Drawing on her panoramic reading and her experiences of the authorly life cycle, Atwood surveys her trade with a mix of seriousness and gentle fun“You may find the subject a little peculiar,” warns Margaret Atwood, before she discusses the writer’s relationship with mortality. “It is a little peculiar. Writing itself is a little peculiar.” Atwood’s survey of her profession makes this seem like an understatement: after all, she argues, writers have been placed in close company with the devil and the dead; they have secret identities and hidden doubles; they are death-defying magicians, self-erasing nobodies, even – if you want to get “murky and pretentious” – shamanistic travellers. This book prefers to stay on the side of clarity and self-deprecation, combining evidence drawn from her panoramic reading – one chapter deals with The Tempest, The Wizard of Oz and Klaus Mann’s Mephisto – with her own experiences of the life cycle of an author. She tempers the seriousness of her questions – What is a writer? For whom do writers write? – by poking gentle fun at her trade, describing the machine-like publishing industry as “cog eat cog”, and quietly mocking endless discussion panels. Yet Atwood sees her kind reflected everywhere – from Gilgamesh to The Beast With Five Fingers – and works hard on their behalf: advocate, analyst and always, writer.•To order On Writers and Writing for £7.99 (RRP £9.99) go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2015-01-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Random House Enterprises is to launch its first interactive online creative writing course. The... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Academy Chicago Publishers will become an imprint of Chicago Review Press and will expand its publishing program to 15-20 titles per year. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-01-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#publishing program
Morrissey is writing a novel, following the success of his memoir released last year.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-01-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Last year was a great year for PW online. We added new podcasts and newsletters, made a ton of friends on Twitter and Facebook, and have had the busiest year ever at publishersweekly.com. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-01-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A sinking ship of a drama that managed to be neither monstrous nor deep"Thar she blows!" said one of the crew as a whale came to the surface. The cetacean wasn't the only thing blowing heavily in The Whale (BBC1), a 90-minute dramatisation of the sinking of the Essex, a Nantucket whaler, by a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishing Perspectives' #EtherIssue debate on the allegedly slowing ebook market reveals apparent contradictions in self-publishing interests. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-12-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Frances Spalding on one of the most revealing accounts of Lucian Freud ever writtenGeordie Greig's book is an unapologetic mixture of intelligent perception and high gossip. It deepens the reader's understanding of Lucian Freud, as both man and artist, but it also connives with the kind of... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Following OxTales (2009) and OxTravels (2011), Profile Books will publish fundraising collection... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The World Service's expert reporting of Mandela's memorial service showed why its grant shouldn't be cutLive Coverage of the Memorial Service for Nelson Mandela (World Service)| iPlayerBook at Bedtime (R4) iPlayerAlice's Wunderland (R4) | iPlayerThe BBC comes into its own when covering state... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Wiley is to trial a transferable peer review scheme for nine of its neuroscience journals, which... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-12-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Publishers Weekly Children's Starred Reviews Annual is your source for the best books that 2013 has to offer. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-12-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Indie publishing via online writing communities and ebooks can provide valuable feedback, and even set you on the path to mainstream successNews that a quarter of the top 100 Kindle books on Amazon.com are from indie publishers doesn't surprise me. I started out writing online. Fed up with the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The mobile library service run by Pembrokeshire County Council, used by about 1% of the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Monday: Slate staffers pick their favorite books of 2013. Tuesday: The overlooked books of 2013. Wednesday: The best lines of 2013, and the best poetry of 2013. Thursday: Dan Kois’ 15 favorite books. Friday: The Slate Book Review Top 10. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2013-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Anthony Marra, author of 'The Constellation of Vital Phenomena,' one of the most highly praised novels of 2013, took a gamble when he set his debut novel in a country he barely knew. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-12-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The University of Kent has apologised for a statement on its website that seemingly belittled... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-12-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Science fiction has a long tradition in North Korea and SF authors enjoy greater freedom to explore edgy subjects, such as crime and violence, than their counterparts. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-12-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Michelle Knight will write a book on the 11 years she spent as a captive in the Cleveland home of Ariel Castro. Weinstein books will publish the as yet untitled memoir in spring 2014.Michelle Knight will write a book on the 11 years she spent as a captive in the Cleveland home of Ariel Castro.... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-11-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hilary Mantel, Jonathan Franzen, Mohsin Hamid, Ruth Rendell, Tom Stoppard, Malcolm Gladwell, Eleanor Catton and many more recommend the books that impressed them this yearChimamanda Ngozi AdichieFive Star Billionaire by Tash Aw (Fourth Estate) is a brilliant, sprawling, layered and unsentimental... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-11-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#deep understanding
Forty years ago this fall, a University of Chicago graduate student named Curt Matthews and his wife, Linda Matthews, founded Chicago Review Press, naming it after the Chicago Review literary journal, for which Curt was then poetry editor. Operating initially out of the couple’s basement, CRP’s... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-11-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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