JO Morgan: ‘I think I do books that may sound strange’

The prize-winning poet and novelist on writing and book binding, his wariness of new technology and why literature is the ultimate immersive experienceJO Morgan has published book-length poems on subjects as diverse as the 10th-century battle of Maldon and a future Martian returning to his abandoned mother planet, Earth. His book Assurances, about the RAF’s involvement in the cold war, won the 2018 Costa poetry award, while Interference Pattern (2016) was described in the TLS as “a poem that could come to be for the 21st century what The Waste Land was for the 20th”. Morgan’s latest book, Appliance, is a short novel told in 11 discrete chapters over a period of about 70 years, charting the advance of a new technology, teleportation, that arrives first as a fridge-like contraption and becomes, with each new version, more powerful and pervasive. Among other things the title, which was shortlisted for the 2022 Orwell prize, articulates beautifully current human anxieties about unregulated artificial intelligence. Morgan, 45, lives in a cottage on a farm in the Scottish borders.What was the genesis of the book?Stories stay in my mind over many years. A long time ago I had an idea for a book where the protagonist was this inanimate, unthinking thing and the people around it were a kind of Greek chorus. Then it was working out what sort of technology I wanted it to be. I didn’t want it to be a real technology, but I wanted it to be something [teleportation] that would be... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2023-07-22 17:00:17 UTC ]

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Rahul Raina | 'Part of my thinking was trying to put my version of Dehli onto the map'

With its witty, ruthless skewering of the Indian middle classes, Rahul Raina’s roistering, whip-smart and deliciously fun Dehli-set crime caper, How to Kidnap the Rich, is the first great state-of-the-subcontinent novel of the 21st century. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-19 10:07:42 UTC ]
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Hodder commissions 'nature almanac for the 21st century'

Hodder & Stoughton has commissioned Gifts of Gravity and Light: A Nature Almanac for the Twenty-first Century, edited by Pippa Marland and Anita Roy and featuring a foreword from Bernardine Evaristo. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-06 23:06:31 UTC ]
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African Literature and Digital Culture

IN THE 21ST CENTURY, digital literary culture originating from the African continent has exploded. I still remember the early years, when Kindles first came into our lives and everyone was weighing in on whether ebooks were going to mean the death of literature. Back then, everything was fresh... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2021-01-04 18:00:58 UTC ]
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John le Carré, who lifted the spy novel to literature, dies at 89

A onetime British spy, he used the Cold War as his canvas in such novels as “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold” and “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.” Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-12-13 10:56:56 UTC ]
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Where the headlines are made: inside newsrooms around the world - in pictures

Noel Bowler photographed some of the largest newsrooms across the world, exploring the physical spaces that house our modern press. With declining readership, reduced advertising and persistent questions about ‘truth’ and relevance of newspapers in the 21st century, the structures of print media... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-11-30 06:00:50 UTC ]
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Here’s every winner of the National Book Award for Fiction and Nonfiction during the 21st century.

Dust off your formal wear and break out the bubbly because the National Book Awards (a.k.a. the Oscars of the book world) are nearly upon us. Yes, in just a few short hours, five dumbstruck authors will be fêted, garlanded, and welcomed into the American literary pantheon. For those of you... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-18 17:04:53 UTC ]
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Grushin's subversive fairy tale The Charmed Wife to Hodder

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[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-23 11:12:41 UTC ]
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‘We’re Looking at a New Cold War’: A Conversation with Daniel Yergin

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What Brands Can Learn From NASA’s Marketing of the Apollo Missions

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How Fantasy Literature Helped Create the 21st Century

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Lit Hub Daily: November 20, 2019

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[ Literrary Hub | 2019-11-20 11:30:40 UTC ]
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Penguin Random House defends Zhivago novel against plagiarism claim

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[ The Guardian | 2019-10-01 15:39:25 UTC ]
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A Debut Novel Reimagines the C.I.A.’s Efforts to Promote ‘Doctor Zhivago’

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[ The New York Times | 2019-09-02 18:51:54 UTC ]
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For many immigrants, family separation happens long before the border

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[ The Washington Post | 2019-08-30 14:00:45 UTC ]
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Experiments in Postcapitalism: On Dempow Torishima’s “Sisyphean”

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[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-08-03 12:30:19 UTC ]
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Lovejoy books snapped up for updated TV adaptation

Lovejoy has been acquired for adaptation 33 years after it was first broadcast, to be "updated for the 21st Century". Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-01 19:24:37 UTC ]
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Our coming DNA nightmare, as outlined by a dystopian graphic novel

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[ Fast Company | 2019-05-18 09:24:59 UTC ]
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Kogan Page title scoops Business Book of the Year award

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[ The Bookseller | 2019-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Wordsworth Trust reveals £6.2m Dove Cottage and museum plans

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[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Cornerstone to publish new E L James novel in April

E L James has written a new novel, The Mister, "a Cinderella story for the 21st century", with Cornerstone publishing globally in April 2019. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-01-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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