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purely to get published; A Place of Greater Safety emerged only when she contributed to a Guardian piece about writers’ unpublished first novels.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 ]
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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“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 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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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 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 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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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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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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“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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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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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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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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Let me begin with this admission: every work of historical fiction lives somewhere between history and myth. Before one reckons with the realities of what the research reveals, one must contend with all the layers of subsequent representation of whatever historical moment they approach. Even the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-09-01 08:52:28 UTC ]
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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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“If it weren’t for Beyoncé, another girl like us with an untraceable name, we wouldn’t have had much in common.” Remica Bingham-Risher on stepmotherhood, lineage, and the weight of names. | Lit Hub Memoir Ben Mathis-Lilley on the inevitability of college football (and why it’s all Thomas... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-08-31 10:30:26 UTC ]
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In three journeys to the past, characters find themselves on quests that have nothing to do with the calendar or geography. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-08-30 09:00:08 UTC ]
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“What better than a little donkey upon which to project my wonderings?” Martha Cooley reflects on emigrating to Venice in her mid-sixties… and befriending a little asinella. | Lit Hub Memoir Olivia Rutigliano ranks the 50 best fictional dragons, to mark the return of House Targaryen. | Lit Hub... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-08-26 10:30:00 UTC ]
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Promising an inside view of the White House, the book actually exposes Kushner's mind-set and values. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2022-08-26 10:00:57 UTC ]
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Based on Anne Deveson’s 1991 memoir about her son’s experience with schizophrenia, this play can be achingly sad. But it also offers hope. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2022-08-26 01:01:35 UTC ]
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Twenty years after publication, the YA novel is the century’s most relevant dystopia—and that’s not even the most interesting thing about it. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2022-08-25 13:00:00 UTC ]
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