Canceling My Book Deal Was the Best Career Move I’ve Ever Made

I started querying agents for my memoir, Negative Space, in 2012, after two years of writing and revising. I got a few rounds of passes, including several friendly rejections in which agents said they just didn’t “know how to sell” my book. I heard this refrain enough times that I started considering the small press […] The post Canceling My Book Deal Was the Best Career Move I’ve Ever Made appeared first on Electric Literature. Continue reading at 'Electric Literature'

[ Electric Literature | 2021-03-11 12:00:00 UTC ]

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“The Leftovers” Is Teaching Me Who I Want to Be After Covid

I’ve been watching the Extremely Sad Show for Extremely Sad People for a few months now. I only learned this a few weeks ago, though.  At an editorial meeting for the literary magazine where I’m a columnist, someone said she was watching “the extremely sad show for extremely sad people.” Another... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-06-30 11:00:00 UTC ]
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A Queer Indo-Guyanese Poet’s Postcolonial Memoir of His Search for Belonging

I first came to poet Rajiv Mohabir’s work through his cutting meditation on why he will never celebrate Indian Arrival Day, which Guyana celebrates on May 5th to commemorate the arrival of indentured Indian workers in the Caribbean. In the essay for the Asian American Writers Workshop’s The... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-06-22 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Cinelle Barnes Doesn’t Care If You Think She’s Soft

In our series “Can Writing Be Taught?” we partner with Catapult to ask their course instructors all our burning questions about the process of teaching writing. This month we’re featuring Cinelle Barnes, author of Monsoon Mansion: A Memoir and Malaya: Essays on Freedom. Barnes is a regular... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-06-17 11:00:00 UTC ]
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I Thought This Memoir Wasn’t “Taiwanese Enough”—Because That Was My Fear About Myself

In March of 2004, my family and I were at home in Taiwan for the national election, and I got into my first-ever screaming match with a perfect stranger. The election choice, as always, was between the Kuo Ming Tang, which favors reunification with China; and the Democratic People’s Party, which... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-06-01 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Sweet Cherry Publishing: Life for Leicester children’s indie after Nibbies Small Press triumph

"We want to be recognised as one of the leading children’s book publishers in the industry: we want not only to be recognised, we want to be respected.” Sanjee de Silva (pictured), the new publisher at Sweet Cherry, recently named Small Press of the Year at the British Book Awards, has big... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-05-28 22:25:53 UTC ]
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The Book Club of My Dreams Was at the Library All Along

A successful book club needs three things to thrive: delicious food, decent wine and wonderful people. Only the first two, food and wine, are easy to find. It is the third element, the people, that is like a jigsaw puzzle with a thousand pieces—something that promises to look like the pretty... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-05-27 11:00:00 UTC ]
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A Road Trip Across America to Dismantle White Patriarchy

Randa Jarrar’s memoir Love Is An Ex-Country focuses predominantly on the years leading to the 2016 election, a period, which, like now, was characterized by heightened Islamophobia, misogyny, homophobia, anti-immigrant sentiment, and racism. Jarrar embarks on a road trip inspired by Tahia... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-05-21 11:00:43 UTC ]
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Adin Dobkin Admits He’s in the Pocket of Big Sandwich

In our series “Can Writing Be Taught?” we partner with Catapult to ask their course instructors all our burning questions about the process of teaching writing. This month we’re talking to Adin Dobkin, author of the forthcoming book Sprinting Through No-Man’s Land: Endurance, Tragedy, and... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-05-20 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Trauma Has Forced Me to Become a Powerful Witch

In the introductory essay of White Magic, Elissa Washuta—a Native American author and member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe—examines the colonization of spirituality, as well as her own reticence to describe herself as a witch: “I just want a version of the occult that isn’t built on plunder, but I... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-05-07 11:01:00 UTC ]
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Being An Intellectual Won’t Pay the Bills

In Christine Smallwood’s debut novel The Life of the Mind, protagonist Dorothy escapes the stifled environment of an academic conference for one she finds even more depressing: the slot machines. There, she runs into her former dissertation advisor, Judith, a woman who caused her significant... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-05-06 11:00:00 UTC ]
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The Double Interrogation of Piotr Florczyk’s From the Annals of Kraków, by Alice-Catherine Carls

Book Reviews   Ghetto Heroes Square in Kraków / Photo by annaspies / Flickr Piotr Florczyk’s From the Annals of Kraków (Lynx House Press, 2020) narrates the searing realization of an almost unnoticed absence, a regret urging us to learn about... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2021-04-28 20:24:52 UTC ]
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8 Historical Fiction Novels About War-Torn Love

Every love story is built with inherently high stakes. After all, a heart can be the ultimate prize, and courtship a most dangerous risk. And love, as we all know, won’t stop for much. Our hearts pay no attention to timing or impediments, and logic falls by the wayside as we feel the anguish of... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-04-28 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Thousands of supporters join staff at Mike Pence’s publisher in campaign against book deal

Petition signed by more than 200 Simon & Schuster employees delivered to publishing house also calls for end to deals with members of Trump administrationMore than 200 members of staff at Simon & Schuster have signed a petition calling for the publishing house to cancel its seven-figure... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2021-04-27 13:55:17 UTC ]
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Why Writing a Memoir is Like Making Kimchi

In Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner—also known as the indie-pop musician Japanese Breakfast—writes of her mother’s battle with terminal cancer and the caretaking process. The mother-daughter relationship is the beating pulse of this memoir, presented in all of its uncomfortable complexities.... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-04-22 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Mike Pence’s publisher refuses to cancel memoir after staff protest

Simon & Schuster president Jonathan Karp says seven-figure book deal will go ahead, after open letter from employees accuses publisher of being ‘on the wrong side of justice’Simon & Schuster has said it will not pull out of a seven-figure book deal with Mike Pence after some of its... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2021-04-21 12:05:44 UTC ]
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Mentoring matters

I set up The Middle Way Mentoring Project, a two year professional development scheme, to support early-career writers take the next step in their writing career. Through my work managing a small press I met plenty of ‘nearly there’ writers who weren’t able to take the next step. These writers... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-04-20 21:18:59 UTC ]
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Book by Officer Who Shot Breonna Taylor Is a New Test for Publishers

Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, one of the officers involved in the fatal shooting, has a book deal with a small press, but its distributor, Simon & Schuster, in an unusual move, said it won’t ship it. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-04-16 22:14:05 UTC ]
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7 Memoirs About Unraveling Family Secrets

There are as many different kinds of memoirs as there are novels, maybe more. The public-figure memoir. The witnessing-history memoir. The survivor’s memoir. The addiction memoir. The let-me-set-the-record-straight memoir. The travel memoir. The memoir about one specific family member. The... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-04-09 11:00:00 UTC ]
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A Potion Made of Stolen Gold to Achieve the Indian American Dream

Sanjena Sathian’s debut novel Gold Diggers is set in the Indian American suburbs of Atlanta—a world of competitive debate and spelling bees, of racing to get into the most prestigious academic summer camps, of Miss Teen India pageants—all roads leading to the promised land of America’s most... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-04-09 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Simon & Schuster Signs Two-Book Deal With Mike Pence

Days before Republican John Boehner releases his party-pounding book from Macmillan, Trump's vice-president gets a book deal of his own. The post Simon & Schuster Signs Two-Book Deal With Mike Pence appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-04-08 16:52:35 UTC ]
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