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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Virago to publish memoir from Dame Eileen Atkins

Actress Dame Eileen Atkins, aged 86, will publish her memoir with Virago in October 2021.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-12 19:09:03 UTC ]
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Here’s a list of everything Haruki Murakami has ever compared to writing.

Today, Haruki Murakami celebrates his 72nd birthday—and we’re celebrating by diving into his recorded interviews. Murakami rarely gives interviews, but the ones he does are packed with insight into how he approaches the writing process. His memoir What I Talk About When I Talk About Running digs... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-12 18:27:48 UTC ]
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Gabriel Byrne’s ‘Walking with Ghosts’ is a revelation in unexpected ways

The acclaimed actor’s memoir takes us far from Hollywood to his Irish childhood. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-01-12 13:00:00 UTC ]
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There Are as Many Americas as There Are Pedros

“The world will come between you,” writes Marcos Gonsalez in the prologue of his memoir Pedro’s Theory: Reimagining the Promised Land. The you here refers to both the author and his father, an immigrant from Mexico, captured in a photograph from the author’s childhood. “Hundreds of years of... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-01-12 12:00:00 UTC ]
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A Memoir That Sees Only the Tip of the Melting Iceberg

In “Unsolaced,” Greta Ehrlich tells a story of personal discovery against the backdrop of the climate crisis. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-01-12 10:00:06 UTC ]
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A Filipino Freedom Fighter’s Life, Relentlessly Annotated

“The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata,” by Gina Apostol, takes the form of a found memoir that has been picked apart by scholars. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-01-12 05:00:02 UTC ]
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My Life Is a Result of the Legacy of Colonialism

I first read Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir Aftershocks in June, as the United States—led by the white nationalist backed Republican administration—was several months into a still ongoing unchecked global pandemic which was disproportionately killing Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous Americans.... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-01-11 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Book Review: ‘Saving Justice,’ by James Comey

Comey’s “Saving Justice” is a revealing memoir that describes his feelings about Trump and his worries about the nation. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-01-10 23:00:02 UTC ]
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Gary Paulsen’s Real-Life Survival Guide

“Gone to the Woods” is a memoir so rife with childhood trauma he wrote it in the third person. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-01-09 08:01:28 UTC ]
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“When They Go Low, We Go High”: Keeping Calm in the Critical Race Memoir

IN THE DAYS FOLLOWING the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Archive of American Folk Song dispatched its field workers in 10 different regions across the United States to solicit average Americans’ opinions about the bombing and FDR’s ensuing proposal for a declaration of war. A second round... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2021-01-08 18:00:08 UTC ]
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Abeer Hoque Is Going to Be Nice to You and You’re Going to Like It

In our series “Can Writing Be Taught?” we partner with Catapult to ask their course instructors all our burning questions about the process of teaching writing. This time we’re talking to Abeer Hoque, author of the memoir Olive Witch, who’s teaching a two-week seminar on one of the most... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-01-08 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Scribe to release Biden memoir for first UK publication

Scribe is publishing a new B-format paperback edition of US president-elect Joe Biden’s 2007 memoir, Promises to Keep. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-08 03:07:33 UTC ]
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‘W-3,’ a Memoir That Recalls Suffering Without Sentimentality or Sensationalism

Bette Howland’s 1974 memoir, recently reissued, recounts her time in a psychiatric ward and the people she met there. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-01-06 20:50:30 UTC ]
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The Storefront (place)

THE FOLLOWING EXCERPT is the opening section from chapter three of my book in progress, Unpacking My Father’s Bookstore, a memoir and critical study about growing up in my father’s Jewish bookstore. As Harelick and Roth Books and then J. Roth / Bookseller of Fine & Scholarly Judaica, the... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2021-01-06 16:00:43 UTC ]
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What a Lost Psych-Ward Memoir Teaches Us About Madness

“W-3,” Bette Howland’s account of her institutionalization, in 1968, proceeds according to a simple binary: those who suffer are patients; those who don’t are not. Continue reading at New Yorker

[ New Yorker | 2021-01-05 20:23:25 UTC ]
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Read Harder: A Memoir By a Latinx Author

Looking for a memoir by a Latinx author for the Read Harder challenge? This is a list of recommendations to get you started! Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2021-01-05 11:31:00 UTC ]
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Richard Charkin: ‘Thank Goodness for the Rule-Breakers’

'Maybe there are lessons to be learned from rule-breaking,' writes Richard Charkin, with a new memoir as his case in point. The post Richard Charkin: ‘Thank Goodness for the Rule-Breakers’ appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-01-04 13:04:57 UTC ]
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Majority of borrowed books across Ontario libraries in 2020 weren't published this year

In a year dominated by a global pandemic and American politics, some might find it fitting that the library book most likely to be checked out across Ontario was a hopeful memoir written by the former first lady of the United States. Continue reading at CBC

[ CBC | 2020-12-31 09:00:00 UTC ]
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Lit Hub Daily: December 23, 2020

Want to feel hungry? Read Bryan Washington on his year in takeout orders. | The New Yorker “In the end, Chang’s trauma, and the trauma he inflicted on other people, becomes part of his public persona, while we simply carry ours.” Hannah Selinger on what—and who—David Chang’s memoir leaves out. |... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-12-23 11:30:13 UTC ]
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Audiobooks to Get You Through the Most Distracted of Times

New fiction by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Barack Obama’s accent game, a Wilco frontman’s memoir and romance by Vonnegut. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-12-22 23:58:19 UTC ]
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