Raymond AntrobusWho/ What inspired you to start writing? I never started writing poetry with the intention of writing books until publishers approached me. I was happy to write poems and travel and read the poems for audiences. I live poem by poem. The idea of a book of poems doesn’t really enter my consciousness until I have a chunk of poems written, then I can look at the relationship between them and how they speak to each other. If I knew then what I know now... Having a teacher tell me to stop trying to emulate Frank O'Hara and Phillip Larkin was great advice and I learned there is such thing as bad influences when it comes to reading for the sake of writing. What's your favourite line from literature? This is a huge and impossible question but I've had the line "Your joy is your sorrow unmasked" by Kahlil Gibran in my head for years. I think it taught me a lot about living and writing and how not to separate happiness from sadness. Good poems are impossible to write without a very clear grasp of this concept. This is kind of builds on Keat's "negative capabilities" idea too. What is next for you? I have a children’s picture book coming out with Walkers publishing in the US/Canada in 2020 and UK in 2021. It's called ‘Can Bears Ski’? and it is illustrated by deaf artist and children’s book maker, Polly Dunbar. I’m also writing my next book of poems Julia Armfield Who/ What inspired you to start writing?I’ve always written, which is unquestionably connected to the... Continue reading at 'British Council global'
[ British Council global | 2019-12-05 12:09:15 UTC ]
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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Every year, we ask The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize Finalists to reminisce about the first book they fell in love with. This year, we asked Finalists to reflect not just on the first story that stole their heart, but the story that seeded curiosity and empathy for the plight of others... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-17 09:48:30 UTC ]
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Jonathan Franzen is set to return in the US next year with Crossroads, the first novel in a new trilogy from the author. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-16 09:26:52 UTC ]
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Kamala Harris-related books have seen a sharp increase in popularity post-Biden/Harris presidential win. On Sunday, a whopping four books on Amazon’s Top 10 bestsellers list were either about or penned by the vice president-elect. The books in question: Harris’s memoir The Truths We Hold: An... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-10 17:37:24 UTC ]
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HarperCollins Children’s Books has signed Noa and the Little Elephant: A Tale of Friendship and Survival, a “poignant” picture book from author and illustrator Michael Foreman, in partnership with the wildlife conservation charity, Tusk. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-08 16:02:51 UTC ]
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The quintet of books named to the UK Young Writer of the Year award shortlist this year includes memoir, novels, and poetry collections. The post The UK’s Young Writer Award Names Its 2020 Shortlist appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-11-06 21:59:14 UTC ]
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John Murray is publishing a new novel from Susan Beale, whose debut novel The Good Guy was shortlisted for 2016's Costa First Novel Award. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-05 19:51:11 UTC ]
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‘She knew it was a trick of the lonely to favour the rude to the simply unmoved; that the loneliest thing in these villages and in this most tucked-away of professions was to elicit no response at all.’ Marina Kemp’s debut novel Nightingale is shortlisted for the 2020 Young Writer of the Year... Continue reading at Granta
[ Granta | 2020-11-05 11:53:49 UTC ]
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‘Waking, close to morning but still a shuttered, metal dark in the room’ Two poems by Seán Hewitt from Tongues of Fire, shortlisted for the 2020 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. The post Tongues of Fire appeared first on Granta. Continue reading at Granta
[ Granta | 2020-11-05 09:00:03 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has snapped up an “exquisite” memoir about the challenges facing gay men today from acclaimed poet and Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year shortlistee Seán Hewitt. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-03 07:03:12 UTC ]
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In her first novel published in 14 years, author Julia Alvarez explores grief, isolation, and sisterhood. Afterlife follows Antonia, a writer and retiring English professor, who has just lost her husband Sam. As she reimagines what her life will be without her husband, Antonia also struggles... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-11-02 12:00:33 UTC ]
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I DON’T KNOW when I first became aware of Lynne Sharon Schwartz’s writing, but it was probably sometime between 1980, when Raymond Carver lauded her on the basis of her National Book Award–nominated first novel Rough Strife, and 1989, when Sven Birkerts raved about Schwartz’s PEN/Faulkner... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-10-29 15:00:49 UTC ]
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In one of my earliest memories I am standing on a beach with my father and we are sculpting the shape of a woman’s body out of sand. In my mind it is winter—Avalon in the off-season—and I see us huddled in coats, wrapped in wool, bracing ourselves against the salt wind that blows in […] The post... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-29 08:50:18 UTC ]
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Looking to celebrate undiscovered authors and illustrators, Ehomebooks launches the International Children’s Picture Book Award. The post Vietnamese Publisher Ehomebooks Launches the International Children’s Picture Book Award appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-10-28 14:05:06 UTC ]
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A reader visited the Story Museum in Oxford, England to learn how the space modified its "interactive" exhibits for COVID-19 compliance. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-10-28 10:36:00 UTC ]
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Interviews Ari Larissa Heinrich / Photo by Tara Pixley Ari Larissa Heinrich is the translator of Qiu Miaojin’s Last Words from Montmartre (New York Review Books) and Chi Ta-wei’s The Membranes (forthcoming from Columbia University Press). They... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-10-27 22:09:23 UTC ]
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This one goes out to all the writers in the Year of our Lord 2020, as we all worry that our total inability to put a sentence together could turn into a lifetime of non-production: It’s never too late. Wole Soyinka, who in 1986 became the first person from sub-Saharan Africa to win a Nobel... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-27 19:39:22 UTC ]
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ON JULY 2 of this year, I interviewed the author Nadia Terranova at her mother’s house in Santa Marinella, Italy, on a Zoom call from my apartment in Santa Monica, California. Back in 2015, I’d written a review of her first novel Gli anni al contrario (The Years in Reverse) and we’d met for... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-10-27 17:00:01 UTC ]
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Check out wonderful picture book biographies of inspiring Black icons, including Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-10-26 10:33:00 UTC ]
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In her 20s, she set up her own company, publishing everyone from James Ellroy to the Worst Witch series, and changing Britain for the better, book by book There is a revealing story Margaret Busby tells, about the first novel she published. A family friend had bumped into a former US serviceman... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-10-22 05:00:17 UTC ]
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