Novelist Celeste Ng: ‘There was a period when I thought I’d never write again’

The award-winning author on how Trump, Covid and anti-Asian rhetoric inspired her latest novel, digging her way out of ‘post-book fatigue’, and learning to touch type using UlyssesCeleste Ng, 42, is the award-winning author of three novels, including Little Fires Everywhere, which was made into a miniseries starring and executive-produced by Reese Witherspoon. Her latest, Our Missing Hearts, dramatises the power of art and literature in dark times, unfolding in a nationalistic America riven by anti-Asian violence, where the authorities think nothing of snatching children from dissident parents. At its centre is Bird, a 12-year-old boy searching for his mother, an Asian-American poet who vanished years earlier. Ng lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her husband and their son.How did Our Missing Hearts begin for you?It came from a very personal place, with me thinking about being a creative parent and that constant fear of just not being present enough if I’m daydreaming about a plot or going on a book tour. I’d had a creative mother in my last novel, Little Fires Everywhere, and her daughter is quite accepting of the art that she makes and of the sacrifices that that requires, but I started thinking: what if that were not the case? Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2023-04-22 17:00:15 UTC ]
News tagged with: #reese witherspoon #missing hearts #dark times #anti-asian violence #book tour #award-winning author

Other Publishing stories related to: 'Novelist Celeste Ng: ‘There was a period when I thought I’d never write again’'


“Write the tale that scares you . . . I dare you.” Michaela Coel has some writing advice for us.

On Sunday night, I May Destroy You showrunner Michaela Coel won an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. In the context of yet another melanin-deficient awards show that had people tweeting #EmmysSoWhite, it was refreshing (and simultaneously frustrating) that... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-09-20 16:39:44 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #michaela coel #writing advice #sunday night #anthology series #anthology


How to Write the Book No One Wants You to Write

Sarah M. Broom’s The Yellow House is a feat—a memoir and historical narrative created amid governmental bureaucracy and resistance from some of her subjects. Continue reading at The Atlantic

[ The Atlantic | 2019-09-25 16:27:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #yellow house #memoir


How to Write the Book No One Wants You to Write

Sarah M. Broom’s The Yellow House is a feat—a memoir and historical narrative created amid governmental bureaucracy and resistance from some of her subjects. Continue reading at The Atlantic

[ The Atlantic | 2019-09-25 16:27:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #yellow house #memoir


New Writing North offers TV writing placements

New Writing North, working with Channel 4, Northumbria University and Lime Pictures, is offering aspiring TV writers from the North of England 12-month placements in either soap or children’s drama production companies. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2016-01-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #writing north #northumbria university #lime pictures


Struggling as an author? Stop writing only what you want to write

Earning a living as a writer is as likely as winning the lottery. Instead of writing books and persuading others to buy them, find out what people want to write, then do it for themPhilip Pullman: professional writers set to become ‘an endangered species’ due to low wagesI left school with a... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2016-01-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #rejection slip


How to write a book – top tips for National Novel Writing Month

Welcome to NaNoWriMo! MG Leonard (who wrote her first book Beetle Boy in six months, one hour a day) has tips on how to do it. And it starts with writing EVERY SINGLE DAY NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and takes place every November. It’s for anyone thinking about writing a... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-11-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #erin morgenstern #rainbow rowell #ya books #jennifer niven #guardian children #books site


Alice McDermott’s Writing Mantra: “Ah, Fuck Em.”

Photo by Miria-Sabina Maciągiewicz. As Emerson said to Whitman: “I greet you at the beginning of a great career, which yet must have had a long foreground somewhere, for such a start.” The same words my editor said to me when I published my first novel in—good God—1982! Although I have to... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-10 08:56:38 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #first novel


PEN America Dissenters Host 'Freedom to Write for Palestine' Fundraiser

Gathering together writers and translators who withdrew from PEN America's Literary Awards and World Voices Festival, the event, held in New York City on May 7, featured stirring readings, offered sharp critiques, and raised money for the Gaza-based nonprofit We Are Not Numbers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-08 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #pen america #literary awards


