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 ]
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Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Ford talks about his new novel "Canada," his memories of the late Raymond Carver, and how art makes life. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-06-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The latest story from a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer will appear in 140-character chunks. The New Yorker is publishing Jennifer Egan's "Black Box" in installments on Twitter, the New York Observer reports. The tweets, which began yesterd ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-05-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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If you have an iPad or tablet device, chances are you've seen the Web through the glossy world of Flipboard. If you've ever taken the "social magazine" for a spin, you might know that while the user experience is silky smooth, the company has had to address concerns about the service's threat to... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2012-05-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A dozen books a year? Some writers are accelerating the pace in this brave new world of ebooks. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-05-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Just as president Obama comes out in favor of gay marriage, a new book takes a close look at American same sex couples, from Walt Whitman to Greta Garbo to Jasper Johns. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-05-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Next month, the Slate Audio Book Club will discuss Alison Bechdel's Are You My Mother? Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2012-05-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins has bought world rights in The Real Lady Detective Agency, an account of a true-... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Faber is releasing a series of six short ebooks, called Faber Forty-Fives, which each draw... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Two weeks after BEA ended last year and all the booksellers left town, something magical happened in New York: 10 more blocks of the High Line, our beloved “park in the sky,” finally opened to the public, doubling it in size. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-04-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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World Book Night founder Jamie Byng spoke about the "need" for stories as the 2012... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-04-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Writer Tod Goldberg couldn't quite grasp the essence of Los Angeles as a young first-time visitor, but that had as much to do with the city as with him.I can still remember the first time I saw Los Angeles. It was December 1980, I was 9 years old, and the view came from the back seat of my older... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-04-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Faber has set up a new prize in memory of author Gordon Burn, alongside New Writing North and the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The author of 'Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair With Trash' discusses how he became fascinated with garbage.Edward Humes is a man of eclectic storytelling tastes. A former journalist awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for a series of stories he wrote for the Orange County Register on the military... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-04-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Novelist William Boyd is to write the next James Bond book, with 007 set to return to a 1960s... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-04-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Adam Mansbach's 'Go the F— to Sleep' was fun for adults. 'Seriously, Just Go to Sleep' lets the kids in on the joke. And now he has projects to keep him awake.A year ago, Adam Mansbach was an award-winning novelist and aspiring screenwriter wrapping up a two-year teaching job at Rutgers... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Figment is a website that gives teenagers and young adults a forum for posting their work and giving advice to others. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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While 2011 saw fewer announcements of layoffs and buyouts in the newspaper industry than previous years, attrition continued quietly and relentlessly, with the nation’s biggest newspaper publishers trimming their combined work forces by 7.2 ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-04-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A Vonnegut novella titled 'Basic Training,' about a young man visiting an eccentric relative, is available through Kindle only. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-03-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The April 2012 issue of Fast Company is now available on the iTunes Store, and it's optimized for reading on the new iPad. The image below shows how much sharper the type looks when viewed on the new iPad with the Retina display. The images are in high definition, too, rasterized at four times... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2012-03-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Works is enhancing its retail experience around books, creating genre sections, themed window... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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