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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Unpublished author Jamie Crook has won this year's Luke Bitmead Writer's Bursary for his... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Four titles that bring "the natural world to life for 5-11 year-olds" are represented... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Doncaster campaigners are considering applying for judicial review over library closures,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Books published by Abacus and Frances Lincoln took the prizes in the published work categories of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mark Cuban has 335,000 friends on Facebook and 760,000 followers on Twitter. Monday, the Internet billionaire and owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team will test just how friendly those fans really are. Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2011-11-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Kindle Fire is really a distant relation of the handheld portable TV that was popular about 20 years ago--you can consume lots of things fairly effortlessly on the Fire--movies, music, magazines, some kinds of apps, and, more importantly for us, books; but the Fire's real innovation is how... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-11-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Writers and authors are better educated and earn more on average than the rest of the U.S. workforce, according to a study by the National Endowment for the Arts, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Commerce. The study, Artists and Art Workers in the United... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-11-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 26/10/2011 - 09:04 Publishers Association chief executive Richard Mollet will be among the panel giving evidence to the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee next week on the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Wed, 19/10/2011 - 16:37 The Commonwealth Writers prizes have relaunched today (19th October) with a new community website aimed at connecting and inspiring new authors. The new site is a free-to-join forum for aspiring writers to get advice from... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Releasing a book on one of the worlds largest publishing marketplaces could help your company. Here's a quick guide to the basics of self-publishing. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2011-10-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Wed, 19/10/2011 - 15:01 Tim Godfray, chief executive of The Booksellers Association, has asked British Library c.e.o. Dame Lynne Brindley to review the Librarys relationship with Amazon as a matter of urgency, following the furore over links to... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Mon, 17/10/2011 - 10:14 Camden library campaigners have become the latest group to apply for judicial review over library closures. The Camden Public Library User Group has instructed solicitors Bindmans to lodge an application for judicial review,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Tue, 11/10/2011 - 07:50 "Grange Hill" writer Phil Redmond is to pen a memoir and novel for Random House imprint Cornerstone. M.d. Susan Sandon acquired world rights in the two books directly with Redmond, who is best known for creating three of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Fri, 30/09/2011 - 08:55 Publishers should not be too quick to write off physical products and should encourage competition between a number of digital players to avoid the mistakes the record industry made, the director general of the Entertainment... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 23/09/2011 - 08:35 Marian Keyes is writing a cookery title for Michael Joseph, as the imprint ramps up its spring food publishing list next year by releasing one title every month during the first half of 2012. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 22/09/2011 - 11:01 Faber is to publish a new detective novel from P D James which combines a murder investigation with the world and characters of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, revisiting Darcy and Elizabeth six years into their... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Thu, 22/09/2011 - 15:46 Agents who wish to publish their clients work must offer them a detailed explanation of what they will personally gain from the arrangement and obtain their full and written agreement, the president of the Association of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 19/09/2011 - 08:20 Scotland is to hold its first Crime Writing Festival next year, supported by Stirling Council, Creative Scotland and the University of Stirling, and working closely with Stirling's general literary festival, Off the Page.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Thu, 15/09/2011 - 08:30 The Red Queen author Philippa Gregory is turning her hand to young adult fiction for the first time, after signing a deal with Simon & Schuster. Ingrid Selberg, director of children's publishing at S&S UK, and Jon... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Thu, 01/09/2011 - 14:45 Hodder Children's Books has bought two teen titles from journalist and presenter Dawn Porter. Publisher Emily Thomas did the deal directly with Porter for a "sizeable" sum. The books are described as "epic stories of an... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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