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purely to get published; A Place of Greater Safety emerged only when she contributed to a Guardian piece about writers’ unpublished first novels.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 ]
The American journalist witnessed the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany. Her nuanced approach offers clues about reporting a polarised society. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2020-08-25 15:02:35 UTC ]
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My memoir is not unique. But only in the sense that my story unfolds with New York City as the backdrop, where so many other stories have unfolded and will continue to unfold long after I’m gone. That’s the beauty of this multilayered city: it unravels you, and no one’s unraveling is alike. Yes,... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-08-25 11:00:12 UTC ]
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An awesome daily roundup of the most interesting bookish links from around the web. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-08-23 10:30:00 UTC ]
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Windmill has signed Sally Huband's non-fiction debut, the story of a woman who combs Shetland beaches to find her place, in a 24-hour pre-empt. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-21 02:26:55 UTC ]
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Harnessing the power of extremely famous people to sell books is nothing new, but what about combining the influence of multiple famous people—from billionaire “philanthropist” Richard Branson to beloved journalist/Twitter lush Susan Orlean—to sell books combined with the vaporous concept of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-08-19 14:44:04 UTC ]
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Check out the cover for NEGATIVE SPACES, a new memoir from Lilly Dancyger, editor of BURN IT DOWN: WOMEN WRITING ABOUT ANGER. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-08-18 10:37:00 UTC ]
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“Borges and Me,” a memoir by Jay Parini, recounts a young poet’s travels with Jorge Luis Borges, the Argentine master. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-08-18 09:00:07 UTC ]
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Sceptre has pre-empted Hollywood Park by musician and writer Mikel Jollett, frontman of indie band The Airborne Toxic Event. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-16 14:59:29 UTC ]
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Michael Cohen's memoir about U.S. President Donald Trump will be released Sept. 8 by Skyhorse Publishing, which confirmed the news on Thursday. Continue reading at CBC
[ CBC | 2020-08-14 12:29:48 UTC ]
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Yesterday, a pair of TV interviews crystallized just how the Trump administration is threatening the integrity of the election. On CNBC, Larry Kudlow, Trump’s top economic adviser, cast “voting rights” as part of a “liberal-left wish list,” adding, “That’s not our game.” On Fox Business, Trump... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2020-08-14 12:26:12 UTC ]
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“I don’t know what it means!” Andy Warhol bleats, in John Giorno’s Great Demon Kings: A Memoir of Poetry, Sex, Art, Death, and Enlightenment (out now from Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Warhol’s ditzy refrain is a mantra for the perpetually bemused, at once tragicomic and tongue-in-cheek. He says... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-08-14 08:48:26 UTC ]
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Among the week’s big deals are the acquisition of a #MeToo memoir by a French publishing exec, Sharon Stone’s memoir, and Andy Weir’s new novel. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-08-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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As Crown Publishing predicted, readers eagerly anticipated Michelle Obama’s Becoming. Autobiography and memoir are best selling categories because virtually everyone enjoys learning about the private life of public figures. In this case, many were curious about the woman who seemed to rise above... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-08-12 11:00:00 UTC ]
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A new collection of short historical fiction stories is characterized by its beautiful prose and its author’s gentle curiosity and sense of wonder. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-08-11 21:24:15 UTC ]
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A new collection of short historical fiction stories is characterized by its beautiful prose and its author’s gentle curiosity and sense of wonder. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-08-11 21:24:15 UTC ]
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A new collection of short historical fiction stories is characterized by its beautiful prose and its author’s gentle curiosity and sense of wonder. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-08-11 21:24:15 UTC ]
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OWN IT! is to partner with Grime music label Boy Better Know to co-publish the memoir of Ifeomagwu “Ify” Adenuga, the mother of the label's founders. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-11 10:24:04 UTC ]
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Hodder & Stoughton has acquired Liv's Alone by Liv Thorne, an "honest and hopeful memoir that captures the joy and the challenge that is parenting alone by choice". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-08-09 12:38:16 UTC ]
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Another day, another announcement of a memoir from a former Trump collaborator. This time, it’s Fiona Hill, an ex-advisor who testified in Trump’s impeachment inquiry, whose “views about the future of a polarized America” will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2021. I have nothing... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-08-06 19:59:16 UTC ]
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Sara Faith Alterman's "Let's Never Talk About This Again" is a memoir about strange family dynamics, love, grief and the benefits of finally opening up. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-08-05 18:00:51 UTC ]
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