Every author wants to write a book like David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas. Two decades after it first hit the shelves, the author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow celebrates its daring, dazzling appealPity the writer who believes they have written the next Cloud Atlas! A literary agent once told me that when a fledgling writer compares their novel to David Mitchell’s, he invariably knows it will be awful. Once you have written a book like Cloud Atlas, you have not written Cloud Atlas because Cloud Atlas is not like anything.When the novel was published in 2004, critics compared it to everything. AS Byatt in the Guardian invokes Herman Melville, Raymond Chandler, Martin Amis, George Orwell and Ursula K Le Guin among others. Tom Bissell in the New York Times adds to the mix Cervantes, Defoe, Isherwood, William S Burroughs, and, in a last paragraph twist, James Joyce’s Ulysses. Theo Tait of the Telegraph writes in a rare negative review that “Cloud Atlas spends half its time wanting to be The Simpsons and the other half the Bible.” This line is funny more than apt, but had I read it at the time, it would have sold the book to me. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2024-04-06 10:00:31 UTC ]
Two writers discuss the literary forebears who directly inspired their latest novels. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-06-27 04:00:00 UTC ]
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I’d bought my copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses at a Barnes and Noble in Manhattan in 1999, the summer before I left for college, along with a stack of other novels that I was convinced my much-smarter classmates would have already read. How I even decided which novels those were, I am still not... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-06-14 08:56:12 UTC ]
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Plus: an auction in support of a more diverse publishing workforce, a YA anthology to fight book bans, and more. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-06-11 15:00:00 UTC ]
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The cultural commentator, speaker, literary agent, and author's first children's book 'My Guncle and Me' (Running Press) is a gentle, authentic story of Henry Higgleston, a young boy bullied and teased at school for being different until his “guncle” comes for a visit and shows young Henry that... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-15 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Reid's blogs, 'Query Shark' and 'Miss Snark,' were widely read destinations for frank commentary on the publishing industry and the querying process. After a more than 20-year career as an agent, she died after a brief illness on April 14. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-02 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Chris Silbermann, whose clients include Dr. Seuss Enterprises, has been named one of nine managing directors at Creative Artists Agency, while motion picture literary department co-head Ida and literary agent Sloan Harris have joined the CAA board. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-04-11 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Every author wants to write a book like David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas. Two decades after it first hit the shelves, the author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow celebrates its daring, dazzling appealPity the writer who believes they have written the next Cloud Atlas! A literary agent once... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-04-06 10:00:31 UTC ]
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When I was ghostwriting full-time, I produced twenty books in fourteen years. Thanks to a suggestion from my literary agent, I realized a ghostwriter might make a great heroine—they’re under tremendous pressure, often while adjacent to the fame machine—so Mari Hawthorn, the ghostwriter at the... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-02-15 12:05:00 UTC ]
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William Gladstone, the literary agent, publisher, author, and founder of Waterside Productions, died on December 27. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-01-12 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The group in California started on the notoriously challenging novel by James Joyce in 1995. In October, it reached the end. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-12-07 10:40:10 UTC ]
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His tiny California newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize for its exposé of Synanon, a renowned drug rehabilitation program that had turned into a violent operation. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-11-01 21:32:07 UTC ]
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Patience, Perspective, and the Power of Story: An Interview with Toni Ann Johnson, by Scott LaMascus Interviews [email protected] Mon, 10/16/2023 - 13:46 Storyteller Toni Ann Johnson uses her skills as an actor, playwright, and fiction writer to... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2023-10-16 18:46:19 UTC ]
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In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle reviews John Plotz’s personal reading of a fantasy classic by Ursula K. Le Guin The American author Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018) is widely regarded as one of the finest authors of what is broadly termed ‘speculative fiction’.... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2023-10-13 14:00:53 UTC ]
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Istanbul's accomplished literary agent Nermin Mollaoğlu is opening a new press in London with Tasja Dorkofikis and Geraldine D'Amico. The post Frankfurt-Bound Nermin Mollaoğlu Opens a Press in the UK appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2023-10-12 20:29:08 UTC ]
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The Booker winning author talks about how his most recent work was inspired by Hilary Mantel, and the way the books world has changed since his debut was published more than 40 years agoToo many people have been dying lately,” Julian Barnes reflects over the phone from his home in north London.... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-09-16 08:00:25 UTC ]
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American screenwriter and producer behind the creation of the hugely successful soaps Dallas and Knots LandingDavid Jacobs, who has died aged 84, was an aspiring novelist when he created the show Dallas, a worldwide phenomenon and US television’s first peak-time soap success since Peyton Place.... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-08-23 13:56:48 UTC ]
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My cousin Carol Smith, who has died aged 84, was a literary agent and author best known for her thrillers Kensington Court (1996) and Unfinished Business (2000).Born in London to Winifred (nee Mapleston), a teacher, and David Smith, a businessman, Carol attended the North London Collegiate,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-07-25 15:31:17 UTC ]
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Letting a Wild Ride Be a Wild Ride: A Conversation with Amy Spangler, by Ipek Sahinler & Iclal Vanwesenbeeck Interviews [email protected] Wed, 07/05/2023 - 14:43 Amy Spangler is the co-translator (with Nermin Menemencioğlu) of Leylâ Erbil’s A... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2023-07-05 19:43:55 UTC ]
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Sound too good to be true? Well I have news for you, dear aspiring writer, you can get yourself a phone call or a manuscript critique from a fancy literary agent by bidding at this year’s Literary Agents of Change Auction. The LAOC is an organization that believes that advancing the publishing... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-06-15 17:12:39 UTC ]
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Caroline Raphael, who has died of Parkinson’s disease aged 85, was for 20 years editor-in-chief of The Good Hotel Guide. She had worked on every edition from the first, in 1978, until her retirement in 2021, when the 2022 edition had gone to press.The Guide was launched by the literary agent... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-05-28 16:03:11 UTC ]
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