Mike McCormack: ‘If I’ve one gift as a writer, it’s patience’

The award-winning Irish author on losing his father at 18, the drawbacks of English editors and the theme of imprisonment in his workMike McCormack was born in London in 1965 and raised on a farm in County Mayo in the west of Ireland. He published his first story collection, Getting It in the Head, in 1996, followed by three novels that have marked him out as an experimentalist. Notes from a Coma (2005) interspersed its narrative with a fragmentary commentary at the bottom of each page. His work reached a wider audience with 2016’s Solar Bones, in which a lonely Mayo engineer recalls his life in one unending sentence – it won the Goldsmiths prize and was longlisted for the Booker. His latest novel, This Plague of Souls, follows a painter named Nealon as he returns home from prison and sets out to find his wife and child amid brewing global unrest. McCormack lives in Galway with his wife, artist Maeve Curtis, and their son.What sparked the new book?I started writing it in 2012, around the same time as Solar Bones, which then asserted priority. It seems that I was very interested in how worlds collapse, but coming into Covid, the focus changed from how the world collapses to how do we put it back together. Both books are about men trying to build a world – one as an engineer, the other as an artist – and both books seem to think that world building has to do with the making of family. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2023-11-11 18:00:01 UTC ]

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Revisiting American Short Stories Selected by John Updike

This week, Annalisa Quinn reviews John L’Heureux’s story collection “The Heart Is a Full-Wild Beast.” In 1984, L’Heureux wrote for the Book Review about “The Best American Short Stories 1984,” selected by John Updike. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-01-03 10:00:04 UTC ]
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Michael Fassbender to adapt Kevin Barry’s Night Boat to Tangier.

Good news, lovers of brooding Irish actors and tragicomic literary noir: Michael Fassbender—the Academy Award-nominated Hiberno-German star of Inglourious Basterds, Shame, and the latest incarnation of the X-Men movies—has optioned the film rights to Night Boat to Tangier, Irish author Kevin... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2019-12-18 17:38:18 UTC ]
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Edna O’Brien wins David Cohen Prize for 'moving mountains both politically and lyrically'

Eighty-eight-year-old Irish author Edna O’Brien has won the £40,000 David Cohen Prize for Literature for having “broken down social and sexual barriers for women in Ireland and beyond and moved mountains both politically and lyrically through her writing”. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-26 18:17:47 UTC ]
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Even before Twitter, Dale Peck was stirring the pot. He’s at it again with a new book.

In his story collection ‘What Burns,’ Peck doubles down on his urge to unsettle. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-11-06 16:04:43 UTC ]
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Announcing the Sunday Times PFD Young Writer of the Year Award shortlist

From meditations on the d/Deaf experience to short stories blurring the mythic and the gothic with the everyday, from mixing the personal and political to a young woman uncover the truth about her family’s past – four outstanding writers have today been named on the shortlist for The Sunday... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2019-11-04 12:55:09 UTC ]
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Ellmann, Haddon and Levy make Goldsmiths Prize shortlist

Lucy Ellmann, Mark Haddon and Deborah Levy are among the authors on a shortlist dominated by indie presses for this year’s Goldsmiths Prize. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-02 14:28:53 UTC ]
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In ‘The World Doesn’t Require You,’ a fictional town delivers essential truths

Rion Amilcar Scott’s story collection is set in Cross River, founded by the members of a successful slave rebellion. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-09-09 22:09:32 UTC ]
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Emma Cline’s next book is a short story collection called Daddy, and it’s coming out soon.

Good news for all fans of strange cults, luscious writing, and page-turners: as Publishers Lunch reports, Emma Cline’s first story collection, Daddy, will officially be published in 2020 by Random House (and Chatto & Windus in the UK). As you may recall, Random House bought three books by... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2019-09-06 16:48:24 UTC ]
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Ireland's new writing talent: Naoise Dolan and Molly Aitken

Dublin-born Naoise Dolan and fellow Irish author Molly Aitken are among the most hotly tipped début authors for 2020; here they discuss the inspiration behind their first novels. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-18 23:44:32 UTC ]
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Everything with Words signs Eve McDonnell debut

Independent publisher Everything with Words has acquired world English rights to Elsetime, a middle-grade debut by Irish author Eve McDonnell. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-16 01:32:37 UTC ]
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Torn apart: the vicious war over young adult books

Authors who write about marginalised communities are facing abuse, boycotts and even death threats. What is cancel culture doing to young adult fiction?Earlier this month, the author and screenwriter Gareth Roberts announced that his story was being removed from a forthcoming Doctor Who... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-06-15 08:00:15 UTC ]
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The Public Private Life Of Young Love In Sally Rooney's 'Normal People'

In the Irish author's second novel, two teens explore sex, secrets and what intimacy is worth. Continue reading at The Huffington Post

[ The Huffington Post | 2019-04-04 09:45:07 UTC ]
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Goldsmiths Prize 2019 widens scope with new entry rules

The entry rules for this year’s Goldsmiths Prize have been changed to extend beyond authors born in the UK or Republic of Ireland with competition bosses eager to have a wider range of voices and greater diversity in texts. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-01-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Zadie Smith to publish first short story collection in 2019

Zadie Smith is releasing her very first story collection with Hamish Hamilton next autumn: Grand Union. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-12-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Waterstones: Normal People by Sally Rooney named book of the year

Normal People, the Irish author's second novel, is named the year's best book by the UK chain. Continue reading at BBC News

[ BBC News | 2018-11-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Carroll returns to World War II with story collection

Faber Children’s Books has acquired a collection of short stories, set in World War II, by Emma Carroll. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-08-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The €100,000 International Dublin Award Highlights Ireland’s Tramp Press

Tramp Press, a small independent house in Ireland, has a winner in Mike McCormack's 'Solar Bones,' later published by Canongate in the UK and Soho Press in the States. McCormack has won the International Dublin Literary Award. The post The €100,000 International Dublin Award Highlights Ireland’s... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2018-06-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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PW Picks: Books of the Week, April 23, 2018

This week: Curtis Sittenfeld's story collection, plus the natural history heist of the century. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-04-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury, S&S UK and Trapeze triumph in pre-LBF deals

Eley Williams’ debut novel, a flurry of auctions for literary agent newbie Sam Hodder and an Australian kidnapping thriller from an Irish author are some of the projects causing furore ahead of next week's London Book Fair. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-04-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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