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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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Fri, 30/09/2011 - 08:55 Publishers should not be too quick to write off physical products and should encourage competition between a number of digital players to avoid the mistakes the record industry made, the director general of the Entertainment... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Mon, 26/09/2011 - 11:59 Broadcaster and author Melvyn Bragg is to join the judging panel for the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award for a second year in a row. Bragg will be joined by actor Ian Hart, playwright and novelist Hanif Kureishi, novelist Joanna Trollope... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 23/09/2011 - 08:35 Marian Keyes is writing a cookery title for Michael Joseph, as the imprint ramps up its spring food publishing list next year by releasing one title every month during the first half of 2012. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Fri, 23/09/2011 - 10:45 Canongate has bought a collection of stories by a US marine and veteran of the Iraq war. Senior editor Francis Bickmore pre-empted UK and Commonwealth rights to the untitled collection by Phil Klay through by Cathryn... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 22/09/2011 - 11:01 Faber is to publish a new detective novel from P D James which combines a murder investigation with the world and characters of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, revisiting Darcy and Elizabeth six years into their... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Thu, 22/09/2011 - 15:46 Agents who wish to publish their clients work must offer them a detailed explanation of what they will personally gain from the arrangement and obtain their full and written agreement, the president of the Association of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 19/09/2011 - 08:20 Scotland is to hold its first Crime Writing Festival next year, supported by Stirling Council, Creative Scotland and the University of Stirling, and working closely with Stirling's general literary festival, Off the Page.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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IPC Media has announced a number of proposed changes for monthly fashion title Marie Claire next year, including a larger format, a redesigned website and a new biannual fashion magazine. Continue reading at Media Week
[ Media Week | 2011-09-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Thu, 15/09/2011 - 08:30 The Red Queen author Philippa Gregory is turning her hand to young adult fiction for the first time, after signing a deal with Simon & Schuster. Ingrid Selberg, director of children's publishing at S&S UK, and Jon... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Wed, 14/09/2011 - 08:55 Authors including Neil Gaiman and Ian Rankin will collaborate with the public in a short story "Tweetathon" organised by the Society of Authors. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Mon, 12/09/2011 - 08:45 Stories from Jon McGregor and M J Hyland have been shortlisted for the sixth BBC National Short Story Award, announced on Friday evening (9th September) on BBC Radio 4's "Front Row". read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Fri, 09/09/2011 - 19:30 Stories from Jon McGregor and M J Hyland have been shortlisted for the sixth BBC National Short Story Award, announced this evening (9th September) on BBC Radios Front Row. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Fri, 09/09/2011 - 08:45 Discount retailer The Works has said it hopes to expand its stores in the UK by nearly 150, as well as growing its e-commerce business with the sale of ebooks. The retailer has opened 43 new stores this yearbringing its total... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Thu, 01/09/2011 - 14:45 Hodder Children's Books has bought two teen titles from journalist and presenter Dawn Porter. Publisher Emily Thomas did the deal directly with Porter for a "sizeable" sum. The books are described as "epic stories of an... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Wed, 31/08/2011 - 14:45 The Edinburgh International Book Festival, Scottish indie Cargo and US publisher McSweeney's are to team up on a four-volume collection of stories from authors including Roddy Doyle and Ali Smith. Fifty authors are to take part... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Wed, 31/08/2011 - 14:37 Wiley Europe has acquired exclusive UK and Commonwealth rights to Models.Behaving.Badly by Emanuel Derman, in a deal struck with Max Brockman of Brockman Inc. The book is about quantsthe physicists working on Wall Street as... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 26/08/2011 - 08:48 Penguin is reissuing its collections of short stories for adults by renowned children's author Roald Dahl. The rejacketed paperback versions, priced £8.99, will be reissued in four batches, beginning with Someone Like... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Thu, 25/08/2011 - 07:00 The Orwell Prize is to blog George Orwells hop-picking diary entries, which went on to form part of his novel A Clergymans Daughter. Starting today, the political writing award will post a daily blog 80 years to the day that... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 19/08/2011 - 10:20 Weidenfeld & Nicolson has acquired a collection of stories by Nathan Englander, one of the New Yorker's "20 Writers for the 21st Century", whose previous works have been published by Faber. Editorial director Arzu... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 18/08/2011 - 12:10 Man Booker-winning author Graham Swift has said there is a danger aspiring writers may be put off from writing if the rates they are paid decrease in the digital age. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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