Categorising fiction may help to sell books, but it says little about how writers write or readers readIn her Reith lecture of 2017, recently published for the first time in a posthumous collection of nonfiction, A Memoir of My Former Self, Hilary Mantel recalled the beginnings of her career as a novelist. It was the 1970s. “In those days historical fiction wasn’t respectable or respected,” she recalled. “It meant historical romance. If you read a brilliant novel like I, Claudius, you didn’t taint it with the genre label, you just thought of it as literature. So, I was shy about naming what I was doing. All the same, I began. I wanted to find a novel I liked, about the French Revolution. I couldn’t, so I started making one.”She made A Place of Greater Safety, an exceptional ensemble portrayal of the revolutionaries Danton, Robespierre and Desmoulins, but although the novel was completed in 1979, it wasn’t published until 1992 – widely rejected, as she later explained, because although she thought the French Revolution was the most interesting thing in the world, the reading public didn’t agree, or publishers had concluded they didn’t. She decided to write a contemporary novel – Every Day Is Mother’s Day – purely to get published; A Place of Greater Safety emerged only when she contributed to a Guardian piece about writers’ unpublished first novels. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2023-11-27 12:30:00 UTC ]
I had a conversation recently with a friend whose debut memoir is coming out soon, about the dread he feels at the idea of his father reading his book. I think pretty much every memoirist faces a version of this critical moment—when we have to face the fact that all of the vulnerable, private... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-24 08:55:44 UTC ]
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Poets write some of the best memoirs, and this one will have you feeling like you're in each of these cities. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-05-22 11:00:00 UTC ]
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AudioFile recommends 10 excellent new audiobooks for spring, including masterful new works from Hanif Abdurraqib, Percival Everett, and more. Whether you’re looking for a memoir told in the author’s own voice or a fascinating novel performed by professional narrators, you’ll find something... Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2024-05-21 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Paul Scheer's memoir-in-essays, 'Joyful Recollections of Trauma,' centers largely around the abuse he and his mother suffered at the hands of his stepfather. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-05-21 10:00:29 UTC ]
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When my daughter was a year old, my mother handed me a worn-out copy of Pearl S. Buck’s The Child Who Never Grew (1950). The act of giving me this book felt significant, like an inheritance that she passed on to me. She, as the mother of a child with disabilities, passed it on to […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-20 08:55:53 UTC ]
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Yesterday, the iconic Riot Grrrl Kathleen Hanna published a memoir with Ecco/HarperCollins. And Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk is already being touted as an “electric, searing” history from one of rock’s biggest icons. Unfortunately, the book has some competition. From a nefarious bevy... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-15 16:58:59 UTC ]
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The Lit Hub Author Questionnaire is a monthly interview featuring seven questions for five authors with new books. This month we talk to: * Noé Álvarez (Accordion Eulogies: A Memoir of Music, Migration, and Mexico) Anna Dorn (Perfume & Pain) Abby Geni (The Body Farm) Aimee Nezhukumatathil... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-14 08:56:57 UTC ]
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“I had assumed my mother had written a novel about real estate—after all the title was A Hot Property…” Kate Feiffer on reading her mother’s x-rated novel and considering female-authored erotica as a form of social critique. | Lit Hub Memoir Jessica Shattuck recommends a reading list of of the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-13 10:30:32 UTC ]
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Read our reviews of this year's winning works of fiction, general nonfiction, history, biography, and memoir and autobiography. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-10 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Atria lands a memoir by ‘Ted Lasso’ costar Brendan Hunt; Viking takes Lindsay Owens’s exploration of price gouging, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-10 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Before releasing new memoir "Down With the System" on May 14, Tankian spoke about why he's optimistic about Armenia, and whether we might see another album from System of a Down. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-05-09 21:29:13 UTC ]
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"I do think that we, as writers, owe things to the people in our lives that we care about." The post Lilly Dancyger Is Rethinking the Ethics of Memoir appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2024-05-09 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Ambitious politicians often publish an autobiographical book as they explore whether to launch a presidential campaign. Will California's governor be next? Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-05-09 10:00:06 UTC ]
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The singer and songwriter with a silky-smooth voice has written a memoir with Paul Reiser that recounts his story of pain and redemption with dashes of humor. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-05-09 09:04:03 UTC ]
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Long before his son Lin-Manuel's Tony Award-winning musical “Hamilton” brought his family international recognition and unexpected fortune, Luis A Continue reading at ABC News
[ ABC News | 2024-05-07 13:34:34 UTC ]
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Oftentimes, a reader asks what it’s like to publish a memoir with family members in it. How do you seek permission? What do you do when someone in your family protests your storytelling? Do you write it anyway? In this transmission, the radio delivers the questions as something else: Where is... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-06 08:53:35 UTC ]
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The WNBA star does not hold back in her account of her Russian detainment and its aftermath. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2024-05-04 09:55:00 UTC ]
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Hachette lands a blockbuster new memoir by Priscilla Presley, Ballantine signs a new book from bestselling British author Eve Chase, and more Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-03 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The poet’s journey from writing verse to lyric essays to memoir is now a veritable pipeline, with more and more poets turning away from lines and stanzas to incorporate poetic techniques into prose. Poetry can often be rooted in memory already, using imagery and figurative language to explore... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-05-02 11:05:00 UTC ]
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Caroline Carlson recommends new children’s books by Matt Hunt, Julie Flett, Vera Brosgol, and more. | Lit Hub Reading Lists “True intimacy means striving for complete knowing.” Khadijah Queen on intimacy, self-care, and the asexual spectrum. | Lit Hub Memoir Are you the literary asshole if you... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-02 10:30:33 UTC ]
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