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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Best Mystery Writers Honored at In-Person Edgars Ceremony

The mood was celebratory as mystery publishers and authors honored the best in the genre, live and in-person, for the first time since 2019 at a ceremony last night at New York Marriott Marquis Times Square. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-04-29 04:00:00 UTC ]
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What is it Like to Be a Blind Writer Writing for Sighted Readers?

What is it like to be blind in an industry overwhelmingly dominated by sighted individuals? Jessica Powers, founder and publisher at Catalyst Press, spoke to George Mendoza and Kristen Witucki about crafting stories for sighted readers, finding community and release in fiction, and battling... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-04-28 08:58:13 UTC ]
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Distancing: On the Writers Who Saved My Marriage

No couple ever recovered from infidelity by only reading books, even the books written for that purpose. But books are what kept me from falling apart. The post Distancing: On the Writers Who Saved My Marriage appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions

[ The Millions | 2022-04-21 10:00:59 UTC ]
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A Call to Southern Writers: Register People to Vote at Literary Events

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[ Literrary Hub | 2022-03-21 08:49:57 UTC ]
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The problematic white, male Southern writer who inspired a diverse generation

Why did Penguin decide to reissue a memoir and a novel by Harry Crews, a dead white Southern writer? His influence — and his truths — run deep. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-03-15 13:00:07 UTC ]
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Show Your Book Club Pride With These Book Club Gifts

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How do you choose a book? Book lists by other writers are a great place to start

Critic Michael Dirda explores book compilations and how they can steer readers to great books. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2022-03-02 17:00:36 UTC ]
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Review: Kathryn Davis turned grief into a glimmering memoir like none you've ever read

The novelist Kathryn Davis' memoir, 'Aurelia, Aurélia," is a Virginia Woolf-inspired whoosh of experiences in the aftermath of her husband's death. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-03-01 18:31:42 UTC ]
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Awards: Cal Flyn Wins the £10,000 Young Writer of the Year Honor

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[ Publishing Perspectives | 2022-03-01 17:30:05 UTC ]
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Is Adaptation a Feminine Act? On the Women Writers Who Worked on Alfred Hitchcock Presents

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[ Literrary Hub | 2022-02-28 09:50:01 UTC ]
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Announcing The Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award shortlist

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[ British Council global | 2022-02-16 14:40:41 UTC ]
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Cards on the Table: Three Contemporary Italian Women Writers Open the Doors of Their Workshops

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[ World Literature Today | 2022-02-08 20:43:39 UTC ]
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Ewen and Salami win inaugural Jericho Prize for Black-British writers

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[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-27 15:04:19 UTC ]
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Six Writers Each Receive $50,000 from United States Artists Org

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-01-26 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The UK’s Sunday Times Young Writer Award Names Its 2021 Shortlist

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[ Publishing Perspectives | 2022-01-25 12:58:34 UTC ]
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Azumah Nelson and Nolan vie for Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award

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[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-23 07:16:43 UTC ]
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In ‘Last Resort,’ a Writer Turns a Friend’s Story Into a Smash Success

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[ The New York Times | 2022-01-19 10:00:00 UTC ]
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Femi Kayode | 'I've gotten a bit frustrated by the Western-model of crime fiction'

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[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-16 02:03:47 UTC ]
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8 Books by Queer Writers Who Came of Age in the 90s

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[ Electric Literature | 2022-01-14 12:00:00 UTC ]
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