launch B&N Audiobooks. The new service has a catalog of more than 300,000 titles, and has two buying options. Customers can buy audiobooks individually or enroll in a new subscription service... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-04-08 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Interviews Sandra Cisneros’s success as a poet, short-story writer, novelist, and essayist is tied to her determination to write about others with awareness and love. Her work is populated by powerful people—powerful in their pain, joy, and hunger for... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2022-04-01 16:29:13 UTC ]
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How’s this for fun? Take 27 incredible writers—including winners of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, PEN Awards, Women’s Prize for Fiction, Edgar Award, and more—and invite each of them to write an erotic short story. Then publish the collection in one steamy anthology with the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-03-17 08:50:16 UTC ]
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Knopf announced March 8 that it will publish two novels by Cormac McCarthy this fall, his first in 16 years, but don’t expect a book tour. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author lives an entirely private life. “He doesn’t give interviews, doesn’t give lectures, and doesn’t do book signings,” Michael... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-03-15 08:55:34 UTC ]
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Over half a decade later, a new Kickstarter campaign has finally eclipsed Pebble's crowdfunding record on the website. Fantasy and sci-fi author Brandon Sanderson set up a campaign to raise $1 million within 30 days to fund four secret books he intends to release every quarter next year. It... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2022-03-04 12:57:00 UTC ]
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Until I was five years old, my mother and I lived with her parents in Flatbush, Brooklyn. We never talked about my father. We never said his name, which meant that we never said my full name, Sherry Zimmerman. I first saw my full name written out in an inscription in a children’s alphabet book […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-02-28 09:49:55 UTC ]
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The author’s new middle grade novel, Solimar, follows the adventures of a soon-to-be 15-year-old Mexican royal who can predict the future and must work to protect her country’s fragile natural world. (Sponsored) Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-02-28 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The following first appeared in Lit Hub’s The Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. It is from Story Club with George Saunders, a Substack publication and literary community where Saunders offers weekly discussions of the craft of the short story. Both free and paid subscriptions are... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-02-25 09:51:07 UTC ]
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An unspoken tradition hints that going to the source is good for the story you want to write. The trouble often is that we have no idea what that source may be. Sometimes we think it is sheer research and we spend time in libraries. Often, we think it’s where the action of the proposed […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-02-22 09:52:32 UTC ]
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After previous seminars showcased work from Scotland and Wales, this year the focus is on writing from Northern Ireland. Chaired by novelist and non-fiction writer Glenn Patterson, director at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University Belfast – a familiar and popular name for British... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2022-02-16 12:14:57 UTC ]
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This is Underreported with Nicholas Lemann, from the publishing imprint Columbia Global Reports. We don’t just publish books; we use books to start conversations about topics that weren’t getting the attention they deserved. At least, until we took them on. This podcast is your audio connection... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-02-11 09:55:06 UTC ]
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“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” –Arthur Ashe * Years ago, when I was still a budding fiction writer, I published an essay about how hard skateboarding is to write about. I focused on a few novelists who had skater characters in their books but who clearly didn’t skate […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-02-09 09:55:45 UTC ]
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Leanne Brown’s wildly popular, IACP award-winning and The New York Times bestselling cookbook Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4/Day showed us that kitchen skill and resourcefulness, not budget, is the key to great food. Greenlight is delighted to welcome Brown back for the launch of her new... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-01-27 09:49:53 UTC ]
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The Dutch Foundation for Literature has announced the New Dutch Writing campaign will return to the UK for the fourth year. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-25 17:20:43 UTC ]
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Hot Key Books has snapped up two new books from sister writing duo Katharine and Elizabeth Corr. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-19 18:16:51 UTC ]
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Media.Monks has completed its first merger deal of the year with 4 Mile Analytics as it expands its data and digital media capabilities. The merger will see the Californian-based data consultancy join the holding company S4 Capital's fold to bring in its analytics capabilities--as well as data... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2022-01-12 10:53:08 UTC ]
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When I reviewed Jabari Asim’s first short story collection, A Taste of Honey (2010), I knew him to be a prominent essayist and cultural critic, author of What Obama Means and The N Word, former Washington Post deputy books editor and editor in chief of the iconic The Crisis, the journal of the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-01-12 09:49:19 UTC ]
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Joelle Taylor has won the 2021 T S Eliot Prize worth £25,000 for C+nto & Othered Poems (The Westbourne Press), described as “a blazing book of rage and light". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-11 22:54:54 UTC ]
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Taylor Harris discusses 'This Boy We Made,' her memoir on seeking answers about her son, the anxieties of Black parenting and her evolving faith Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-01-11 14:00:41 UTC ]
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At the Guardian, Jami Attenberg, author of the recent memoir I Came All This Way to Meet You, reflects on how a key moment of rejection allowed her to carve out her own path as a writer. “I’m old enough to realise that there is one more important part to carving out your creative life: … The... Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2022-01-10 21:30:10 UTC ]
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