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purely to get published; A Place of Greater Safety emerged only when she contributed to a Guardian piece about writers’ unpublished first novels.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 ]
In his fond memoir “Making It So,” the actor traces the path from the working class to the Shakespearean stage to “Star Trek” superstardom. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-10-03 09:00:17 UTC ]
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In his new work, the author of 'Such a Lovely Little War' and 'Saigon Calling' switches from memoir to graphic fiction to continue his story about the course of the Vietnam War. An 11-page excerpt. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-03 04:00:00 UTC ]
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In his memoir “The Controversialist,” Martin Peretz reflects on his long tenure as publisher and editor of The New Republic. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-10-02 14:15:47 UTC ]
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October is full of fabulous nonfiction books to add to your TBR, from a speculative memoir to a mediation on bears and the natural world. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-10-02 10:32:00 UTC ]
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In a new memoir about her sudden rise, Cooper, who came to prominence lip-syncing Donald Trump, faces the personal and professional costs of going viral. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-10-02 10:00:13 UTC ]
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Schneider's memoir 'In the Form of a Question' mines the 'Jeopardy!' star's life — acid trips, polyamory, fame, fears and how Leo DiCaprio didn't do it for her. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-09-30 15:38:29 UTC ]
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“Collision of Power,” Martin Baron’s memoir of his tenure as the paper’s executive editor, is a gripping chronicle of politics and journalism in a period of instability for both. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-09-30 09:00:50 UTC ]
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“Coming and Going” is the photographer Jim Goldberg’s visual memoir of three generations in his family, from 1980 to today. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-09-29 09:02:30 UTC ]
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“I acted Macbeth for exactly 365 days,” says the actor, whose new memoir is “Making It So.” “The role got into me so deeply it dominated my life at the time and caused me to drink too much alcohol after the performance was over. No other role I have played has affected me so profoundly.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-09-28 09:00:35 UTC ]
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Author and performer Echo Brown, widely praised for her genre-fluid YA novels that blend memoir and magical realism, died September 16 from renal failure. She was 39. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-09-28 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Across memoir and fiction, Fae Myenne Ng has explored the true cost of the Chinese Exclusion era. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2023-09-26 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Queer people have been writing historical fiction since before queerness existed—by which I mean, since before it was hammered into an antithesis to heterosexuality during the long nineteenth century. By the turn of the twentieth, queers looking to write about the past had to grapple with new,... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-09-25 11:00:00 UTC ]
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“I would like not to be a hermit,” the former White House aide says upon the publication of a memoir about her journey down a political rabbit hole. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-09-23 12:54:00 UTC ]
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The actor’s audio-only memoir delivers songs, stories and scenes with humor and vulnerability. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-09-22 09:01:07 UTC ]
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Literary Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Amy Lin’s debut memoir Here After, which will be published by Zibby Books in March. Here’s a bit more about the book from the publisher: Here After is an intimate story of deep love followed by dizzying loss; a stunning, taut memoir from debut... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-09-20 14:00:02 UTC ]
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Kate Roberts considers the latest wave of chronic illness memoirs, which entwine the personal with the sociopolitical. | Lit Hub Memoir It’s a banger week for new books: Here are 28 out today. | The Hub 38 literary movies and TV shows to watch this fall (brought to you by writers who deserve... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-09-19 10:30:38 UTC ]
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Jonathan Raban’s “Father and Son” is a memoir of illness and recovery paired with a parental history. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-09-18 09:01:46 UTC ]
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From the dark heart of a misguided follower to the young hand of a diarist whose words outlived her, these novels encompass the full spectrum of humanity. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-09-15 16:58:33 UTC ]
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Terrell Tannen recalls trying to adapt Jim Harrison’s novels for Hollywood—and making a friend in Harrison along the way. | Lit Hub Memoir “I can’t approve of this movie, and by all rights, I could hate it. But I am enthralled.” Annie Berke revisits The Notebook adaptation, (nearly) 20 years... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-09-15 10:30:28 UTC ]
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Emily Wells is interested in what her doctors see when they look at her: a depressed or anxious woman, perhaps even one who is faking sickness for attention. Continue reading at New Yorker
[ New Yorker | 2023-09-14 00:04:31 UTC ]
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