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 ]
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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... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-05-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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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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Her solution? A packaging business that sells ideas for commercial genre fiction featuring characters from broadly diverse backgrounds. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-12-10 10:00:31 UTC ]
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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... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-09-02 17:00:10 UTC ]
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Some in the book industry have already begun exploring automation of its pitches to readers. We took this functionality for a test drive“Blurb writing is a mini art form,” Iris Murdoch once wrote in a letter to former Penguin blurb writer Elizabeth Buchan. And like many other art forms,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-05-16 09:00:05 UTC ]
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Working-class lives are unlikely to be properly represented in fiction if the publishing industry is run by middle-class graduates, says Nick MossKeiran Goddard is right to say that too many novels that claim to portray working-class life just give us “recent arts graduate feels emotionally,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-04-30 16:40:05 UTC ]
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A new memoir traces the three-time Tony Award winner’s life and career working with Balanchine, Robbins and Fosse. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-04-19 09:00:33 UTC ]
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Stephen Carver, Guinevere Glasfurd, Brian Needham and Jo McMillan respond to Joanne Harris’s article about horribly low pay in the publishing worldRegarding Joanne Harris’s article (Horribly low pay is pushing out my fellow authors – and yes, that really does matter, 7 December), I guess I’m a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-12-11 17:07:25 UTC ]
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‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’ is one of the best-known short stories by Flannery O’Connor (1925-64), who produced a string of powerful stories during her short life. First published in the collection A Good Man Is Hard to Find in 1955, the story is about an American family […] Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2022-09-26 14:00:41 UTC ]
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What makes for a good book club question? Here are some tips to consider before your next book club meeting. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-09-09 10:37:00 UTC ]
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I remember the first time I met Courtney Maum. It was nearly ten years ago, a spring or maybe summer day in Brooklyn, Carroll Gardens. We were both in our twenties, no books published yet, just a few free essays here and there, just starting our writing careers with the fierce intensity of Jack... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-07-18 08:52:29 UTC ]
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The #FReadom campaign is asking you to write your school board with provided templates to support school libraries and access to information. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-01-04 11:39:00 UTC ]
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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 ]
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What all comes together to make a food memoir good? A combination of food, context, history, voice, and more. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-11-26 11:34:00 UTC ]
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A true hoax provokes. It questions cultural biases, shattering conventions. But the curious case of the three men writing as a female author Carmen Mola does none of this. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2021-10-26 05:02:08 UTC ]
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Romance is the biggest selling book genre, but how does that translate to those who write it? How much can you make writing romance? Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-10-08 10:38:00 UTC ]
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Anna Sale’s book — an offshoot of her podcast — shows readers the value of opening up about death, sex, money and other subjects. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-05-10 12:00:00 UTC ]
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A contributing editor for British Vogue, Paris Lees made her name as the UKs first high-profile transgender woman to break into the mainstream when she was named top of the Pink List of the most influential LGBT people in Britain, and became the first “out” transgender woman to appear on BBC... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-05-01 02:56:30 UTC ]
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In Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner—also known as the indie-pop musician Japanese Breakfast—writes of her mother’s battle with terminal cancer and the caretaking process. The mother-daughter relationship is the beating pulse of this memoir, presented in all of its uncomfortable complexities.... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-04-22 11:00:00 UTC ]
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“Truly Like Lightning” is an irreverent and ambitious tale that shows off the “X-Files” actor’s literary chops. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-02-01 13:00:00 UTC ]
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