Headbutts, snark and furious obsession: a toxic history of literary rivalries

When her first book came out, Lulah Ellender became obsessed with an author whose book launched the same week. She reflects on past feuds and how resentment now festers onlineWhen my first book was published last year I wasn’t prepared for how unhinged I would become. I’d expected review-induced nerves and worries that swung from “No one will read it” to “Oh God, someone is actually going to read it”. But I hadn’t foreseen the appearance of a wholly one-sided and indecorous obsession with another author.This author’s book launched in the same week as mine. It was nothing like my book, a memoir based on lists written by my grandmother, so its existence should not have troubled me, yet my writing life somehow became combatively interwoven with his. I had a review in a broadsheet; the next week he had a full-page spread in the same paper. I did a radio interview; he appeared on the same show. Every time I read about his achievements (pretty much every time I checked his social media), it diminished my own. It was like a nasty bruise I couldn’t resist pressing.I didn’t wish him any actual harm. Just, in writer Roxane Gay’s words, “papercuts and abject failure” Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2019-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #writing life #radio interview

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