Matt Rowland Hill: ‘My mother says she will sue me if I ever write another book like it’

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 ]
News tagged with: #east london #father told #observer order #delivery charges

Other Publishing stories related to: 'Matt Rowland Hill: ‘My mother says she will sue me if I ever write another book like it’'


Okay, so you can write books with AI. But why bother?

As was perhaps inevitable, ChatGPT—the free chatbot created by OpenAI that has been ruffling feathers ever since it was launched in November—has now spawned “a boom in AI-written e-books on Amazon,” according to Greg Bensinger at Reuters. Bensinger counted over 200 e-books in Amazon’s Kindle... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-02-22 17:10:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #write books #kindle store #kindle


Digital Book World 2023: The Future of AI Writing and Audio

According to multiple presenters at the Digital Book World conference, ChatGPT has potential to remake the way people write and streamline production and editing, while AI voice replication promises affordable audiobook adaptations. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-01-17 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #ai writing #multiple presenters #people write #streamline production #audiobook #digital book #book world


Digital Book World 2023: The Future of AI Writing and Audio

According to multiple presenters at the Digital Book World conference, ChatGPT has potential to remake the way people write and streamline production and editing, while AI voice replication promises affordable audiobook adaptations. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-01-17 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #ai writing #multiple presenters #people write #streamline production #audiobook #digital book #book world


Here are the songs Bob Dylan is writing about in his forthcoming book on “modern song.”

As some of you may already know (and sure, some of you may not care) Bob Dylan is publishing a book this November about his “philosophy of modern song” called… The Philosophy of Modern Song. If you are among those who do care (like me) the table of contents of the Nobel laureate’s foray into […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-08-26 15:37:43 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #modern song #nobel laureate


Op-Ed: How an antitrust trial could reshape the books we read — and who writes them

The proposed merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster could lead to fewer voices — including marginalized voices — being published. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-08-18 10:09:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #antitrust trial #proposed merger #simon schuster #penguin random house


Eso Won Books Writes Its Closing Chapter

Eso Won Books, part of the Los Angeles book scene for more than 33 years and one of the country's most prominent Black bookstores, will close by the end of 2022, co-owner James Fugate confirmed. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-06-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Conservative lawmaker writes children’s book in praise of solidarity and collective action.

Does the following really sound like contemporary American conservatism to you?  Dawn of the Brave, which is aimed at children age 6 to 10, helps readers recognize that everyone has strengths and weakness, but teamwork allows people to come together for the greater good. I am… confused. Dawn of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-04-11 14:24:51 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #collective action #greater good #children’s book


Writing a Memoir Taught Me How to See My Mother

Until I was five years old, my mother and I lived with her parents in Flatbush, Brooklyn. We never talked about my father. We never said his name, which meant that we never said my full name, Sherry Zimmerman. I first saw my full name written out in an inscription in a children’s alphabet book […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-02-28 09:49:55 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #memoir


How Writing a Children’s Book is an Antidote to Doomsday Thinking

An unspoken tradition hints that going to the source is good for the story you want to write. The trouble often is that we have no idea what that source may be. Sometimes we think it is sheer research and we spend time in libraries. Often, we think it’s where the action of the proposed […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-02-22 09:52:32 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #doomsday thinking #spend time #children’s book


How Reading John McPhee’s Book on Tennis Helped Me Write About Skateboarding

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” –Arthur Ashe * Years ago, when I was still a budding fiction writer, I published an essay about how hard skateboarding is to write about. I focused on a few novelists who had skater characters in their books but who clearly didn’t skate […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-02-09 09:55:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #novelists


Hot Key Books snaps up two from sister writing duo

Hot Key Books has snapped up two new books from sister writing duo Katharine and Elizabeth Corr. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-19 18:16:51 UTC ]
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Akala, Wheatle and McNicoll among books for New Writing North schools project

Books by Akala, Alex Wheatle and Elle McNicoll are among 20 titles featuring in New Writing North's new project, focused on celebrating diverse literature in schools. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-12-11 02:47:53 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #alex wheatle #elle mcnicoll #writing north


Seven Dials signs 'searing' book by Stephen Port murder victim's mother

Seven Dials has acquired a "searing account" of a mother's relentless fight for justice for her son who was murdered by serial killer Stephen Port. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-12-10 05:05:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #searing account


AAP Sues to Block Maryland, New York Library E-book Laws

The AAP filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking to stop Maryland's library e-book law for taking effect January 1 and also disclosed that it was one of more than 20 organizations to sign a letter to New York governor Kathy Hochul urging her to veto a similar bill. Both pieces of legislation require... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-12-09 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #license e-books #stop maryland #libraries #e-book


Goth-rock queen PJ Harvey is publishing a book-length narrative poem that took six years to write.

PJ Harvey is trying her hand at poetry again. In April 2022, Picador Poetry in the UK will publish the hardcover edition of Orlam, Harvey’s book-length narrative poem. A special collector’s edition featuring the musician’s original artwork will follow in October 2022. The long-form poem, which... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-11-12 18:12:55 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #original artwork #picador


Holding and Burrow shortlisted for William Hill Sports Book of the Year

Michael Holding and Rob Burrow feature in the shortlist for this year's £30,000 prize for William Hill Sports Book of the Year. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-10-27 16:44:38 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #sports book


Zephaniah writes 'powerfully moving' Windrush picture book for Scholastic

Benjamin Zephaniah is writing a “powerfully moving” picture book about the voyage of "HMT Empire Windrush" to be published by Scholastic UK in April 2022.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-10-23 10:30:14 UTC ]
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Julia Elliott and DaMaris B. Hill on Writing Rural America

Novelist Julia Elliott and poet and writer DaMaris B. Hill join hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to consider the writing and face of rural America—particularly as it might look 30 years from now. First, Elliott talks about growing up as an outsider in her own South Carolina... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-10-21 08:50:35 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #debut novel


Panel Mania: The 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance Comic Book by Gord Hill

Originally published in 2010, Arsenal Pulp will publish a new edition of 'The 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance Comic Book: Revised and Expanded,' written and drawn by Gord Hill, who has added nearly 60 pages of new material. This seven-page excerpt is the story of the 1990 Oka Crisis, a 77-day... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-10-06 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Author of 'My Monticello' on Writing a Debut Book With Buzz

Jocelyn Nicole Johnson, at 50, is not the average age of a debut author. But the public school teacher describes herself as a “literary debutante” with the October publication of “My Monticello.” Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-09-28 13:06:03 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #debut author #average age #debut book