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purely to get published; A Place of Greater Safety emerged only when she contributed to a Guardian piece about writers’ unpublished first novels.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 ]
Pulitzer Prize winner John Archibald reexamines his father’s legacy in this fascinating blend of family memoir and moral reckoning. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-03-13 14:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Back in January 2018, freelance journalist Mason began work on a new novel in the little shed in her back garden in Sydney. She already had two books under her belt with HarperCollins Australia, a memoir of early motherhood—the brilliantly titled Say it Again in a Nice Voice—and her début novel... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-12 23:02:14 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Walker Books is to publish Sticky McStickstick, a new personal memoir picture book from Michael Rosen, illustrated by Tony Ross, exploring Rosen's personal experience of illness and recovery from Covid-19. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-12 15:54:55 UTC ]
More news stories like this
A few months ago my friend Nick Lyons, long admired for books about his passion for fishing, published a beautiful memoir, Fire in the Straw. Reading the book has underscored, in a personal way, the gap between life and literature that so many of us take for granted. I’m familiar with quite a... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-03-12 09:48:56 UTC ]
More news stories like this
But “Between Two Kingdoms,” her memoir of cancer and its aftermath, is striking a chord with readers who are enduring ordeals of their own. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-03-11 10:00:03 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Interviews Photo by Sonette Watt Stephanie McKenzie is a poet and scholar who works for the English Programme at Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland. Her scholarly work has traced the flourishing of Indigenous literature in... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-03-09 21:39:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this
In the memoir “Model Citizen,” Joshua Mohr recounts a life of substance abuse, real love and “cheery nihilism.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-03-09 10:00:09 UTC ]
More news stories like this
He took his British brand of satire to nightclubs, TV, film (“This Is Spinal Tap”) and National Lampoon. But a memoir led to a sex-abuse accusation. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-03-05 19:48:46 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Ecco goes big on a debut novel, Kal Penn sells a memoir to Gallery, Brittney Cooper sells seven for seven figures to Scholastic, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-03-05 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Comedy writer and actor Daisy May Cooper has written a "wonderful and ultimately uplifting" memoir, Don't Laugh, It Will Only Encourage Her, to be released by Penguin Michael Joseph. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-02 18:28:11 UTC ]
More news stories like this
In “Amoralman,” the sleight-of-hand artist Derek DelGaudio turns to philosophy in an attempt to understand the nature of reality and deception. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-03-02 16:45:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
This new play based on Martin McKenna’s memoir tells a difficult story with theatrical skill and artistic heart. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2021-03-01 05:56:16 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Mrabet was friends with Paul Bowles—and, it’s assumed, lovers, too—and they were artistic collaborators. But his memoir begins long before they met. Continue reading at The Paris Review
[ The Paris Review | 2021-02-26 14:00:30 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Allen & Unwin to publish How to be a Rock Star by Shaun Ryder, a memoir that promises to lift the lid on what it's like to be a rock star. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-25 01:13:37 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The bestselling novelist, subject of an upcoming HBO Max biopic and author of the new memoir 'The Soul of a Woman' discusses aging, feminism and home. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-02-24 17:00:12 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Two Roads will publish Billy Connolly's first autobiography, titled Windswept and Interesting. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-24 15:35:50 UTC ]
More news stories like this
A memoir by Where the Crawdads Sing author Delia Owens and her husband Mark Owens, titled Cry of the Kalahari, will be reissued by Corsair in October, 36 years after its first release. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-23 09:02:09 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Skyhorse Publishing, the imprint behind director Woody Allen's memoir, is considering suing HBO for sampling its audiobook for a documentary series. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-02-22 22:46:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Islands of Mercy by Rose Tremain and The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams, both published by Chatto & Windus, are among titles longlisted for this year's £25,000 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-22 15:59:07 UTC ]
More news stories like this
John Murray Press imprint Two Roads has acquired Devorgilla Days: A Memoir of Hope and Healing by Kathleen Hart, a "heart-warming and deeply moving" memoir about recovery, resilience and starting over. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-22 09:27:36 UTC ]
More news stories like this