Claire Keegan: ‘I can’t explain my work. I just write stories’

The much-acclaimed Irish author of Small Things Like These on her quietly devastating new story and why George Saunders wouldn’t read it aloud for a podcastClaire Keegan’s five books to date run to just 700 pages and some 140,000 words. “I love to see prose being written economically,” she tells me. “Elegance is saying just enough. And I do believe that the reader completes the story.” Revered by critics and prize judges for the miraculous density of her short fiction ever since her 1999 debut, Antarctica, she became an international bestseller two years ago with her first novel, Small Things Like These, about an Irish coal merchant whose eyes are opened one Christmas to the horror behind the walls of his biggest customer, a laundry run by nuns. “I think the book was taking off before it was shortlisted for the Booker prize,” Keegan, speaking from her home on the Wexford coast after technology thwarts our planned video call. “A lot of the sales went through word of mouth. A lot of people bought the book for other people for Christmas. People read it and bought it for other people in the new year. Now it’s on the school syllabus here.”The novel, which won last year’s Orwell prize for political fiction, takes its epigraph from the 1916 proclamation of the Irish republic, pledging “equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens”, a damning prelude to a book about systematised misogyny. Keegan’s new book, So Late in the Day, a 64-page story published as a standalone... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2023-09-02 17:00:10 UTC ]
News tagged with: #decade ago #creative writing #things happen #devastating effect #stay quiet #irish author

Other Publishing stories related to: 'Claire Keegan: ‘I can’t explain my work. I just write stories’'

Claire Keegan: ‘I can’t explain my work. I just write stories’

[ The Guardian | 2023-09-02 17:00:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #decade ago #creative writing #things happen #devastating effect #stay quiet #irish author

Mat Osman: ‘I wanted to write about a dirty, dangerous, working-class London’

The Suede bassist and author on writing without a safety net, terrifying himself for his next novel and which of the Thursday Murder Club books – by his brother Richard – he likes bestMat Osman is, along with Brett Anderson, a founding and current member of the band Suede, and the author of two... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-03-23 18:00:26 UTC ]
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Leslie Jamison Writes A Different Kind of Love Story In “Splinters”

Leslie Jamison’s new memoir Splinters follows the aftermath of divorce and the awakening of motherhood, but it explores desire more than it does any kind of death. Jamison wants to make meaning, to connect, to love, to feel, to mother, to write, and to revise her life endlessly. There are losses... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-03-08 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #leslie jamison #love story #electric literature #memoir

Writing the Historical Mystery Novel: Jane Smiley Explains Her Process

Jane Smiley is a master of plot, with multiple awards for her novels, including the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle award for A Thousand Acres (King Lear as set on an Iowa farm circa 1979). She’s also distilled her years of teaching and cultural criticism into a superb writing... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-12-06 09:53:58 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #jane smiley #cultural criticism #pulitzer prize

Choosing to Bear Witness: Writing the Story of a Body

My clearest memory of my freshman year of college takes place in the emergency room of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, where I was studying English Literature at Boston University and living on the eighteenth floor of Warren Towers, in Tower C, in a room with southern exposure. Despite... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-11-17 09:53:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #boston university #bear witness #freshman year #english literature

I write ‘women’s commercial fiction’ –why is my work still seen as inferior to men’s? | Emma Hughes

A recent roundup of the ‘best books of 2021’ had every possible genre of novel – with the unsurprising exception of romanceIn the four months since my first novel came out, I’ve had the same conversation probably a dozen times.“What’s it about?” a well-meaning stranger will ask. “Well,” I’ll... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2021-12-05 15:25:24 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #commercial fiction #dozen times #high heels #first novel

Alex Hyde | 'If I was ever going to write something, I was going to start with this story'

Academic Alex Hyde‘s first novel is a lyrical tale about two women named Violet during the Second World War. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-11-26 18:23:13 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #world war #first novel

All Stories reveals its 14 writing mentees

An Arts Council-funded scheme to support writers from a range of underrepresented backgrounds has revealed its first intake of 14 budding writers, who will be mentored by book editors. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-02 21:17:19 UTC ]
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The story of an African children's book that explains the science of skin colour

For parents, skin colour is often a difficult subject and dealing with it through storytelling can be a useful aid. Continue reading at The Conversation

[ The Conversation | 2021-07-28 15:40:42 UTC ]
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22 Books That Helped Me Write the Story of My Transition

As a trans person, I spent most of my life with my head in a book imagining other lives, other bodies, and other histories. In some ways, my memoir is an amalgamation of all the books that kept me curious, kept me thinking it was worth it to keep going. Sometimes it was to dream […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-26 09:48:49 UTC ]
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Raven Leilani | 'I wanted to write a story about a young black woman who is unvarnished on the page'

"The first time we have sex, we are both fully clothed, at our desks during working hours, bathed in blue computer light.” So begins Luster, the extraordinary début novel from American author Raven Leilani, which has caused a sensation in the US and deserves to do the same here. The... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-01 23:03:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #raven leilani #working hours #white man #open marriage #american author

Faber lands Claire Keegan's 'delicately wrought' novel

Faber is to publish Claire Keegan's latest short novel, Small Things Like These, next autumn. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-25 14:52:49 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #small things

Cleeves writes story based on Forum Books for store to give away free

Ann Cleeves has written a short story based on indie store Forum Books in Northumberland, which even features manager Helen Stanton as a character. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-22 05:26:33 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #forum books #ann cleeves

Shortlist revealed for Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize for unpublished work

The Wilbur & Niso Smith Foundation has announced the shortlist for the Best Unpublished Manuscript category in the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-28 03:59:23 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #shortlist revealed #unpublished work

Rian Hughes | 'I was very keen to write something where it is essential that the story be told in this interesting graphic fashion'

Rian Highes' first foray into fiction is an extraterrestrial romp, told through narrative graphic design Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-04-29 13:15:42 UTC ]
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National Centre for Writing seeks working class writers

The National Centre for Writing in Norwich is relaunching its Escalator Talent Development Scheme, with a special focus this year on writers from working class backgrounds. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-15 00:58:56 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #national centre

Betches' Aleen Kuperman on explaining new media to immigrant parents—and not wanting to write about 'The Bachelor' again

Aleen Kuperman is co-founder and CEO at Betches Media. The company has grown from a blog created in a dorm room at Cornell in 2011 to a sprawling media network including nine podcasts, New York Times-bestselling books and millions of Instagram followers. In this episode of the “Ad Block”... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2019-10-18 09:01:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #instagram followers #soviet union #high expectations #medical school #making money #long island #book deal

Tiger Woods to write memoir telling his 'definitive story'

Publisher HarperCollins says Back is first and only account ‘directly from’ US golferFresh from a startling career comeback after years of battling injuries, sex addiction and tabloids, Tiger Woods has announced a new memoir titled Back in which he promises to tell his “definitive story”.The... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-10-15 15:31:34 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #publisher harpercollins #tiger woods #harpercollins #memoir