Interviews Carolyne Larrington Audible’s new fiction podcast, Hag, launching August 29, features eight reimaginings of traditional British folktales by eight contemporary female writers, with folktales chosen from across the UK. The collection will be released in audio only, building on the time-old tradition of oral storytelling. Mahsuda Snaith’s story, “The Panther’s Tale,” is written as a lost “full version” of Staffordshire’s “Legend of Chillington Hall.” Keeping the original setting, Snaith tells the story of Sir John Giffard and his fondness for wild beasts but with a modern outlook. Narrated in Snaith’s vivid, visceral style, her version of the story speaks of imprisonment, fierceness, and female solidarity. Carolyne Larrington, who teaches medieval English literature at St. John’s College, University of Oxford, was the consultant on the HAG project, researching the original tales that inspired each writer, chatting with the authors who wanted more background, and then interviewing each writer after the stories were finished. These fascinating conversations range back and forth between discussing themes and motifs in folk tradition and the authors’ own feelings about the tales they had been given. Carolyne Larrington: How did you become involved with the project? What drew you to it? Mahusda Snaith Mahsuda Snaith: Harriet Poland from Audible approached my agent about writing a story for the project. She’d read my previous... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2019-08-30 14:21:50 UTC ]
Headline Review has won Radhika Sanghani's first novel for adults, 30 Things I Love About Myself, in a "heated" auction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-17 00:46:50 UTC ]
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As the lockdown restrictions to contain the spread of Covid-19 begin to be relaxed across the UK, we’re bringing you the final instalment of our Literature on Lockdown series.Following the worldwide demonstrations, protests and public events in support of the Black Lives Matter movement,... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2020-06-16 16:00:51 UTC ]
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Klara and the Sun, the first novel by Kazuo Ishiguro since he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017, will be published by Faber & Faber on 2nd March 2021. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-16 08:35:46 UTC ]
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Traditionally, a ballad was a song that was designed to be danced to, as the etymology of the word, Provençal balada meaning ‘dance, song to dance to’, ultimately from late Latin ballare. The great British ballads – and we say ‘British’ because many of them were Scottish rather than English... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2020-06-14 14:00:45 UTC ]
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Nineteen books from 15 countries and 13 languages have won English PEN’s flagship translation awards, including the first novel from South Sudan ever to be published in the UK. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-10 01:27:30 UTC ]
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A former director of the Harlem Writers Guild, she published her first novel when she was 55, and her first mystery, featuring a stylish female ex-cop turned sleuth, when she was 64. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-06-05 21:17:02 UTC ]
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The Desmond Elliott Prize is awarded annually to a writer whose first novel is written in English and published in the UK. Since 2007, it has supported and heralded new writers; the honor comes with a £10,000 prize. It’s heartening to see, especially right now, that this year the Desmond Elliott... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-06-02 17:58:53 UTC ]
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Costa Coffee has appointed Amanda Johnson as the new director of the Costa Book Awards, succeeding Bud McLintock, who stepped down from the role after 25 years in February. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-31 13:23:03 UTC ]
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How many times have you heard someone say, ‘I don’t read poetry. I just don’t get it.’ Or perhaps, ‘Why can’t poets just come out and say what they want to say? Why say something in such a way?’ For many people, poetry is ‘difficult’. But whilst it’s true that […] The post 10 of the Most... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2020-05-30 14:00:36 UTC ]
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In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle examines a famous phrase derived from Shakespeare The old line about Hamlet, that it’s ‘too full of quotations’, wittily sums up the play’s influence on not just English literature but on the everyday language we use. Many of us... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2020-05-29 14:00:47 UTC ]
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Stephanie Danler’s memoir Stray invites us to look closely at our own life: our family dynamics, our loss, our trauma, and the moments of happiness that still exist within that fragile frame. With deep introspection and stunning prose, Danler tells us about the years she spent after writing her... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-05-19 11:00:55 UTC ]
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Guest Blogger: Prof Katy Shaw, University of Northumbria, Vice-Chair of BACLS – the British Association of Literary Studies – and executive committee member of University English, the national subject association. In recent years there has been a rapid rise in the teaching of English Literature... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2020-05-18 09:30:54 UTC ]
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Claire Adam has scooped the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award for her “outstanding” novel Golden Child (Faber). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-17 13:26:01 UTC ]
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Whether delving into chunky historical narratives or listening to short story podcasts, we’ve all been approaching reading differently during lockdown. Our reading habits can take us back in time, allow us to examine our present, or give us hope for the future. In time for the May bank holiday... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2020-05-07 13:58:54 UTC ]
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Jeremy Trafford, who has died aged 85 after contracting Covid-19, was a publisher, teacher and writer. I met him in the late 1970s, while supply teaching at the London Oratory school, in west London, where he taught English literature in the sixth form. He was a brilliant teacher, who inspired... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-05-05 11:07:04 UTC ]
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When we think of poems, these days most people probably automatically think of lyric poems: usually quite short poems which describe the poet’s (or an imagined speaker’s) thoughts and feelings. But from the epic poems of Homer to the Border Ballads of the Middle Ages to notable contemporary... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2020-04-29 14:00:40 UTC ]
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My first novel bombed spectacularly. This was about 20 years ago. Everything went wrong. First my editor quit after which my publishing house kinda-sorta forgot I existed. Orphaned was the word they used. Since nobody gave a damn, I at least got to choose my own book cover. The photograph I... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-04-27 08:49:54 UTC ]
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Many lives are radically different right now. But birthdays, anniversaries, and public holidays come and go as before. The pink supermoon would have appeared whether we’d watched it from our windows or outdoors among a crowd of strangers. This week, Earth Day, Shakespeare’s birthday, and World... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2020-04-24 14:34:13 UTC ]
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Book Reviews Natalia Lomaia Left: Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal in Normal People (2020) / Courtesy of IMDB Sally Rooney’s 2018 novel is a meticulous observation, or even a study, of how one human being can have immense, intense power over another.... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-04-23 13:18:03 UTC ]
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Recently, I threw out the first 60 pages of the novel I am currently working on. I had been determined to challenge myself by writing in the third person—I had spent the last ten years working on my first novel in the first person and I thought I was ready for something new and difficult. […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-04-21 08:48:34 UTC ]
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