I was called aggressive for criticising passages in Kate Clanchy’s memoir. But the real problem lies deep in the overwhelmingly white world of publishingIt started with a tweet. Kate Clanchy, author of Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me posted on her Twitter account that a reviewer on Goodreads had “made up a racist quote and said it was in my book”. She urged her almost 40,000 followers to flag the review that claimed she had bigoted views on race, class and body image, and had used terms such as “chocolate-coloured skin” and “Jewish noses”. Prominent authors and columnists swooped in to offer support, decrying how Clanchy could possibly be subjected to such inhumane treatment – including the current president of the Society of Authors, Philip Pullman, who declared: “But of all the people and of all the books to have had this happen … It’s hard to stay optimistic about the human race sometimes.”However, it soon emerged that those terms were, in fact, in the book. Incredulous that antisemitic and anti-Black tropes could have made it into a book published as recently as 2019, I downloaded and read it. I recoiled as a Somali boy is described as having a “narrow skull”, while one Muslim girl is “very butch-looking … with a distinct moustache”, and another “looked brilliant because she has such a strong skull shape”, which sounds more like something a eugenicist might observe than a trusted teacher. There is a troubling exchange where Clanchy is baffled by a boy who,... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2021-08-13 13:51:20 UTC ]
Pamela Sneed’s book powerfully recalls the contributions and leadership of lesbians during the height of the AIDS crisis. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-11-18 20:38:22 UTC ]
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An all-star cast came together, remotely and in socially distanced shoots, to turn Ta-Nehisi Coates’s memoir into a vivid amalgam of art, music and performance for HBO. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-11-18 15:34:00 UTC ]
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The former president offers familiar praise without delving deeper into their relationship. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-11-18 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Some publishing executives worry their authors and staff might rebel, but they say their bigger concern would be ensuring the book’s accuracy. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-11-18 10:19:13 UTC ]
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Sphere will publish My Farming Life, the new memoir from shepherdess Emma Gray. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-18 10:05:06 UTC ]
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Waterstones has seen "strong" online orders for A Promised Land (Viking), with the title also at number one in Amazon's bestseller charts. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-18 06:17:45 UTC ]
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As you may have noticed, Barack Obama has a book out today. It’s a memoir, titled A Promised Land, that runs to more than seven-hundred pages and is still only a first volume—covering the period from Obama’s childhood to the raid, in 2011, that killed Osama bin Laden. Originally, Obama planned... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2020-11-17 13:29:32 UTC ]
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My first novel was released within six months of Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance’s memoir of Appalachian roots and a youth spent in a Rust Belt community with a dearth of jobs and resources. Vance’s book came out just before the 2016 election; mine was released just after. Donald Trump’s victory had... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-11-17 12:01:45 UTC ]
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In the coming days, the team will cover two major awards and reveal two year-end lists. There’s also a certain presidential memoir coming out. Two editors discuss an industry that hasn’t slowed down. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-11-17 10:00:11 UTC ]
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Catherine Coleman Flowers’s memoir chronicles her advocacy for improved sanitation systems in rural America and her own education as an activist. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-11-17 10:00:08 UTC ]
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Independent booksellers reported solid first-day sales of former President Barak Obama's 'A Promised Land.' There was a downside, however, as many store owners reported some cartons of the memoir arrived damaged. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-11-17 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Transworld has bought a memoir by Dr Waheed Arian, billed as "the powerful story of a boy who dreamed about helping others, a tale of courage, ambition and unwavering resilience against all odds". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-17 03:40:20 UTC ]
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"A Promised Land," out Tuesday in a worldwide release, eloquently and ruefully documents the first two and a half years of Obama's presidency. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-11-16 21:30:00 UTC ]
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“The temptation to hide the word because the reality of rape is so horrific only made it more critical that it stood front and center in my book.” Memoirist Michelle Bowdler on saying the unsayable. | Lit Hub Memoir “Like poetry, flash often relies on the tiny detail, the single image, or some... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-16 11:30:28 UTC ]
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I wanted to write a beautiful book, a book about hope, love, optimism and resilience. I wanted to show readers the life I had built, slowly and with intention. The fact that everything had been only aspirational for too many years, and hard-won in the end, only deepened my need to share. As joy... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-16 09:48:18 UTC ]
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Oprah Winfrey's interview with Barack Obama premieres on Apple TV+ on Tuesday morning, just as copies of the hotly anticipated former president's memoir lands on bookstore shelves around the world. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-11-16 05:00:00 UTC ]
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With Barack Obama's memoir out from Viking on Tuesday (17th November), PRH's UK media campaign will kick off this weekend. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-13 00:35:10 UTC ]
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She tried her hand at fiction, to no avail. So she wrote a memoir about a circle of strangers instead. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-11-12 10:00:04 UTC ]
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While books about the outgoing US president have been bestsellers for the last four years, Trump might be a step too far for some publishersFact-checkers are quaking in their boots amid reports that Donald Trump could be being “courted for a new tome on his time in the White House”. The... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-11-11 14:24:45 UTC ]
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The painter known to many as Lucian Freud's one-time muse writes of her own muse, her mother, and provers herself a masterful writer as well. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-11-10 18:28:13 UTC ]
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