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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Nosy Crow buys two by Catherine Bruton

Nosy Crow has acquired two standalone books by Catherine Bruton, the author of I Predict a Riot and We Can Be Heroes (Egmont). Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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NEIBA Show Marked by High Energy

Higher sales, strong fall lists, and the addition of many first-time bookselling attendees combined to make this year's NEIBA trade show particularly strong. These turbulent political times also set the tone for many of the conversations and educational sessions. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-09-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Twitter tweaks Facebook with new issue ads policy that exempts publishers

The policy requires advertisers to get certified to run ads that refer to an election or candidate, or advocate for big issues including abortion, civil rights and guns. The post Twitter tweaks Facebook with new issue ads policy that exempts publishers appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2018-08-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon staff employed to defend company on Twitter

A group of Amazon employees in the US is being paid to promote the company on Twitter. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-08-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Giant 3D installation celebrates Haig's Notes on a Nervous Planet

A 3D installation of Earth, made up of thousands of answers to the question "How do you stay sane in a world that isn’t?", has been constructed to mark the publication of Matt Haig's latest book Notes on a Nervous Planet (Canongate). Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-08-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Producer, singer and DJ Navid 'Izadi' Hakimi, 32, delivered 'crazy, loving energy' to dance floors

One measure of producer, singer, DJ and keyboardist Navid Hakimi’s love of adventurous music could be found in the most basic of places: the influences category on his Facebook page. For the 32-year-old Hakimi, who was among five people — including his mother, Floria Hakimi — killed Sunday in a... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-08-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey defends failure to ban Alex Jones

Jack Dorsey refuses to follow Apple, Facebook and YouTube in banning Jones, saying he will be guided by principles rather than pressureTwitter founder Jack Dorsey has defended his company’s decision to continue publishing the controversial tweets of the American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones,... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2018-08-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Catherine O’Flynn signs first children’s book deal

Catherine O’Flynn, whose novel What Was Lost won the first novel prize at the Costa Book Awards in 2008, has written a children’s book about two girls who want to be detectives. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-08-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Catherine Doyle | 'The Middle-Grade community is very supportive . . . I hope they don’t mind me sneaking in'

The irish writer weaves real nautical history with fantastical elements in her first novel for the Middle-Grade readership. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-06-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Twitter looks to woo smaller, Facebook-frustrated publishers with new site

Twitter will launch a site to help smaller publishers use its platform through how-to guides and case studies from larger publishers it works with directly. The post Twitter looks to woo smaller, Facebook-frustrated publishers with new site appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2018-05-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Why BuzzFeed News premiered a show on Apple News before Facebook, YouTube, Twitter

Apple paid BuzzFeed to release a show first on Apple News, and the publisher was also able to make money through an ad-revenue split. The post Why BuzzFeed News premiered a show on Apple News before Facebook, YouTube, Twitter appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2018-05-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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S&S signs six-figure deal with Catherine Isaac

Simon & Schuster UK has signed a six-figure deal for two new novels from Catherine Isaac, with the first novel, A Blanket of Stars, scheduled for first publication in summer 2019. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-05-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Twitter gets Disney, NBC, Viacom to boost its NewFronts lineup

Credit: Illustration by Tam Nguyen/Ad AgeTwitter showed off more partnerships with publishers and networks at its annual NewFronts pitch to digital ad buyers on Monday night, describing plans with ESPN, Viacom, NBC Universal, Hearst, Major League Baseball and others.The media and messaging... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2018-05-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon shares fall after Trump's Twitter attacks

Amazon shares took a hit after President Donald Trump attacked the online store on social media, this time accusing it of not being on a "level playing field" with “fully tax paying retailers” and of ripping off the US postal service. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Snapchat's UK ad revenue set to overtake Twitter's next year

UK arm – which earns about 10% of app’s global ad revenues – is forecast to bring in £181mSnapchat is so popular in Britain that its advertising revenue will overtake Twitter’s UK revenue in 2019, and revenue from consumer magazine and cinema advertising within two years.The seven-year old phone... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2018-03-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Fake news is Twitter's flu: Chips with Everything podcast

This month, MIT scientists published a paper that found lies spread six times faster than real news on Twitter. This week, Jordan Erica Webber tries to understand why this happensSubscribe and review: Acast, Apple, Spotify, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud. Join the discussion on Facebook,... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2018-03-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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‘A big resurgence’: Publishers get a boost from Twitter video

“Whether content does well on Facebook is in the lap of the gods. The algorithm is much more complex. Twitter has a consistency that Facebook doesn't.” The post ‘A big resurgence’: Publishers get a boost from Twitter video appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2018-02-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Twitter Tightened Up the Requirements for Its Amplify Publisher Program

Twitter made a move to protect brands from having their advertisements appear alongside objectionable content by tweaking the requirements for participation in its Amplify program for publishers. Vice president of emerging content products Mike Park announced in a blog post that in order to... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2018-02-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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‘Twitter is having a comeback’: What’s on the minds of European publishers

How to diversify platform distribution in the wake of Facebook's news-feed changes, what more can be done to throttle ad fraud, and the GDPR are all top of mind for publishers attending Digiday's Publishing Summit Europe. The post ‘Twitter is having a comeback’: What’s on the minds of European... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2018-02-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Twitter's European v.p. signs with PRH

Twitter's European vice-president, Bruce Daisley, is publishing a book with Penguin Random House offering his insights for "redesigning" the world of work. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-02-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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