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 ]
News tagged with:
#life cycle
#publishing industry
#works hard
At London Book Fair, the top honor from the Writers' Prize, formerly the Rathbones, goes to Liz Berry for 'The Home Child.' The post At London Book Fair: Writers’ Prize Names Its Winners appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2024-03-14 05:01:24 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#top honor
#london book
Vinson Cunningham’s impressive debut novel finds a watchful campaign aide measuring his ambitions on the trail of a magnetic presidential candidate. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-03-12 09:00:38 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#book review
#great expectations
#debut novel
There’s nothing quite like finding six new releases on display in a bookstore – all of which you’ve written, and none of which has your name on itA few years back, a long-held dream of mine came true: a book I wrote became a runaway hit.You’ve probably read the book. You’ve definitely seen the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-03-11 14:00:31 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#bestselling book
#ve written
#years back
#secret life
#runaway hit
#bookstore
One of my duties every single day as an author, journalist, and constituent, is to read. I study the written word the way a football coach studies football games. I don’t read for pleasure just like a football coach doesn’t attend games to zone out. As much as I’d like to avoid it, I have […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-03-11 11:48:51 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#book writer
#single day
#written word
#children’s book
In Andrew Boryga’s debut novel, a young writer creates a career for himself by exaggerating, or sometimes completely manufacturing, stories of tragedy. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-03-09 10:00:20 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#book review
#young writer
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
Britain’s youngest code-breakers, brought to life in a new nonfiction book by Candace Fleming, were normal teenagers: playing pranks, attending dances. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-03-08 10:01:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#book review
#nonfiction book
In his eighth book, the best-selling author Cal Newport offers life hacks for producing high-quality work while working less. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-03-06 10:03:11 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#book review
#eighth book
#best-selling author
Chronicling the high-heeled path to drag-queen superstardom, the new memoir also reveals a celebrity infatuated with his sense of a special destiny. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-03-05 10:00:18 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#book review
#memoir
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
There’s a new online bookstore in town—and this time it’s helmed by RuPaul. Yes, that RuPaul. (Reading being, after all, fundamental.) Allstora, announced today*, is a membership-based bookstore that offers a profit-split to authors. RuPaul serves as Allstora’s Chief Creative Officer and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-03-04 16:45:28 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#online bookstore
#bestselling author
#bookstore
#bookshop
In the audiobook oral history “Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of ‘Airplane!,’” a cast of dozens fondly revisits a now-classic film. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-03-01 14:12:30 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#audiobook review
#true story
#audiobook
Praising 'their attentiveness to the world,' the 2024 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year jury names four authors to its shortlist. The post UK: The Sunday Times Young Writer 2024 Shortlist appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2024-02-27 17:20:22 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#post uk
#young writer
“A Woman of Pleasure,” Kiyoko Murata’s first novel to be translated into English, explores the world of sex work in early-20th-century Japan. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-26 10:00:14 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#book review
#sex work
#first novel
In Streisand’s new audiobook recording for her chatty, brick-size memoir, “My Name Is Barbra,” the superlative diva adds a little freestyling. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-23 12:45:40 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#audiobook review
#audiobook recording
#audiobook
From one girl’s aspiration to Olympic gymnastics glory, to a boy’s stint living in the Idaho wilderness in hopes of fixing his unruly behavior, something that remains a guiding principle in Black storytelling is the breadth of our lives. These stories, a collection of some of EL’s most-loved... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-02-22 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#black writers
#guiding principle
#electric literature
#short stories
Probing the lives and work Barbara Comyns, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Carson McCullers, these literary biographies, out this week, take a fresh look at three of our most visionary writers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-02-22 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
From cancelled books to ‘review bombing’, it might seem as though the website can make or break a career. But how influential is it really?Something dramatic happens on a social media platform every day. On Goodreads, the anachronistically designed website for logging, rating (out of five) and... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-02-17 09:00:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#reviewing books
#draw attention
#fake accounts
#negative reviews
#mental health
#sell books
#literary world
His charming memoir “What Have We Here?” traces the path from a Harlem childhood to “Star Wars,” while lamenting the roles that never came his way. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-13 10:00:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#book review
#star wars
#memoir
In “The Book of Love,” the Pulitzer finalist and master of short stories pushes our understanding of what a fantasy novel can be. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-12 10:00:46 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#book review
#kelly link
#pulitzer finalist
#short stories