Professor Selina Todd argues that you can be taught to write well, as demonstrated by American and Australian university students. Plus letters from Christopher Dodd and Anthony OrmsonIan Jack’s wariness towards writing manuals and classes is a peculiarly British response to teaching this craft (So you want to write better sentences than Jane Austen?, 27 May. While visiting Australian universities a few years ago, I was pleasantly surprised by the fluency and clarity of the (history) students’ prose. It turned out they were taught to write – not by rote learning grammar, which is the only form of pedagogy recognised by the current British government, but in lively writing workshops that encouraged them to believe that anyone, given time and hard work, could write well. Conversations with American colleagues revealed a similar mindset and introduced me to the American writer William Zinsser, whose book On Writing Well I recommend to all my students. Zinsser’s democratic premise is that good writing is the result of hard work, not innate “talent”. That’s a radical realisation for many British students, brought up with the gentlemanly myth that talent is hereditary, effortless and looks a lot like a public schoolboy.It is no coincidence that Zinsser spent part of his career at the New School in New York, the self-declared “comprehensive university”. In Britain, the adult education movement, including the Workers’ Educational Association, and the Open University, has... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2017-05-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
As women writers adapted to a changing post-WWII job market, so too did they adapt in their work, translating their skills into writing suspense for television and turning short stories into screenplays. In her essay on adaptation and “gendered discourses,” Shelley Cobb writes that “feminist... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-02-28 09:50:01 UTC ]
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New books by women writers of faith tackle racism, abortion, mental health, and other tough subjects. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-11-19 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The Rona Jaffe Foundation has discontinued its annual Writers' Award program, which awarded six women writers in the early stages of their work with $30,000 grants. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-03-23 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Earlier this year, we learned of the founding of the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, which is the first English-language literary award to celebrate excellence in fiction by women writers in the United States and Canada. And today, the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction announced that it has... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-15 17:54:45 UTC ]
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This year’s Digiday Awards will honor the companies that thrived throughout the most tumultuous year in the modern history of digital media and marketing. The post The Martin Agency, Sweetgreen and Condé Nast are Digiday Awards finalists appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2020-12-08 19:30:47 UTC ]
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This year’s Digiday Awards will honor the companies that thrived throughout the most tumultuous year in the modern history of digital media and marketing. The post The Martin Agency, Sweetgreen and Condé Nast are Digiday Awards finalists appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2020-12-08 19:30:47 UTC ]
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Headline has acquired Fallen Idols, an "enlightening and witty" tour through the modern history of statues from historian and commentator Alex von Tunzelmann. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-11 21:08:42 UTC ]
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The Carol Shields Prize is an effort to raise the visibility of women writers, in part with a sum that far exceeds many other book awards. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-02-07 10:00:17 UTC ]
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Test your knowledge of women writers with a fun pop quiz. First Round Name the title and author of the first-ever science fiction novel. This Pulitzer-prize winner and Italian translator declared in 2015 that she is now only writing in Italian. Name this author. The 2018 Nobel laureate for... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2019-12-27 12:00:00 UTC ]
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“My Brilliant Friend” and Elena Ferrante’s other best-selling books are inspiring female novelists and shaking up the country’s male-dominated literary establishment. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2019-12-09 10:00:14 UTC ]
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Jane Bettany has won HQ and Gransnet's writing prize for unpublished women writers aged over 40. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-06 01:51:32 UTC ]
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The International Literature Showcase is a partnership between the National Centre for Writing and British Council. It aims to showcase amazing writers based in the UK to programmers, publishers and teachers of literature in English around the world. To do so, we have invited six leading writers... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2019-10-05 10:05:02 UTC ]
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Caitlin Horrocks’s debut novel builds on a rich tradition of women writers who complicate the myth of male virtuosity until it crumbles. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2019-09-01 11:00:00 UTC ]
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The International Literature Showcase is a partnership between the National Centre for Writing and British Council. It aims to showcase amazing writers based in the UK to programmers, publishers and teachers of literature in English around the world. To do so, we have invited six leading writers... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2019-08-10 10:05:02 UTC ]
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This year's ceremony, held at New York University's Skirball Center and conferred for the first time to a sold-out house, saw debut and women writers have a particularly strong year. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Women writers have excelled at the An Post Irish Book Awards, taking home the majority of awards for the first time, with authors such as Sally Rooney, Liz Nugent and Emilie Pine among the winning authors. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Anna Foley Simmons has scooped the inaugural Thinking Woman's Writing Award, a new prize set up by British-Nigerian author and TV presenter Kate Jegede to address "woeful" underrepresentation of women writers of philosophy. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The spectrum of international publishing was on display on the first day of the fair, from the CEO Talk with John Sargent to the new audiobook conference, and women writers from the Asia Pacific region. The post Download: Thursday’s Frankfurt Book Fair 2018 Show Daily appeared first on... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2018-10-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury Reader is publishing a new book by David Kogan about battles for supremacy within the Labour Party, coinciding with the opening of the Labour Party annual conference this weekend in Liverpool. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-09-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Author Kate Jegede has set up a new writing prize that aims to increase the visibility of women writers in the UK writing non-fiction works with a philosophical or critical thinking theme. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-09-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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