Catherine Lacey: ‘That constant nervous Twitter energy repels me’

The American novelist, whose latest work is a fake biography of an avant-garde artist, on growing up in Mississippi and why her fiction has ‘never actively involved cellphones or the internet’Catherine Lacey, 37, is the author of three previous novels, including The Answers, currently being adapted for television by Darren Aronofsky, and Pew (2020), about a nameless amnesiac of ambiguous race and gender. Her new novel, Biography of X, set in a parallel America, follows a widow untangling the life story of her wife, an avant-garde artist known as X. The New York Times has called it “sprawling and ambitious… strange and dystopian”. Lacey, one of Granta’s best young American novelists in 2017, was speaking from her home in Brooklyn.Which part of the book came first: the alternate history or the fake biography?I liked the idea of writing a fake biography and the biographies I like best are usually written by someone with some kind of compromised perspective. I thought the worst person to write a biography would be a surviving spouse with a bit of a grudge, but I didn’t want to get into the heterosexual dynamics of a man writing about a woman or a woman writing about a man; it had to be two women. At the same time, I wanted the novel to be set in the mid-20th century but I wasn’t interested in writing about the actual struggles a prominent lesbian couple would have gone through in that time. So my alternate history grew out of that problem. I thought, if I have an America... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2023-04-01 17:00:01 UTC ]
News tagged with: #alternate history #mid-20th century #takes place #novelists

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Twitter Gives Partners New Data Tools to Track Messages

Twitter is diving even deeper into data. The social media platform is now giving publishers and brands more insights into how their tweets perform. Today, the company introduced analytics for Twitter Cards, which allow companies to track how media-filled tweets perform—such as how many users... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2014-01-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #analytics dashboard #big difference #nbc news #target audiences #user information


Anonymous writer behind Goldman Sachs Elevator Twitter account gets book deal

The anonymous figure behind the Twitter handle is reported to be releasing a book titled 'Straight to Hell: True Tales of Deviance and Excess in the World of Investment Banking' this October. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #anonymous writer #book deal #twitter handle #book titled #investment banking


Tony Gallagher clings to the Telegraph reins on Twitter | Media Monkey

Deposed editor still has old job title in Twitter bio as he thanks 'the hundreds who have emailed/tweeted/texted/DMed me'After three days' Twitter silence, deposed Daily Telegraph editor Tony Gallagher has returned to thank the "hundreds" of well-wishers who mourned his defenestration. "To the... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2014-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #job title #@gallaghereditor


The Actor Who Played Chewbacca Shared A Ton Of "Star Wars" Set Photos On Twitter And They Are Amazing

Thrill to the sight of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker raising a toast in honor of Sir Alec Guiness's birthday!Today in vaguely surreal photographs: Peter Mayhew, the 7'3" actor and mainstay of the traveling sci-fi/comic book convention circuit whose claim to fame is being the man inside the... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2014-01-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #star wars


Second Twitter fiction festival to run in March

The second Twitter fiction festival, searching for authors from across the world to tell stories... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2014-01-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Twitter Cofounder Biz Stone Launches Jelly, A Visual Q&A Platform

Biz Stone and Ben Finkel created Jelly to function almost like a modern-day visual search engine.No matter how big the exit, it seems Silicon Valley entrepreneurs eschew retirement. In the case of Twitter (and its $2.1 billion IPO), the cofounders have continued churning out products with... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2014-01-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #biz stone #jack dorsey #latest venture


A VC's Office Designed To Put Nervous Entrepreneurs At Ease

Want to have more productive meetings? Take a look inside the inspiring office of First Round Capital's Phin Barnes, who carefully chose every piece to spark revealing conversations.Phin Barnes's office is like a Hidden Pictures Puzzle. The more you look around, the more you notice.... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2014-01-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #venture capital


YotaPhone update lets you read more ebooks and documents on its energy-saving E Ink display

Much as we admired the potential of the YotaPhone in our recent review, we just couldn't overlook its lack of support for popular e-reading platforms like Amazon Kindle and Google Books. That problem hasn't been solved just yet, but things are ... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2013-12-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #ink display #amazon kindle #google books


Rupert Murdoch cards turn Twitter gems into festive greetings | Media Monkey

Fans of Rupert Murdoch's musings on Twitter can now share his thoughts with their friends this festive season. No, the Times isn't publishing a Christmas supplement compiling its owner's thoughts – New York artist Michelle Vaughan has produced letterpress cards featuring a selection of his... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2013-12-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #choice words #phone hacking #status quo


Data Proves We Pay For Things On Mobile, But We're Still Nervous Of Security

Credit card security firm Jumio has looked into how we're all using our smartphones and tablets to shop.Jumio, a young firm backed by Facebook billionaire Eduardo Saverin, has just published research on how consumers are using their mobile devices to pay for things. Among the data are two key... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2013-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #mobile devices #key facts


Publishers Get Traffic Boost From Twitter Photos

By using images in tweets, publications like The Atlantic, Grantland, Slate and Wired are turning tweets into the kind of story previews readers already see on Facebook, the front page of a newspaper or in the contents section of a magazine.The post Publishers Get Traffic Boost From Twitter... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2013-11-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #post publishers #traffic boost #front page


Big books the antithesis of Twitter

Six years and 900 pages on, there ended up being two million reasons why this first-time author would have been glad to have stuck with the written word.     Continue reading at The Sydney Morning Herald

[ The Sydney Morning Herald | 2013-11-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #big books #first-time author #written word


IBM Takes Aim at Twitter, Claims to Have Patented Online Advertising

IBM is alleging that Twitter has infringed on its patents, including one that would seem to give the computing giant status as an inventor of online advertising.Revealed in a Twitter filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission this morning, IBM is claiming that Twitter has infringed on at... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2013-11-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #online advertising #exchange commission #online companies


8 Lessons Startups Can Learn From Twitter's Chaotic Creation Story

Most startups will never see anything close to the amount of money Twitter plans on raising during its IPO this week (a reported $1.6 billion) and in fact, three out of four tech businesses fail. Entrepreneurs in training looking to create a successful company, then, might want to know what... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2013-11-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #makes sense #early days #paying attention


Medium opens its social publishing platform to all Twitter users

Twitter's Ev Williams started Medium to simplify and socialize online article writing, but the service's invitation-only nature has kept many folks on the sidelines. Today, things are opening up: Medium's now accessible to anyone willing to sign into Twitter and verify an email address. Would-be ... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2013-10-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #twitter users #email address


Twitter spot for Hot Key

Hot Key Books is to publish a debut by 18-year-old Isobel Harrop, after publisher Emily Thomas... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2013-10-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #hot key


Pinterest Drives More Traffic to Publishers Than Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit Combined

When it comes to referral traffic from social networks, there's Facebook and Pinterest — and then there's everyone else. Facebook accounted for more than 10% of overall traffic to publishers in September, by ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-10-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #referral traffic #social networks


Bilton Twitter Book -- Co-Founder Jack Dorsey Almost Went to Facebook (And More!)

An excerpt from a forthcoming book on the birth of Twitter reveals surprising new details about the company's founders. Some not-so-pretty. Continue reading at AllThingsD

[ AllThingsD | 2013-10-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Stanford's Wadhwa says Twitter board 'can't be a boy's club'

Stanford Law School Fellow Vivek Wadhwa, whose criticism of Twitter's all-make board sparked a weekend debate on the social network, took to Bloomberg TV with his arguments on Monday. "They are a small elite group I call 'The Mafia' who are stuck in the echo chamber," said Wadhwa, who is... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal

[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2013-10-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #bloomberg tv #private company