Cultural Cross Sections Taylor Hickney In this profile, one of Marie-Helene Bertino’s students at the New School provides a personal glimpse of the author, whose new novel, Parakeet, was published June 2. On the evening of the National Book Awards, Marie-Helene Bertino strolled into our workshop ready for the after party adorned in a gold, sequined ball gown and black hoodie. There was already an electric air in the program that night, because we, her students—mostly aspiring and emerging writers—were impressed to know the faculty invited or involved in what we perceived as a night for authors who’ve Made It. Her hair had been curled—it was typically pin-straight—and accented with a rose behind her ear. She laughed and blushed at the compliments and laid her small, gold watch on the table next to her notes as she does in every class she teaches. She commands the space in a room: even with five minutes left before the start, our chitchat dies down, our attention drawn to her because she gives it back to us. Even with five minutes left before the start, our chitchat dies down, our attention drawn to her because she gives it back to us. On June 2, her second novel, Parakeet, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, hit the shelves. In the book, a soon-to-be-wed woman known only as “the bride” is confronted by her late grandmother, who takes the form of a bird. Her grandmother tells her to seek out her estranged brother, a reclusive... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2020-06-04 19:40:55 UTC ]
Writer Jeannine Mjoseth was looking for adventure when she turned to professional wrestling. She got plenty of that. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-03-15 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Across the publishing industry, there has been a growing shift towards a strategy of on-demand, and the disruptive events of 2020 and Covid-19 have only accelerated these changes. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-14 04:55:45 UTC ]
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Unless you’re a disgraced politician, trying to get a book published can be difficult, nerve-wracking, soul-denting work. If you’re anything like me, though, it really helps to hear that rejection is the rule in the publishing industry, rather than the exception. When my novel was out on... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-03-10 17:04:17 UTC ]
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Publishing has long relied on self-employed freelancers for a diverse range of roles. From editors and copywriters to illustrators and ghost-writers, the periplectic nature of creativity has long been such that impermanence is a norm. Against that context, the publishing industry faces the new... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-09 00:04:53 UTC ]
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When I left the publishing industry at the end of 2007, the first Kindle had gone on sale just a month earlier, Apple had not yet launched the iPad and few people in publishing knew what an app was. It was a very different world. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-05 11:09:47 UTC ]
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Picador has landed a story collection and debut novel from Niamh Mulvey, writer of publishing newsletter “In the Read” and a former Quercus commissioning editor. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-04 22:15:18 UTC ]
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The debut novel of Vintage editor Lily Lindon has gone to Head of Zeus in a four-way auction, as part of a two-book deal. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-04 09:59:43 UTC ]
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Megan Nolan's "Acts of Desperation," about a woman in thrall to an older man, stands out from similar tales with an uncannily self-aware narrator. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-03-03 15:00:19 UTC ]
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Alexandra Andrews’s debut novel follows a Machiavellian aspiring writer who becomes entangled in her work for a best-selling fiction writer. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-03-03 11:00:00 UTC ]
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When we started sheltering in place at the beginning of the pandemic, in a burst of energy and optimism I haven’t experienced since, I started a social distance book club. I selected Lara Williams’s debut novel Supper Club, which I’d recently read, because I thought a book that centered on women... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-03-02 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Perhaps it’s not surprising that even the prose in illustrator Forsyth Harmon’s debut novel Justine is deeply imagistic. Reading this short, powerful story feels like wandering through a museum exhibit about teenage girlhood on Long Island in the summer of 1999. Narrator Ali and her friends feed... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-03-02 12:00:00 UTC ]
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“Burnt Sugar,” a debut novel by Avni Doshi, depicts a particularly intense mother-daughter relationship — from the tormented daughter’s point of view. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-03-02 10:00:08 UTC ]
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Hodder Studios has pre-empted two books from Sarah Bonner, including her debut novel Her Perfect Twin, described as an "original, compelling and propulsive" thriller. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-01 10:16:58 UTC ]
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Virago has acquired the debut novel by Sharma Taylor, What a Mother’s Love Don’t Teach You, at auction as part of a two-book deal. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-01 03:02:12 UTC ]
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Sceptre has landed a "stunning" short story collection and debut novel by Serpent's Tail assistant editor Leon Craig. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-28 15:58:25 UTC ]
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Astra Publishing House has announced they are launching a new literary magazine, Astra Quarterly, which will start publishing online this fall and in print by the end of 2021. Astra Quarterly will have a strong international focus; it will have an international network of editors, and be... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-02-26 16:54:13 UTC ]
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Lauren Oyler’s debut novel brings the reader down a rabbit hole of endless, mindless scrolling, online identities, and conspiracy theories. Fake Accounts follows the journey of a young woman after she discovers that her boyfriend is running an Instagram account spouting dangerous conspiracies... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-02-26 12:00:00 UTC ]
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In “The Committed,” a follow-up to “The Sympathizer,” Viet Thanh Nguyen’s nameless spy navigates a Paris underworld rife with drug deals, violence and colonialism’s ghosts. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-02-26 10:00:03 UTC ]
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In Daniel Loedel’s haunting debut novel Hades, Argentina, Tomás Orilla returns to Buenos Aires—“a city made for forgetting as much for nostalgia”—ten years after fleeing the military dictatorship whose regime disappeared upwards of 30,000 thousand political opponents, including Isabel Aroztegui,... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-02-25 12:00:00 UTC ]
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While the pandemic sent shockwaves across the world’s publishing industry in 2020, some international markets reported strong performances with the US posting record-breaking sales while Australia also saw a major boost. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-25 01:03:16 UTC ]
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