The BBC’s Fergal Keane: ‘The breakdowns get harder to recover from each time’

The former BBC war reporter, now special correspondent, on the terror of PTSD, his tips for living with it day to day, and the people and poets he admiresDuring a career spanning more than 30 years, BBC special correspondent Fergal Keane has covered brutal conflicts in South Africa, Rwanda and Bosnia. It’s taken a lasting toll on his mental health, and in 2020 he stepped back from frontline reporting, revealing that he’s suffering from acute PTSD. In his memoir The Madness, newly published in paperback, he goes into greater detail, powerfully describing multiple breakdowns, alcoholism, and the inherited trauma that shaped his Irish childhood, as well as the resilience he’s found in himself. He will be talking at the Edinburgh International book festival on 17 August.What part of The Madness was hardest to write?Most difficult was what it was like to be in a psychiatric hospital. People talk about going mad and it conjures up all kinds of stereotypical images, but it’s terrifying, it’s this implosion. I’ve never been so afraid in my life. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2023-08-06 08:30:06 UTC ]

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In Annie Ernaux, a Nobel Laureate Who Plumbs Her Own Passions

The French writer, who was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature, blurs the line between fiction and memoir with spare prose she has characterized as “brutally direct.” Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2022-10-06 16:13:27 UTC ]
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Lit Hub Daily: October 6, 2022

“Cheever drank. Roth womanized. My grandfather wrote quietly in his office for 60 years.” Alison Fairbrother on learning lessons—in writing and life—from her grandfather, E.L. Doctorow. | Lit Hub Memoir Nina Totenberg reflects on her long friendship with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a champion of “small... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-10-06 10:30:07 UTC ]
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Al Pacino is reportedly writing his first memoir.

As Tony Montana would probably say if he were a literary agent: In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the memoir. That’s right! Al Pacino is reportedly in talks to sell his first memoir […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-10-05 14:49:52 UTC ]
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How Lynne Tillman's 'Mothercare' helped me face my aging parents' future

David Ulin talks with Lynne Tillman about "Mothercare," her memoir on managing her mother's decline — just as he begins a similar journey. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-09-29 13:00:09 UTC ]
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Newly Published, From Stanley Crouch to the Indigenous Americas

A selection of books published this week; plus, a peek at what our colleagues around the newsroom are reading. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2022-09-28 14:33:10 UTC ]
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Lit Hub Daily: September 27, 2022

“Love and writing are the only two things in the world that I can bear, the rest is darkness.” Read from Annie Ernaux’s lovelorn 1988 diary. | Lit Hub Memoir Why do we overuse (ecstatic!! hyperbolic!!!) language? Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza investigates. | Lit Hub The slow decline of glory:... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-09-27 10:30:29 UTC ]
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‘Everyone’s got a book in them’: boom in memoir industry as ordinary people record their stories

Companies providing ghostwritten autobiographies for people wanting to share histories have seen surge in trade since CovidBrian Lewis grew up on a tough council estate after arriving in Britain as part of the Windrush generation. At the age of eight he developed an interest in chess and joined... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2022-09-24 14:00:06 UTC ]
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Book Deals: Week of September 26, 2022

Random House and Celadon announce upcoming editions of the House Select Committee’s January 6 report, Currency takes on a memoir by YouTuber and former banker Gary Stevenson, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-09-23 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Lit Hub Daily: September 16, 2022

“It took months of OCD treatment and two Brené Brown books to understand there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ in writing—there are only decisions.” Elissa Bassist reflects on treating her writers’ block by treating her OCD. | Lit Hub Memoir Sometimes, altering the canon is a good thing: How The Rings... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-09-16 10:30:58 UTC ]
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Anne Heche was working on another memoir before she died. It hits shelves next year

Anne Heche died in August of injuries she sustained from a fiery car crash. She published her first memoir, "Call Me Crazy," in 2001. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-09-15 21:01:10 UTC ]
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At 9, Javier Zamora walked 4,000 miles to the U.S. At 29, he was ready to tell the story

Javier Zamora talks about "Solito," his harrowing memoir about journeying from El Salvador to the U.S. as an unaccompanied 9-year-old. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-09-15 14:00:30 UTC ]
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Jann Wenner’s memoir chronicles the lifestyles of the rich and famous

Jann Wenner might just as accurately have called his doorstop of a memoir “I Am Very Rich, and All My Friends Are Extremely Famous.” Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2022-09-15 13:55:59 UTC ]
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A Visible Man by Edward Enninful review – the long road to Vogue

A refreshingly intimate account of Enninful’s rise from refugee status to editor-in-chiefEdward Enninful’s memoir gives the impression of someone in perpetual motion. He has, after all, made the journey from refugee to the hallowed offices of Condé Nast, becoming the editor-in-chief who brought... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2022-09-15 10:00:43 UTC ]
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Viva Editions to Publish Anne Heche Memoir

Start Publishing’s Viva Editions imprint will release Anne Heche’s memoir 'Call Me Anne' on January 24. An award-winning actress, Heche died in August in a car crash in Los Angeles just as she was completing the book. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-09-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Kate Beaton on Creating the Best Graphic Novel of 2022

The cartoonist’s Ducks is a devastating memoir about life in the oil sands of northern Alberta, Canada. Continue reading at Wired

[ Wired | 2022-09-13 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Review: ‘Life’s Work,’ by David Milch

“Life’s Work” is a memoir of outrageous youth, creative obsessions and ruinous habits. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2022-09-12 15:07:05 UTC ]
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3 new audiobooks to kick off your fall playlist

Titles for many tastes: a posthumous memoir by Michael K. Williams, a new recording of an 18th-century romance and a sweeping African novel Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2022-09-10 11:00:03 UTC ]
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Book Deals: Week of September 12, 2022

Angela Merkel’s memoir goes to St Martin’s, Berkley buys a debut novel by a former American Ballet Theatre ballerina, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-09-09 04:00:00 UTC ]
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A Community Rises to Support Alice Wong’s Memoir

Examining disability activist and writer Alice Wong’s work, it becomes clear that almost all of her life and career is oriented toward community—a community that has thrown itself wholeheartedly behind her new memoir, 'Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life.' Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-09-09 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The judge in two Virginia book-banning cases has dismissed the lawsuits.

The judge in two obscenity cases in Virginia that targeted two books—Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe and A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas—has dismissed the cases, saying that the books are not obscene under the law and the law that pertains to the litigation is itself flawed.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-08-31 13:48:46 UTC ]
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