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purely to get published; A Place of Greater Safety emerged only when she contributed to a Guardian piece about writers’ unpublished first novels.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 ]
Brittany Higgins' forthcoming memoir will allow her to tell her story in her own words. She'll join a group of strong women who've done just that. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2021-04-15 03:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins has acquired a book by journalist Alix Sharkey exploring his experience growing up with a brother now imprisoned for the murder of teenager Danielle Jones. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-04-13 19:59:28 UTC ]
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An excerpt from Fifty Sounds, a memoir by Polly Barton, translator of Aoko Matsuda and Kikuko Tsumura. The post Uwaa: the sound of the feeling that cannot be spoken appeared first on Granta. Continue reading at Granta
[ Granta | 2021-04-13 02:08:24 UTC ]
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Set in the wake of Germany’s reunification, “The Recent East” follows a country coming together and a teen-ager coming out. Continue reading at New Yorker
[ New Yorker | 2021-04-12 10:00:00 UTC ]
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“On the House” is an anecdote-rich memoir by the former speaker of the House that fails to give readers the whole picture. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-04-09 13:05:40 UTC ]
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The memoir “I Have Been Buried Under Years of Dust” chronicles one family’s struggles and victories. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-04-09 12:00:00 UTC ]
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There are as many different kinds of memoirs as there are novels, maybe more. The public-figure memoir. The witnessing-history memoir. The survivor’s memoir. The addiction memoir. The let-me-set-the-record-straight memoir. The travel memoir. The memoir about one specific family member. The... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-04-09 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Ex-vice-president is first of Trump circle to snag lucrative dealSimon & Schuster to pay $3-4m for two booksMike Pence has signed a two-book deal for his memoir that is reported to be worth millions of dollars, making him one of the first of former president Donald Trump’s inner circle to... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-04-07 22:02:58 UTC ]
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Richard Thompson's new memoir, "Beeswing," was written with journalist Scott Timberg, who died before the book was completed. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-04-06 15:45:19 UTC ]
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On Translation Browsing a Copenhagen airport bookstore, a translator picks up a book. The journey between that impulse and his eventual translation of the memoir into English was both emotional and serendipitous. In the summer of 2016 I was passing... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-04-06 13:12:22 UTC ]
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Erik Hoel on the joy of growing up in an indie bookstore—and with his badass single mom, who opened The Jabberwocky in 1972 when she was 23 years old. | Lit Hub Memoir “You may have noticed that anger is making a comeback for women.” Gina Frangello on rage and infidelity. | Lit Hub “These […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-04-06 09:30:32 UTC ]
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In “Blow Your House Down,” Gina Frangello examines her experience of loss, lust, pain and longing with angry intensity. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-04-06 09:00:21 UTC ]
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In “The Wild Silence,” a sequel to her best-selling memoir “The Salt Path,” the British author contends with the illness and death of loved ones but finds solace outdoors. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-04-06 09:00:08 UTC ]
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On Friday, Politico published an excerpt from On the House, a forthcoming memoir by John Boehner, the Republican former House speaker, that, in Politico’s words, is the story of “how America’s center-right party started to lose its mind, as told by the man who tried to keep it sane.” The excerpt... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2021-04-05 12:13:42 UTC ]
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William Morrow preempts a debut novel by Liz Stein, Michelle Tea sells a memoir about the reproductive industrial complex to Dey Street, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-04-02 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Octopus imprint Monoray is to publish Drinking Custard: The Diary of a Confused Mum, a "hilarious" memoir on the trials and tribulations of motherhood from comedian Lucy Beaumont. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-04-01 13:58:38 UTC ]
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Discover the rich culture and history of Cuba with these stories, from romance to historical fiction and magical realism. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-04-01 10:30:00 UTC ]
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Faber has pre-empted music industry veteran Tony King’s memoir on a nine-minute video submission. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-04-01 07:02:00 UTC ]
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Lit Lists Earlier this spring, the editors of WLT invited twenty-one writers to nominate one book, published since the year 2000, that has had a major influence on their own work, along with a brief statement explaining their choice. Now it’s your turn... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-03-31 20:04:23 UTC ]
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In “Beautiful Things,” the president’s son addresses issues that shaped his life and father’s campaign Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-03-31 07:45:04 UTC ]
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