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 ]
Poverty Safari, Darren McGarvey’s memoir about growing up in Glasgow, has topped a readers’ poll of “most rebellious reads of the 21st century”, organised by the Scottish Book Trust. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Another Day of Life also uses documentary to translate the horror and poetry of Ryszard Kapuściński’s book In November 1975, Ryszard Kapuściński telexed his editor in Warsaw to plead for permission to return home from Angola. The era of Portuguese colonialism was ending, the fight for... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-10-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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‘Sapiens’ author Yuval Noah Harari’s offers ’21 Lessons for the 21st Century.’ Plus a trio of memoirs, all of which received starred PW reviews, debut in hardcover nonfiction, and a 45-year-old children’s book heads to the big screen. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-09-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Lara Prescott’s We Were Never Here recounts how the CIA used Boris Pasternak’s novel as a propaganda tool during the cold warLast month, Lara Prescott was preparing to graduate from her three-year creative writing fellowship at the University of Texas. Two weeks later, she is sitting on book... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-06-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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India Knight is publishing an homage to her favourite novel, The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford, with Fig Tree next year. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-06-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Faber & Faber has acquired To Provide All People, a "powerful virtuosic 'film-poem'" by prize-winning poet, novelist and playwright, Owen Sheers. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-05-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Kensington has a lot in store for fans of "the greatest western writer of the 21st century." (Sponsored) Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-03-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Last year, Timothy Snyder published a very short book titled On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century. A Yale professor who had been known for his work on World War II—specifically for his history Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin—Snyder’s focus on how to keep autocracy... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2018-03-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As a new report reveals the dire financial straits being faced by literary novelists, we investigate how these bleak conditions arose and what can be done to help the writers, regarded by some as thoroughbreds and by others as ghosts of Christmas past. We also catch up with Edward St Aubyn, one... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-12-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new slew of published Bibles are aiming to bring Scripture into the 21st century. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-11-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The poke cake, which was popular in the 1970s and featured Jell-O filling, is making a comeback. At least it will be if food consultants Roxanne Wyss and Kathy Moore have their way; their new book, 'Delicious Poke Cakes,' aims to bring the throwback dessert into the 21st century. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-11-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The historian’s next book, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, will ask ‘what should we teach children today to prepare them for the world of tomorrow’ and promises a sweeping look at the futureFaced with a world stuck in “nostalgic fantasies about going back to the past”, where politicians are “no... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-10-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Profile Books and Wellcome Collection have acquired The War of Nerves, an account of the Cold War by writer and broadcaster Martin Sixsmith. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-12-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Rob Wilson on how the government wants local authorities to think differently about public libraries. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-12-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Once the domain of your Nana's generation, book groups have enjoyed a bit of a renaissance for a wee while now. A group of like-minded folk who read a common book in their own time then meet up once a month to talk about it, the classic book group is a great way for neighbours and communities to... Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2016-09-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As the digital revolution sweeps through publishing, is editing in decline? We find out how the 21st-century editor works, with Diana Athill, Matt Weiland, Karolina Sutton and many moreThe upheavals of the information age have transformed traditional publishing, a revolution that has arrived... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-08-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Little Misses Fabulous and Sparkle and Misters Marvellous and Adventure to be added to the late Roger Hargreaves’s series of children’s books The Mr Men are joining the 21st century with the introduction of a handful of new characters to join the primary-coloured ranks of Mr Happy, Mr Bump and... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-08-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Published to tremendous acclaim in 2000 but out of print for much of the past decade, Helen DeWitt’s massive novel The Last Samurai is being reissued this month by New Directions. With any luck, the acclaim for DeWitt’s 2011 tragicomisexual satire Lightning Rods will encourage readers to return... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2016-06-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Philip Jones how the “designer bookshop” is becoming central to how high streets are reinventing themselves in the 21st century. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-02-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Brilliant and gregarious publisher who arrived in Britain as a refugee from nazism and co-founded his own firm with Nigel Nicolson in the late 1940sGeorge Weidenfeld, Lord Weidenfeld, who has died aged 96, belonged to that remarkable group of Jewish refugees who transformed postwar British... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-01-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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