On Memoir, Permission, and the Thorny Terrain of Writing About Family

Oftentimes, a reader asks what it’s like to publish a memoir with family members in it. How do you seek permission? What do you do when someone in your family protests your storytelling? Do you write it anyway? In this transmission, the radio delivers the questions as something else: Where is... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-06 08:53:35 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #memoir


An Oasis in the Desert: Why Libraries Are the Best Places to Write

It’s 2015. My partner and I are in Moab, Utah, for the summer, far from our home of Philadelphia. He is doing research for his dissertation. I am struggling to rewrite a novel that my editor says—and I agree—isn’t working. The desert landscape in southwest Utah is magnificent and to us wholly... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-04-19 08:53:24 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #libraries


Crystal Hana Kim on Writing as a Mother, the Korean Diaspora, and How to Structure a Page-Turner

I first met Crystal Hana Kim at Women and Children First Bookstore in Chicago in 2017 for a book event, just after she just won the 2017 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. She greeted me with warm enthusiasm and we spoke about Korean history. Her debut novel, If You Leave... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-04-02 08:54:17 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #book event #emerging writers #bookstore


Vernor Vinge, Innovative Science Fiction Novelist, Dies at 79

He conceived an early version of cyberspace and predicted the “technological singularity,” a tipping point at which machines would become smarter than humans. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-03-28 22:04:59 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #early version #tipping point #science fiction


Mat Osman: ‘I wanted to write about a dirty, dangerous, working-class London’

The Suede bassist and author on writing without a safety net, terrifying himself for his next novel and which of the Thursday Murder Club books – by his brother Richard – he likes bestMat Osman is, along with Brett Anderson, a founding and current member of the band Suede, and the author of two... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-03-23 18:00:26 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #safety net #widely praised #older brother #tv presenter #first novel


Everyone’s Reading Books About Hot Faeries Now. This Bestselling Author Has Been Writing Them for Decades.

The Prisoner’s Throne author Holly Black reflects on the rise of “romantasy” novels, explicit sex scenes, and BookTok. Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2024-03-18 21:31:31 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #reading books #bestselling author


Leslie Jamison Writes A Different Kind of Love Story In “Splinters”

Leslie Jamison’s new memoir Splinters follows the aftermath of divorce and the awakening of motherhood, but it explores desire more than it does any kind of death. Jamison wants to make meaning, to connect, to love, to feel, to mother, to write, and to revise her life endlessly. There are losses... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-03-08 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #leslie jamison #love story #electric literature #memoir


Unruly Writing: On the Problem with the Fragmented Art History Book

There is a disturbing trend that has emerged in the literary world as of late. Let’s call it the “Fragmented Non-Fiction Art History” book. These titles look good on bookshelves, with their aesthetically-inclined covers and trendy lineup of female artists they purport to be about. The covers are... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-03-05 09:53:47 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #literary world


Kerry O’Brien criticises ABC, saying management needs ‘clarity of thought’ as Ita Buttrose departs

Former 7.30 and Lateline host uses interview ahead of chair’s final day to argue ABC in danger of losing its way and drifting closer to commercial modelFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastThe ABC is in... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-03-05 00:32:30 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #free morning #final day #latest updatesget #free app #national broadcaster #guardian australia #news corp


Two novelists have cut ties with PEN over its Mayim Bialik event and Gaza silence.

Two prominent novelists have broken with PEN America over the organization’s decision to platform controversial actor and outspoken ceasefire opponent Mayim Bialik, as well as its relative silence on the unfolding genocide in Gaza (which so far has claimed the lives of at least 120 writers,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-01-31 20:56:06 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #pen america #cut ties #national book award #novelists


Jonathan Escoffery: ‘I was trying to write novels aged nine’

The If I Survive You author on the suspense of the Booker ceremony, Americans’ warped view of the Caribbean, and writing his next novel on the roadJonathan Escoffery, 43, was born in Texas and lives in Oakland, California. His debut, If I Survive You, about a second-generation Jamaican in Miami,... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-01-27 18:00:42 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #booker prize #jonathan escoffery #short stories