One Path for the Impersonal Essay

In one of the canniest touches in Sally Rooney’s novel, Conversations With Friends, published earlier this year, a writer idolized by Rooney’s 21-year-old narrator and her best friend is celebrated for her collection of essays. Is there any path to fashionable literary fame more quintessential to the late 2010s than this? Over the past few years, the essay, once an inconvenient form prone to washing up in collections of miscellaneous writings that agents assured their clients were fiendishly hard to sell, has enjoyed a boom. The internet’s insatiable appetite for personal stories allowed young writers to break out and get published in outlets that might once have felt out of their reach, even if, as Slate’s Laura Bennett pointed out in 2015, the fees paid for such essays rarely compensated for the often corrosive attention they attracted. This spring, the New Yorker declared the fad to be over. But even in its more respectable book form, the essay collection, essays have become a trouble zone. A much-shared piece by Merve Emre in the Boston Review, “Two Paths for the Personal Essay,” took to task a new generation of popular essayists for their lack of rigor and outlined a future for the form in which writers must choose between mushy emotional meandering and unsentimental intellectual precision. Continue reading at 'Slate'

[ Slate | 2017-10-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #insatiable appetite #boston review

Other Publishing stories related to: 'One Path for the Impersonal Essay'


Pine's essay collection scoops An Post Irish Book of the Year

Academic Emilie Pine’s “vivid and powerful” Notes to Self (Hamish Hamilton) has won the An Post Irish Book of the Year 2018 following a public vote. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-01-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #hamish hamilton #public vote


Quadrille snaps up essays on women's relationship with the internet

Quadrille will publish an exploration of the female relationship with the internet, Mixed Feelings, by Refinery29 editor Sarah Raphael and campaigner Naomi Shimada. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-01-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #quadrille snaps #mixed feelings


New York Review of Books editor Ian Buruma departs amid outrage over essay

Writer and academic steps down after publishing and defending Jian Ghomeshi piece deemed to be at odds with spirit of #MeTooIan Buruma, the writer and academic, has stepped down from the editorship of the New York Review of Books after only 16 months, after he caused outrage by publishing and... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2018-09-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #york review #robert silvers ##metoo


Novelist Who Wrote an Essay Called “How to Murder Your Husband” Accused of Murdering Her Husband

A 68-year-old romance novelist living in a suburb of Portland who self-published an essay entitled “How to Murder Your Husband” seven years ago was arrested last week on charges of murdering her husband. Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2018-09-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Running Press Continues on Its Own Path

As the Hachette division continues to grow, the publisher has announced a new imprint, RP Studio, which will focus on producing a range of gift items, including journals, notebooks, and postcard books, all drawn from bestselling RP books. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-08-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #gift items


Walker to publish 'empowering' essay collection for teens with gal-dem

Walker Books has acquired a collection of essays about growing up from women of colour magazine and collective gal-dem. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-08-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #essay collection #walker books


9 Funny Essay Collections

Maeve Higgins, author of the wickedly funny new essay collection 'Maeve in America,' picks books by Aisha Tyler, Nora Ephron, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-08-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #wickedly funny #essay collection #picks books #nora ephron


Fishwick urges public to read Greer's controversial essay On Rape with 'open mind'

Bloomsbury publishing director Michael Fishwick has urged people to read Germaine Greer’s controversial On Rape essay “with an open mind”, saying he hoped it would “provoke debate on this important topic”. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-07-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #open mind #important topic


Bloomsbury to publish Greer's controversial rape essay

Bloomsbury will publish Germaine Greer's controversial essay On Rape in September. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-07-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Pocock takes 2018 Fitzcarraldo Editions Essay Prize

Irish-Canadian writer Joanna Pocock has scooped the £3,000 Fitzcarraldo Editions Essay Prize for her work exploring communities and their relationships with the changing landscapes of Montana. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-06-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Photo Essay: Fiction Readers Summit Launches

The inaugural Fiction Readers Summit brought together top selling Christian fiction authors and their fans in Grand Rapids, Mich. earlier this month. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-05-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #photo essay #grand rapids


Ian McEwan admits to only earning C-grade after helping son with essay on one of his books

Ian McEwan, the award-winning author, has admitted feeling "a little dubious" about people being compelled to study his books, after helping his son with an essay about his own novel and receiving a C. Continue reading at Stuff

[ Stuff | 2018-05-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #ian mcewan #award-winning author


Ian McEwan helped his son write an essay about his own novel. His son got a C+

If you're a student who's been assigned to write an essay about an Ian McEwan novel, there's one person you shouldn't ask for help: Ian McEwan. The Man Booker Prize-winning British author, known for his novels "Amsterdam" and “Atonement,” told the Daily Mail that he offered to help one student... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-05-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #ian mcewan #daily mail


Greer to publish controversial essay On Rape

Germaine Greer is publishing a new book, On Rape, arguing there are "important differences between sleaze and assault".  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-03-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #germaine greer


UK Illustrator Luke Pearson’s Series ‘Hilda’ Beats a Path to Netflix

In a new series directed by Andy Coyle–with illustrator Luke Pearson as one of its executive producers–the five-book 'Hilda' series of graphic novels from Nobrow's Flying Eye Books is to premiere on Netflix in Septermber. The post UK Illustrator Luke Pearson’s Series ‘Hilda’ Beats a Path to... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2018-02-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #netflix appeared #executive producers #graphic novels


Hilarious essays and a mighty children's book: Rebecca Carroll's top picks of 2017

“We Are Never Meeting in Real Life,” Samantha Irby’s collection of candid, funny and deliberate essays will make you laugh until you pee and cry and ache in your belly. It’s like nothing you’ve ever read, because Irby is like no one you’ve ever met, although you will never really know, because... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2017-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #top picks #real life


Laura Bates to publish essay collection with S&S

Laura Bates, founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, is publishing a new collection of essays with Simon & Schuster. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2017-11-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #laura bates #simon schuster


Scholars Highlight Hobby Lobby Owners' Path From Retail Giant to Bible Curators

In their new book, Biblical scholars Candida Moss and Joel Baden examine the Green family’s collection of antiquities planned for their $500 million Museum of the Bible, and question how the Hobby Lobby owners might be able to control the conversation about the Bible through it. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-09-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #retail giant


Children's Books at the Brooklyn Book Festival: A Photo Essay

The 12th annual Brooklyn Book Festival took place in downtown Brooklyn on September 16 and 17, drawing a record 45,000 attendees. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-09-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #photo essay #downtown brooklyn