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 ]
Today, as we have done in years past, LARB honors Black History Month by highlighting a series of reviews, essays, interviews, and exchanges of letters we published in January. Below you will find a poignant essay on the Compton Christmas Parade; a penetrating interview with Kiley Reid, author... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2021-02-01 13:30:13 UTC ]
More news stories like this
“Fake Accounts,” Lauren Oyler’s debut novel, considers how social media has reconfigured our behavior, relationships and how we think of ourselves. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-02-01 10:00:02 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The best-selling author just found out that her debut novel is soon to be on the first lady’s bedside table. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-01-28 10:00:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Culture A still image from the film White Tiger (Netflix, 2021). After watching White Tiger, a writer contemplates the film alongside revolution in Egypt, Black Lives Matter protests, the film Parasite, and literary “complicated works of... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-01-27 20:33:27 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Weidenfeld & Nicolson is publishing the debut novel of comedian, actress and writer Isy Suttie, Jane is Trying, in July. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-27 11:15:14 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Oyler’s debut novel is about a smart, irascible narrator who is steeped in the concerns and tone of social media. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-01-26 21:16:27 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Has this Google lawyer written the book of the year? The part-time author talks about the inspiration for her thriller about siblings who flee abusive parents and their ‘house of horror’Abigail Dean was about to turn 30 when she suddenly realised that her job as a lawyer was using up all the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-01-25 06:00:07 UTC ]
More news stories like this
LEOPOLD VON SACHER-MASOCH was the original kinky bastard. A 19th-century Viennese nobleman, he wrote the controversial 1870 novella Venus in Furs, which explored his fetish for pain and abasement, and inadvertently helped coin the term “masochism.” The Masochist, Slovenian poet Katja Perat’s... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2021-01-19 18:00:58 UTC ]
More news stories like this
An excerpt from a debut novel Booklist calls "sharp and haunting." The post ‘The Divines’: Featured Fiction from Ellie Eaton appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2021-01-19 17:00:59 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Virago is publishing the first novel in two decades from Gayl Jones, Palmares, set in 17th-century colonial Brazil on Portuguese plantations and in the last fugitive slave settlement. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-17 23:38:33 UTC ]
More news stories like this
For me, reading Torrey Peters’ debut novel Detransition, Baby is akin to listening to your favorite hometown band headlining their first stadium concert. You end up marveling over how experiences you thought you knew well are rendered in utterly unexpected ways, and realize how patterns from... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-01-15 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Less than a month on from the movie poster controversy (Cherrk!) that rocked the internet to its very core, the first trailer for Cherry—the Tom Holland-starring film adaptation of Nico Walker’s 2018 semi-autobiographical debut novel about an Iraq War veteran turned drug addict turned bank... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-14 19:34:29 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Fourth Estate has picked up Hourglass, the “exquisite” debut novel from Keiran Goddard. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-13 22:27:32 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Sarah Ferguson says historical tale Her Heart for a Compass is inspired by experiences in her own lifeThe Duchess of York has landed a book deal with the romantic fiction publisher Mills & Boon, revealing that she “drew on many parallels from my life” for the historical tale.Sarah... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-01-13 10:13:08 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Holliday Grainger has been confirmed as the narrator of Girl A (HarperCollins), the hotly tipped debut novel by Abigail Dean. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-13 06:22:44 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, has penned her debut novel, a fictional account of her great-great aunt's life, to be published by Mills & Boon. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-12 22:12:59 UTC ]
More news stories like this
I consider myself Argentine. I tell people it is not only part of my origin story but my identity. My first novel is titled Hades, Argentina, and to my friends I’m sure that seems fitting, the natural summation of my life and literary ambitions so far. But the truth is I had never been to […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-12 09:48:41 UTC ]
More news stories like this
It’s no secret that the tech world has a troubling track record with diversity in the workplace, especially with the dearth of Black and Latinx employees in key roles. Author Mateo Askaripour confronts the lack of diversity within the workplace with satire in his debut novel Black Buck. Some... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-01-07 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Titan Books has swooped for Suburban Dicks, the "knock-out" debut novel by Deadpool co-creator Fabian Nicieza. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-06 00:00:41 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Eley Williams’s first novel follows characters living in London more than a century apart who toil to compile the same ill-fated dictionary. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-01-05 10:00:02 UTC ]
More news stories like this