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purely to get published; A Place of Greater Safety emerged only when she contributed to a Guardian piece about writers’ unpublished first novels.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 ]
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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“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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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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It’s a truism that historical fiction reveals more about its own age it than the one it portrays. We can’t escape or even perceive our own biases, the reasoning goes, so we end up helplessly projecting them onto a past where they don’t belong. But the past is not a museum, and contemporary... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-01-08 12:00:00 UTC ]
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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 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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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 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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“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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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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'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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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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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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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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The Thursday Murder Club sees off titles by Barack Obama and David Walliams in chaotic week for Britain’s book tradeRichard Osman’s cosy mystery about a group of elderly sleuths, The Thursday Murder Club, has become the first debut novel ever to become the Christmas No 1, selling a remarkable... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-12-22 15:00:18 UTC ]
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Greystone Books will publish Édith Blais’ memoir of being kidnapped and held hostage for 450 days in Burkina Faso at the hands of a militant group. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-22 06:56:14 UTC ]
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Continuing on the Barack Obama’s Favorite Media end-of-year march, the former President has released a 20-song playlist to accompany his memoir A Promised Land, composed of songs that recall memories of his time on the campaign trail and in the White House. There’s some Beyonce, some John... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-12-21 17:24:57 UTC ]
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In this Read Harder Challenge post, we're recommending books for the task asking you to read a a food memoir by an author of color. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-12-21 11:31:00 UTC ]
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Find the best historical fiction series that both engages and entertains, with lively and diverse characters. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-12-18 11:38:00 UTC ]
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Dialogue Books has acquired A Working-Class Family Ages Badly: A Memoir of Love and Life Between Two Pandemics by Juno Roche. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-17 17:09:37 UTC ]
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