He starred in Peep Show, Green Wing and Wonka – and his first novel won an award. Now the star is making operas with 64 homeless people. Not bad going for someone who was written off by his teachersPaterson Joseph is, by his own admission, an unlikely opera librettist. He had turned 50 by the time he got round to going to one, and only went because he was in it, as the “crazy” voice of God in Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. “It’s not my world,” says the actor. But therein lies part of his mission: as a black Londoner written off by the school system, his life was transformed by the goldmine he discovered while truanting down at his local library.One of his discoveries, as “a melancholy teen”, was Pushkin’s verse novel Eugene Onegin. “I remember getting it out of the library,” he says, “just because it was a small book. And I started reading this poem out loud, at night in my bedroom. And I laughed – but I was also frightened and frustrated, weeping at the tragedy of it. When I closed the book, it was dawn.” Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2024-05-27 04:00:13 UTC ]
Joseph Earl Thomas won this year’s Center for Fiction First Novel Prize for his book God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer. Congratulations! The novel has made it onto several best-of-2024 lists, and has been praised as “a powerful examination of every day black life–of health and sex, race and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-12-11 16:36:55 UTC ]
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Omar Khalifah’s debut novel resists the demand placed on those who have experienced historical atrocities to tell their stories. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2024-12-05 16:22:00 UTC ]
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‘This set of characters are simultaneously medieval kings and modern aristocrats.’ Allen Bratton on adapting the Henriad and his debut novel Henry Henry. The post Podcast | Allen Bratton appeared first on Granta. Continue reading at Granta
[ Granta | 2024-11-29 14:09:08 UTC ]
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Bestselling author who enjoyed overnight success with her debut novel A Woman of SubstanceIt was Graham Greene who inadvertently launched Barbara Taylor Bradford, who has died aged 91, on the road that would lead, in 2003, to her induction into the Writers Hall of Fame of America, alongside Mark... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-11-25 16:52:30 UTC ]
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Hogarth signs a debut novel by Woody Brown, the first nonspeaking graduate of UCLA, and Atria takes a steamy sports romance trilogy by Melanie Iglesias Perez. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-11-22 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Since 2009, when his first novel Some Things That Meant the World to Me introduced his heart-rending, beat-driven, often surreal voice, Joshua Mohr has published nine books—two raw addiction memoirs (Sirens and Model Citizen) and seven idiosyncratic novels. The New York Times called his 2011... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-10-22 08:55:25 UTC ]
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Earlier this May, an Esquire article by Kate Dwyer called “Why Are Debut Novels Failing to Launch?” channeled the fear of debut novelists everywhere: What happens if no one buys my book? Book sales are an important way for editors and agents to gauge whether to invest in an author. If her first... Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2024-10-16 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Daniel M. Lavery’s debut novel collects vignettes from inside the Biedermeier, a second-rate, rapidly waning establishment in midcentury New York City. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-10-12 09:00:34 UTC ]
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I highlighted Luis Jaramillo’s first book, the short story collection The Doctor’s Wife—a gathering of 91 ultra-short chapters, some as brief as a sentence, that add up to a portrait of a family—as a best book of 2012 for NPR. His first novel further reveals his wide-ranging literary talents.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-10-08 08:55:05 UTC ]
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The Oscar-winning actor and author of the Myron Bolitar series have been ‘writing pages over many months’ together to create a thriller to be published next yearReese Witherspoon has written her first novel, in collaboration with bestselling author Harlan Coben, publisher Penguin Random House... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-10-02 17:00:45 UTC ]
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In Clement Goldberg’s madcap and campy debut novel, cats, plants, alien intelligences, and a group of human misfits conspire to make us all freer and more joyfully connected. New Mistakes offers a hilarious, surreal, and sexy new vision of queer collectivity—one that involves the living earth... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-10-02 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Lauren Elkin’s debut novel Scaffolding traces the parallel lives of two psychoanalysts living in the same Belleville apartment 50 years apart. In 1972, Florence and her new husband, Henry, settle into their new home. But as Florence delves deeper into her intellectual pursuits, she begins to... Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2024-09-26 12:00:00 UTC ]
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FSG signs a debut novel by the inaugural recipient of the FSG Writer’s Fellowship, Tami Hoag re-ups at Dutton, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-09-20 04:00:00 UTC ]
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We spoke with Peter Brown about the experience of seeing 'The Wild Robot,' the first novel in his middle grade trilogy, adapted by DreamWorks. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-09-17 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Jacquie Walters' debut, 'Dearest,' is a horror novel about new motherhood, including the demands of a breastfeeding infant, as well as how postpartum hormones affect a woman's psyche. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-09-16 10:00:29 UTC ]
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The two bestselling authors who both started in TV discuss writing as a second career, natural justice – and what they really think of literary fictionIn the four years since Richard Osman published his first Thursday Murder Club novel he has consistently topped the bestseller lists, and now his... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-09-14 09:00:23 UTC ]
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At the beginning of Khuê Phạm’s debut novel Brothers and Ghosts, translated by Charles Hawley and Daryl Lindsey, the narrator makes a confession: “I don’t know how to pronounce my own name.” It’s not something you hear often and something unimaginable for many. But for Kiều, the young Vietnamese... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-09-10 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover of Sky Daddy by Kate Folk, which will be published by Random House on April 08, 2025. You can pre-order your copy here. Cross the jet bridge with Linda, a frequent flyer with a dangerous obsession, in this hilarious and provocative debut novel... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-09-05 11:03:00 UTC ]
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Ledia Xhoga’s debut novel Misinterpretation opens with the unnamed narrator, a translator from Albania, accepting an assignment to interpret for a Kosovar torture survivor named Alfred. Elements of Alfred’s story map onto her own family’s experience, and the narrator becomes all-consumed by his... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-09-04 11:00:00 UTC ]
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