How 10 Days Off-Roading in Mexico Helped Me Navigate A Shifting Publishing Landscape

Except for a brief period, a few years ago. My wheels had finally found the ruts of a writer’s path: I had a viral essay and New York Times bylines. I had kneeled before Poets & Writers with a writing book and been tapped by their sword on my shoulder, included on their Best Books […] The post How 10 Days Off-Roading in Mexico Helped Me Navigate A Shifting Publishing Landscape appeared first on Electric Literature. Continue reading at 'Electric Literature'

[ Electric Literature | 2024-09-03 11:10:00 UTC ]

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12 Books That Prove the Literary/Genre Distinction is Bogus

When I first joined a workshop in 1994, American literary fiction was dominated by and continually lauded a “quiet” kind of writer, one often influenced by J.D. Salinger, Ernest Hemingway, or Raymond Carver. I loved literary fiction—I’d been reading, writing, and submitting it since high school.... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-08-16 11:00:22 UTC ]
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Two Families Linked By Secrets, Deaths, and Regrets

Regina Porter’s debut novel The Travelers includes short chapters, photos, and a compendium of voices—a full cast is listed in the front matter. This includes the Vincents, with patriarch “the man James” and his son Rufus; the Christies, headed by Eddie and Agnes with their daughters Claudia... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-08-05 11:00:57 UTC ]
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7 Books About Past Decades That Feel Like Traveling Back in Time

The Amazon review for my debut novel was glowing, including words like “compelling” and “fun.” And then there was this: “If you love historical fiction, you’ll love The Last Book Party.” Say what? How could my novel, which is set during the 1980s—a decade of my own youth—be historical fiction?... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-08-01 11:00:53 UTC ]
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Is It Okay If I Don’t Care About Making Money from Writing?

The Blunt Instrument is an advice column for writers. If you need tough advice for a writing problem, send your question to [email protected]. For early access to Blunt Instrument columns, plus a special subscriber-only edition every other month, become a supporter of Electric... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-07-30 11:00:37 UTC ]
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Who Needs an MFA When You Have This Literary Fiction Trope Checklist?

Writing literary fiction stories? Forget what you’ve learned about complex characters and earned endings. What you really need is to include the required tropes. To help you out, we’ve created this handy checklist. Literary Fiction Trope Checklist _____ 1. Starts with character waking up _____... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-07-26 11:00:50 UTC ]
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Why Are So Many Women Rewriting Fairy Tales?

Peg Alford Pursell’s second book, A Girl Goes Into the Forest, contains a collection of 67 short stories exploring moments in the lives of women. Pursell’s first book, Show Her a Flower, a Bird, a Shadow, was recognized as a 2017 Indies finalist and a finalist and honorable mention in fiction... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-07-25 11:00:57 UTC ]
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These Middle-Grade Novels Are Some of the Most Formally Innovative Works of Our Time

When I took my copy of Lemony Snicket’s The Carnivorous Carnival up to the check-out line at Barnes and Noble, the cashier flipped through the book and paused.  She was sorry, she said, after a couple more puzzled page flips. There appeared to be a misprint. She called an employee in the kid’s... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-07-24 11:00:17 UTC ]
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8 Beer and Book Pairings

It’s a cliché among authors that we write the books we wish existed, but two of the many reasons I set out to write The Lager Queen of Minnesota was because I wanted to read literary fiction set in a brewery, and frankly, I also wanted a reason to bum around the country researching contemporary... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-07-19 11:00:19 UTC ]
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Mira Jacob Recommends 5 Inspiring Books That Aren’t By Men

It doesn’t feel like an exaggeration to say that Mira Jacob’s latest book Good Talk is a blueprint for a kinder world. In this graphic memoir, Jacob details a lifetime of difficult conversations—about politics, about race, about love and relationships. Seeing her handle these tricky talks,... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-07-18 11:00:20 UTC ]
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12 Novels about Historical Women to Inspire a Better Future

The Spanish philosopher and poet George Santayana once said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” As a genre, historical fiction allows us to shuttle back in time to stand in the shoes, clogs, chopines, and go-go boots of people—real and imagined—to consider the... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-07-15 11:00:13 UTC ]
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In Memory of Brazenhead, the Secret Bookstore That Felt Like a Magical Portal

In a popular trope present most often in YA novels, a character finds a secret key to another world. The key is rarely literal. More often, it’s an action as banal and everyday as leaning against a train platform barrier, walking into a phone booth, or looking for a winter coat in the back of... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-07-12 11:02:44 UTC ]
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The New National Literature of Canada Is Being Written by Women

As an American-born literature scholar and writer who became a permanent resident of Canada last year, I’ve spent a lot of time recently wondering how to differentiate between American literature and Canadian literature. Growing up in the 1980s, I saw these two nations as not just contiguous but... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-07-10 11:00:48 UTC ]
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This Novel About the Publishing Industry in 1987 Shows How Little Has Changed

Eve Rosen is an aspiring writer. She’s an editorial assistant at a literary imprint, but the office seems far friendlier to WASP-y men than to Jewish women like her. When her boss’s star writer, the longtime New Yorker reporter Henry Gray, invites Eve to spend the summer of 1987 as his research... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-07-09 14:00:32 UTC ]
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The Battle of the Book Cover

Perhaps the defining question of any book lover’s life is: should you read the hardcover or wait for it to come out in paperback? There are countless considerations to take into account when defining yourself as a Hardcover Person or a Paperback Type. Are you a weakling, or given to prancing... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-07-09 11:00:22 UTC ]
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Tochi Onyebuchi Recommends African Visions of the Future by Women and Nonbinary Authors

Tochi Onyebuchi’s young adult books, the duology Beasts Made of Night and Crown of Thunder, are fantasy novels with a Nigeria-influenced setting. His upcoming War Girls is set in a post-nuclear, post-climate change Nigeria of 2172. Riot Baby, his first novel for adults (also forthcoming), is a... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-07-04 11:00:10 UTC ]
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How a Comic Book About Feral Elves Got Me Through Middle School

We were mixing papier mache in art class. It was seventh grade. I was twelve. I liked that muddy mix, liked how it felt on my hands, liked spreading it on the balloon that had been distributed to me so that I could make a mask. I began to sing under my breath. I sang […] The post How a Comic... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-07-03 11:00:56 UTC ]
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'Electric Literature' Launches New Series As Counterpoint to 'By the Book'

Electric Literature has launched a new biweekly series, in partnership with FSG's MCD imprint and as part of its "Read More Women" campaign, that it bills as a feminist corrective to the 'New York Times' column "By the Book." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-07-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Electric Literature's Bodega Project is the literary counterpoint to the tech start-up

Online literary magazine Electric Lit’s recent Bodega Project is an appreciative counter to the new tech firm called Bodega. Launched by two ex-Google staffers, Bodega (the start-up) received some harsh criticism this week for threatening the beloved corner stores. The company aims to install... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2017-09-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Electric Literature Serializes Joe Meno’s ‘Star Witness’ Online

The serialized story is part of Electric Literature's ongoing experiments with distributing literary works online, as well as an effort to grow its paying membership. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-08-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Germany: new owners for Thalia

The announcement that US private equity firm Advent International has finally found a buyer for Germany’s largest brick-and-mortar bookseller Thalia had long been expected. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2016-07-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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