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 ]
News tagged with: #story collection #wider audience #solar bones #unending sentence #goldsmiths prize #returns home #started writing #irish author

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8 Award-Winning Literary Fiction Books You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

Despite winning awards, these little-known beautiful and thought-provoking literary fiction books, like Last of Her Name by Mimi Lok, remain criminally underrated. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-08-01 10:34:00 UTC ]
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Yes, it can be very stressful to publish a book, and young writers need more support.

An April report by the UK-based publishing site, The Bookseller, showed that more than half of the debut authors they surveyed said the experience of publishing a book adversely affected their mental health. Further reporting from The Guardian reveals that (some) publishers have quickly... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-07-19 19:03:31 UTC ]
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James Patterson, Margaret Atwood among thousands of writers urging AI companies to honor copyrights

James Patterson, Suzanne Collins and Margaret Atwood are among thousands of writers endorsing an open letter from the Authors Guild urging AI companies to obtain permission before incorporating copyrighted work into their technologies Continue reading at ABC News

[ ABC News | 2023-07-18 20:54:45 UTC ]
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Writers' Guild of Great Britain Publishes Report on AI

Sixty-five percent of those responding to a survey conducted by the U.K. union that represents writers in such professions as books, film, and said that they believed that the increased use of AI will reduce their income from writing. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-07-13 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Hinton Publishing Honors an Unsung Writer and Boosts New Creators

Seattle’s new indie publisher, Hinton Publishing, is a partnership between 'South Seattle Emerald' founder Marcus Harrison Green and Vertvolta Press publisher Vladimir Verano. Its mission is to amplify the voices of BIPOC, LGBTQ, disabled, and low-income authors. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-07-10 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Carol Higgins Clark, Mystery Writer, Is Dead at 66

She had a modest career as an actress but was best known for following in the footsteps of her mother, the best-selling author Mary Higgins Clark. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-06-16 21:20:41 UTC ]
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The best gifts for new dads

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[ Engadget | 2023-06-02 13:15:04 UTC ]
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Amis, Hitchens and Larkin: bad behaviour and a messy personal life were once a gift for authors. Not any more | Martha Gill

Flaws used to feed their sales but now writers are expected to be saints‘As you get older you realise that all these things – prizes, reviews, advances, readers – it’s all showbiz, and the real action starts with your obituary.”Martin Amis first started spinning in favour of his future... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-05-27 17:31:09 UTC ]
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What happened to all the war vet novelists? They've moved on, and so have we

Kevin Powers was among the best in a wave of novelists on Iraq and Afghanistan. His new thriller, "A Line in the Sand," signals their slow fade from relevance. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-05-12 13:00:10 UTC ]
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Clancy Martin’s Writerly Repetitions

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[ New Yorker | 2023-05-10 19:01:05 UTC ]
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LGBTQ Writers Find Their Voice at Lambda Literary Retreat

As Lambda’s Writer’s Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices returns to an in-person format this summer, previous retreat participants look back on the experiences as a crucial moment in their development as queer authors. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-05-05 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Share the Joy of Giving—and Receiving—Books as Gifts, by The Editors of WLT

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[ World Literature Today | 2023-05-01 20:39:57 UTC ]
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The best gifts for the new grads in your life

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[ Engadget | 2023-05-01 13:15:46 UTC ]
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Top Mystery Writers Honored at the 77th Edgar Awards

Stirring speeches by Michael Connelly and Crime Writers of Color cofounder Kellye Garrett were a highlight of this year's Edgar Awards, where 'Notes on an Execution' by Danya Kukafka was named best novel. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-04-28 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Gadgets that make great Mother's Day gifts

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[ Engadget | 2023-04-24 13:15:33 UTC ]
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Live from New York: Curtis Sittenfeld on Dating Up, Writing Funny, and How SNL and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop Are Alike

Bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss her new novel, Romantic Comedy, which begins behind the scenes at a television show similar to Saturday Night Live, where a female comedy writer is gobsmacked that her schlubby straight male... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-04-20 08:53:29 UTC ]
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Rachel Pollack, trans activist and comic book writer, dies aged 77

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[ The Guardian | 2023-04-08 10:45:56 UTC ]
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Five Folklorists You’ve Never Heard Of: A Reading List of Overlooked Fairy Tales

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[ Literrary Hub | 2023-04-06 08:53:02 UTC ]
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Audiobooks Without Audible: The Hard Lessons I've Learned Routing Around Amazon

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-03-31 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Braving a blizzard to meet the most promising (and most offline) young writer in the West

In a writer-as-brand era, Taylor Koekkoek's obscurity is almost as refreshing as the hilarious, stealthily profound stories in his debut, 'Thrillville, USA.' Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-03-22 13:00:29 UTC ]
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