Novelist Kate Atkinson: ‘I do feel a need to prove myself’

As her latest Jackson Brodie thriller comes out, the award-winning author discusses cosy crime, sniffy critics, and how she investigated her own family’s secretsKate Atkinson has an idea for a fun side-hustle: at some point in the future, when she’s done with the second world war, and with her jaded private eye, Jackson Brodie, she’ll bring to life the creative projects that have hitherto existed only as facets of her characters’ lives. She’ll take the fortune teller Madame Astarti from her third novel, Emotionally Weird, and put her at the centre of her own series of mysteries; she’ll conjure up a script for Green Acres, the rural soap opera that features in her two short-story collections, 2002’s Not the End of the World and last year’s Normal Rules Don’t Apply; she’ll craft episodes of the TV police procedural Collier, in which Brodie’s one-time girlfriend Julia played a pathologist. And finally, she’ll flesh out the breathtakingly hammy murder mystery that a cast of clapped-out actors perform at Burton Makepeace, the stately home that is the setting for her new Jackson Brodie novel, Death at the Sign of the Rook.Writing these scenes – teeming with aristocrats, actors, Russian countesses, clergymen and a “fastidious little Swiss detective” – were Atkinson’s treat, she tells me, as she constructed the novel during lockdown. “I would have done so much more of that,” she explains, as we sit sipping coffee in a studiedly antiquated hotel near her home in Edinburgh. “But I... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2024-08-10 08:00:37 UTC ]

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Dorothy Allison, author and force of nature, has died.

Dorothy Allison, the lesbian feminist activist, beacon, poet, parent, and award-winning author of novels like Bastard Out of Carolina and Cavedweller, has died at 75. Allison wrote about a queer, poor South with dynamism and ferocious love. Her books tangoed frankly with historically taboo... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-11-08 16:28:55 UTC ]
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The Short Stories of Moroccan Writer Mohamed Choukri: A Talk by Dr. Jonas Elbousty, by The Editors of WLT

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[ World Literature Today | 2024-09-26 18:32:59 UTC ]
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Novelist Kate Atkinson: ‘I do feel a need to prove myself’

As her latest Jackson Brodie thriller comes out, the award-winning author discusses cosy crime, sniffy critics, and how she investigated her own family’s secretsKate Atkinson has an idea for a fun side-hustle: at some point in the future, when she’s done with the second world war, and with her... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-08-10 08:00:37 UTC ]
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Interview: Jacqueline Winspear on the Maisie Dobbs series

“No one should be surprised by a writer’s library,” says the author of the Maisie Dobbs series, about a World War I battlefield nurse turned private investigator. The series’ 18th and final book is “The Comfort of Ghosts.” Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-06-06 09:00:13 UTC ]
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Hay Festival 2024

The events will showcase writers and speakers from countries in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa to UK audiences, and feature up-and-coming UK writers selected as part of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists 2023 list.This specially selected event series brings together our work with the... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2024-05-24 10:51:02 UTC ]
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Kate Banks, Children’s Author Who Wrote About Grief, Dies at 64

She became an award-winning author of children’s books and young-adult novels despite debilitating health issues and the murder of her father. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-03-27 20:06:57 UTC ]
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'American Prometheus' Author Kai Bird Named 2024 BIO Award Winner

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Notable Literary Deaths in 2023

To the members of the literary community we lost this year, we say a last thank you, and goodbye. You will be missed. * “Belated literary star” Edith Pearlman, who broke out with Binocular Vision at the age of 74, died on January 1. She was 86. Suzy McKee Charnas, award-winning author of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-14 09:51:11 UTC ]
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A.S. Byatt, Award-Winning Author of POSSESSION, Dies at 87

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[ Book Riot | 2023-11-17 16:23:21 UTC ]
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A Summary and Analysis of Katherine Mansfield’s ‘The Fly’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘The Fly’ is not one of the best-known short stories of the New Zealand-born writer Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923), but it is significant for being one of her few stories which deals directly with the First World War. In the story, a man is reminded […] Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2023-08-21 14:00:52 UTC ]
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The Ugandan satirist who scared a dictator: Kakwenza Rukirabashaija on torture, exile and activism

The award-winning author was arrested and tortured for his work – and then tortured again for writing about his detention. Now he smuggles his latest banned book into Uganda to ensure it is readKakwenza Rukirabashaija tries to keep his scars covered around his children. Even in the height of... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-07-04 12:53:40 UTC ]
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Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times: Life Under Occupation in WWII

Before you say it, I know: there are so, so many books about the Second World War. And when I set out to write my most recent novel, The Paris Deception, the thought crossed my mind—do we really need another book about Paris during the war? But historical fiction is a rich field, and there […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-06-30 08:55:14 UTC ]
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Religion and Spirituality Books Preview: July 2023

Books to steer people through doubt and trauma, a light look at theological battles over beards, and a historical novel of friendship tested by jealousy and the strains of World War I are among titles releasing in July. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-06-27 04:00:00 UTC ]
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‘It’s like all my dreams coming true’: inside the BBC’s electrifying new musical drama

From working with grime legends to tackling racism, author Candice Carty-Williams’s new show Champion is landmark TV. Its team talk Shola Ama, pengness – and the greatest group chat everIt’s just after noon in Birmingham and, in the hidden depths of a city centre nightclub, a singer is about to... Continue reading at The Guardian

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‘Damn, that fool can write’: how Martin Amis made everyone up their game

He exploded into the tweedy world of literature, a young, pouting and outrageously brash crusader for prose. Our writer remembers her encounters with the novelist, whose smarts and chutzpah confounded his peers‘You’ll be reading me every now and then at least until about 2080, weather... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-05-22 05:00:48 UTC ]
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Naomi Klein investigates ‘conspiracy theory culture’ that has shaken her life

Doppelganger, due out this autumn, examines ‘the wildness of right now’, including personal issues arising from being confused with Naomi Wolf Award-winning author and Guardian columnist Naomi Klein is to publish a book about conspiracy theories, which she has described as a departure and “more... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-05-17 13:00:30 UTC ]
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6 Great Y.A. Fantasy Books

Tracy Deonn, the Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Award-winning author of “Legendborn” and “Bloodmarked,” recommends a few of her favorite young adult fantasy titles. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-05-06 09:00:20 UTC ]
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6 Great Y.A. Fantasy Novels

Tracy Deonn, the Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Award-winning author of “Legendborn” and “Bloodmarked,” recommends a few of her favorite young adult fantasy titles. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-05-06 09:00:19 UTC ]
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“Maybe This Means Something.” Min Jin Lee on Vulnerability and Audacity, in Life and on the Page

Illustration by Krishna Bala Shenoi. Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso is a weekly series of intimate conversations with artists, authors, and politicians. It’s a podcast where people sound like people. New episodes air every Sunday, distributed by Pushkin Industries.  * Live from On Air Fest in... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-05-02 08:54:53 UTC ]
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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... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-04-22 17:00:15 UTC ]
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