The author of Original Sins, an account of addiction and shame, on his book’s impact on his evangelical parents, reading the Patrick Melrose series while waiting for drug dealers, and how looking middle class saved him from arrestMatt Rowland Hill, 38, is the author of Original Sins, about growing up as the son of a baptist minister before falling into a decade-long addiction to heroin while studying at Oxford. Out in paperback, it was longlisted for last year’s Baillie Gifford prize for nonfiction while being praised by Geoff Dyer for its “novelistic virtues of vivid scene-making, fully realised characterisation and psychological subtlety”. Hill and I sat in a park near his home in east London.I might have read this as a novel had it not been subtitled “a memoir”.The subtitle wasn’t my choice: I was open to it being published as fiction if my publisher had wanted that. I approached it like a novel, thinking about point of view and how I’d produce moments of irony and humour, which maybe liberated me to write with an emotional distance that paradoxically allowed me to be more honest. Nothing is fabricated. I did go to psychiatric units. I was a heroin addict for all that time. I used my imagination to make vivid the bits of dialogue or details about what we were wearing, although it’s surprising how detailed your recollections are once you dig in; what my father told my mother on that car ride to Guernsey – “If you died tonight, I’d dance on your grave” – was scored into... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2023-04-29 17:00:41 UTC ]
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The twin sisters Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Pierce Bush published their third picture book this week. They sat down to discuss fighting, writing and chosen family. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-11-09 10:02:26 UTC ]
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Stephanie Land’s new book, Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education, is out today, so we asked her a few questions about her routine, writing advice, and how she deals with writers block. Who do you most wish would read your book? Anyone who has authority over a person who... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-11-07 09:50:56 UTC ]
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The author of “Mother-Daughter Murder Night” started working on her debut novel during a time of tremendous stress. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-10-26 09:02:09 UTC ]
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The awards partnership between Penguin Random House and We Need Diverse Books will award $60,000 in scholarships. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-10-18 18:22:57 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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For her latest book club pick, Oprah Winfrey broke the news to author Nathan Hill in modern style Continue reading at ABC News
[ ABC News | 2023-09-19 12:32:06 UTC ]
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I was deep in the throes of a slow-moving depression, feeling frustrated with a job I had held for seven years, and reeling from the disappointment of a first novel that debuted without the critical and commercial acclaim I was afraid to admit I desired. So I called my mother. “I think I need a […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-08-09 09:10:27 UTC ]
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Ask ChatGPT about comedian Sarah Silverman’s memoir “The Bedwetter” and the artificial intelligence chatbot can come up with a detailed synopsis of every part of the book Continue reading at ABC News
[ ABC News | 2023-07-12 22:32:35 UTC ]
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Ask ChatGPT about comedian Sarah Silverman’s memoir “The Bedwetter” and the artificial intelligence chatbot can come up with a detailed synopsis of every part of the book Continue reading at ABC News
[ ABC News | 2023-07-12 22:32:31 UTC ]
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Lamya H’s powerful memoir Hijab Butch Blues is an honest grappling with what it means to be queer, to be a devout hijabi Muslim person who resists gender normativity, to love faith and community. Seeking other queer women in Islam as a young person, H wonders if Maryam, whom no man has touched,... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-06-29 11:12:00 UTC ]
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The authors of a picture book about a penguin family with two fathers sued the state and a school district that removed the book from libraries. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-06-20 14:25:50 UTC ]
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Author tells Hay literary festival he needs to ‘get past’ the knife attack he suffered before writing anything elseSalman Rushdie is writing a book about being stabbed on stage in New York last year, an attack which left him without sight in one eye, the author told the Hay literary... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-06-01 20:20:47 UTC ]
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PEN America and publisher Penguin Random House filed a law suit today against a school district for book bans. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-05-17 16:28:56 UTC ]
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PEN officials called the suit a "first-of-its-kind challenge to unlawful censorship," bringing together concerned parents, authors, and a major publisher. "Censorship, in the form of book bans like those enacted by Escambia County, are a direct threat to democracy and our Constitutional rights,"... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-05-17 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Some in the book industry have already begun exploring automation of its pitches to readers. We took this functionality for a test drive“Blurb writing is a mini art form,” Iris Murdoch once wrote in a letter to former Penguin blurb writer Elizabeth Buchan. And like many other art forms,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-05-16 09:00:05 UTC ]
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Mother’s Day was never a real holiday to my mother—more about marketing than raising me. No white carnations or special dinners for her. But that my memoir about her, Irma: The Education of a Mother’s Son, was published just before this Mother’s Day would make her smile. Likewise, that I have... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-05-12 13:21:24 UTC ]
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When I first became a single mother, I hid it from everyone, including myself. In my new book, The Leaving Season: A Memoir in Essays, I track the evolution of my relationship with motherhood, starting as a reluctant mother of two in a married household and ultimately ending as a single mother... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-05-12 11:10:00 UTC ]
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'Pysch' co-stars Dulé Hill and Jazmyn Simon have turned the daily affirmations they repeat with their two kids into a children's book released this week. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-05-03 16:25:25 UTC ]
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First of all, if you’re a teen who likes to write, keep at it, and don’t let anyone tell you different. (And if you’re the parent of a teen who likes to write, please encourage them.) With the above in mind, the Miami Book Fair is offering a virtual summer camp for teens who like […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-04-18 14:26:44 UTC ]
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After the death last year of children’s author Shirley Hughes, her son took hundreds of her books, including the award-winning Dogger, to libraries in Ukraine, where reading is helping to heal the children traumatised by warThe National Library of Ukraine for Children in Kyiv, a city at war for... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-04-09 07:00:44 UTC ]
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