From Sally Rooney to Raven Leilani, female novelists have captured the literary zeitgeist, with more buzz, prizes and bestsellers than men. But is this cultural shift something to celebrate or rectify?In March, Vintage, one of the UK’s largest literary fiction divisions, announced the five debut novelists it would be championing this year: Megan Nolan, Pip Williams, Ailsa McFarlane, Jo Hamya and Vera Kurian.All five of them are women. But you could be forgiven for not noticing it, so commonplace are female-dominated lists in 2021. Over the past 12 months, almost all of the buzz in fiction has been around young women: Patricia Lockwood, Yaa Gyasi, Raven Leilani, Avni Doshi, Lauren Oyler. Ask a novelist of any gender who they are reading and they will almost certainly mention one of Rachel Cusk, Ottessa Moshfegh, Rachel Kushner, Gwendoline Riley, Monique Roffey or Maria Stepanova. Or they will be finding new resonances in Anita Brookner, Zora Neale Hurston, Natalia Ginzburg, Octavia Butler, Ivy Compton-Burnett. The energy, as anyone in the publishing world will tell you, is with women.It’s only relatively recently that fiction written by a woman about intimate subjects like sex has been classed as literary fictionClass is the dirty secret of publishing. Working-class male writers are now expected to answer for a past that isn’t oursMen think that to be allowed a place at the table, they need to have the right views and be these nice guysWhy wasn’t there uproar in the media... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2021-05-16 06:00:48 UTC ]
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Unit sales of print books fell 3.2% last week at outlets that report to Circana BookScan. The performance wasn’t a bad one—it was just unable to match the same period last year, when 'It Starts with Us' by Colleen Hoover sold more than 810,000 copies in its first week on sale. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-26 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Authors address fertility, menstruation, and menopause; acknowledge expansive gender and sexual identities; and appeal to readers who want to be educated about the workings of their own bodies. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-20 04:00:00 UTC ]
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This essay isn’t about World War II. But like any historical fiction writer publishing in 2023, it’s impossible to ignore the recent wave of WWII novels that fill bookstore shelves at the moment. As someone who reads and enjoys many of these books but has no desire to write one, I have a theory... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-10-17 08:45:05 UTC ]
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These Halloween short stories are free to read online! They're deliciously unsettling, genre-bending, emotional, and even humorous. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-10-16 10:33:00 UTC ]
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Since my first novel was published, at almost every interview and live event, I get asked a version of the same question. Usually people seem just curious, but occasionally there are notes of hostility or amazement. They want to know why, and often how, I write my female protagonists. The answer... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-10-16 08:50:29 UTC ]
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Athena Dixon’s The Loneliness Files: A Memoir in Essays opens on New Year’s Eve of 2021, with Dixon alone in her apartment in Philadelphia, thinking about death during a year fraught with pandemic fear. The first pieces explore her fascination with women who died on their own and, because they... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-10-13 11:00:00 UTC ]
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These nine medieval science fiction books play with limits of time, space, and history to tell fascinating stories with medieval elements. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-10-13 10:32:00 UTC ]
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Carlo Carrenho, Frankfurt Book Fair’s 2023 audio ambassador, explains audiobooks' growing presence around the world. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-13 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Anne Curtin, director, corporate marketing, BlueConic Amid deprecating cookies and rising consumer expectations for privacy, first-party data represents the future for media and publishing companies that want to build stronger customer relationships, gain a competitive advantage and drive... Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2023-10-10 13:57:25 UTC ]
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Novelist Cindy Fazzi says authors interested in addressing the great issues of the day should avoid preaching and focus on telling a good story. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-06 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Lena Andrews, author of 'Valiant Women,' pays homage to the oft-forgotten women on the WWII frontlines with this selection of brilliant histories. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-04 04:00:00 UTC ]
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After a long run with weekly sales ahead of 2022, unit sales of adult fiction titles were down 0.2% in the year-to-date after sales fell last week. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-09-28 04:00:00 UTC ]
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My sophomore novel, Evil Eye, follows Yara Murad, a Palestinian American woman who begins to confront the psychological and interpersonal aftermath of her emotionally volatile childhood as her carefully constructed life begins to fall apart. In drafting this novel, which explores post-traumatic... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-09-22 08:35:35 UTC ]
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Last spring, I approached Nickolas Butler, internationally bestselling author of the novels Shotgun Lovesongs, The Hearts of Men, and Godspeed, to be the judge for this year’s Insider Prize, American Short Fiction’s annual literary award for incarcerated writers in Texas. He’d worked with... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-09-22 08:15:30 UTC ]
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Genre fiction by such authors as Colleen Hoover, N.K. Jemisin, and Rebecca Roanhorse remains extremely popular with readers. As publishers increase their output to meet demand, booksellers are making more and more room on their shelves for the titles. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-09-22 04:00:00 UTC ]
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‘Kill the Rich’ by Jack Allison and Kate Shapiro is a lacerating satire of America’s gonzo culture—and no one comes out unscathed. A provocative book title doesn’t always telegraph to readers what awaits inside. When it comes to those self-help books that include a naughty little swear on the... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2023-09-16 03:00:00 UTC ]
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From the dark heart of a misguided follower to the young hand of a diarist whose words outlived her, these novels encompass the full spectrum of humanity. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-09-15 16:58:33 UTC ]
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Today, the National Book Foundation announced the longlist for the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction. The ten titles on the longlist were selected from a pool of 496 books submitted for consideration by their publishers; this year’s judges for Fiction are Steph Cha, Calvin Crosby, Silas... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-09-15 14:15:56 UTC ]
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Looking for a work of science fiction that will make you really think? Welcome to these philosophical sci-fi books! Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-09-15 10:33:00 UTC ]
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Get away from it all with a journey to the most magical libraries in fiction from the Library of Zosma to the Great Libraries of Austmeer. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-09-12 10:34:00 UTC ]
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