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 ]
Pat Barker says she has a distrust of the publishing industry’s regional and class diversity drives because it could be "fashionable" and may not represent a long-term commitment. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-05-27 18:57:47 UTC ]
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Reiterating its emphasis on voices underrepresented in many parts of the publishing industry, the Amazon Literary Partnership reaches its 10th year. The post Amazon Literary Partnership Announces More than $1 Million in 2019 Grants appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2019-05-21 01:30:39 UTC ]
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For quite a few years, artificial intelligence seemed like just another buzzy term with vague implications on the publishing industry. But now, publishers are putting it into action. Through a range of applications, AI and natural language processing are being used by publishers to streamline... Continue reading at Publishing Executive
[ Publishing Executive | 2019-05-03 19:33:38 UTC ]
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The hunt is on for up-and-coming writers who could scoop this year’s £1,000 Guardian/Fourth Estate prize A Chinese villager with no arms becomes a Paralympian swimming champion; a dapper elderly Jamaican spends New Year’s Eve in a south London police cell under suspicion of domestic abuse; a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-05-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The 2019 Sheikh Zayed Book Award winner in Children's Literature counsels the publishing industry to stop 'riding the wave' of typical entertainment and promote issue-based reality in young people's books. The post Zayed Award Winner Hussain Al Mutawaa on Children and the Habit of Reading... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2019-04-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Authors are being told to write under pseudonyms to present themselves as debut writers and feed the publishing industry’s “obsession” with new, marketable voices, Joanne Harris has said. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-04-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Figures in the publishing industry have expressed frustration at the latest round of gender pay gap reports, which showed little progress had been made since 2017. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-04-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Shaila Muñoz joins PRHGE with more than a decade working in the publishing industry, most recently at HarperCollins Christian Publishers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-03-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Philip Jones looks ahead to assess how the publishing industry will weather Brexit. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Across every industry, data is changing the way we work — and the publishing industry is no exception. Audience data, such as user engagement and visit value, has invaded online publishing and is forcing publishers away from old tactics towards adopting new revenue-growing strategies. Sponsored... Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2019-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As a recipient of the Arts Connects Us Grant I travelled to Ghana and Sierra Leone to meet with writers and publishing professionals working in the field of books for young readers to foster creative and collaborative exchanges between those contacts and publishing professionals and readers in... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2019-03-19 11:10:28 UTC ]
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You started writing early in your high school days, what were you writing about most back then?I think it is exaggerating to say I started writing at high school. I was already writing, but it was mainly journaling, which was not for public consumption. There was a poem (about a tree in the... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2019-03-15 11:15:36 UTC ]
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The professor and author discusses his research into the publishing industry’s recent attempts to improve diversity. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sunny Singh reflects on how far the Jhalak Prize and the publishing industry have come since the award was founded, and how far there is to go. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The giants of the scientific publishing industry have made huge profits for decades. Now they are under threatScientific publishing has long been a licence to print money. Scientists need journals in which to publish their research, so they will supply the articles without monetary reward. Other... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-03-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Five years after a report into the trade that induced many measures to change the publishing industry, a new text will assess the current state of play. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The leading provider of publishing services celebrates 50 years of delivering excellence to the publishing industry. (Sponsored) Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-03-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new digital platform and newsletter called The FLIP (Female Leadership in Publishing), launched by three Transworld colleagues to showcase "brilliant, inspiring, courageous and creative" women who work in the publishing industry, has been "inundated" with support, collecting hundreds of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-01-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The publishing industry does not look like it is headed for a big finish to 2018. In the week ended Dec. 15, 2018, unit sales of print books fell 6.5% compared to the similar week in 2017 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-12-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It is “absolutely the responsibility” of the publishing industry to inspire and empower the next generation, Dialogue Books publisher Sharmaine Lovegrove has said, while urging the trade to ensure inclusivity in the workplace is "the norm, and not just a trend". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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