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purely to get published; A Place of Greater Safety emerged only when she contributed to a Guardian piece about writers’ unpublished first novels.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 ]
Quercus imprint riverrun has acquired a new historical fiction novel by German-Austrian writer Daniel Kehlmann,Tyll, in a translation by Ross Benjamin. The book, which has already sold 600,000 copies in Germany according to Quercus, will be published in hardback 6th Feburary 2020. UK and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-09 22:15:28 UTC ]
More news stories like this
“I’m fascinated by stories of how the various plant specimens we take for granted today were originally discovered,” says the actor, whose latest book is “Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2019-12-05 10:00:03 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Led by sales of such of powerhouse titles as Delia Owen's wildly popular novel 'Where the Crawdads Sing' on the fiction list, and Michelle Obama's memoir 'Becoming' for nonfiction, Amazon released lists of the e-tailers top selling books of 2019. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-12-05 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Storybound is a radio theater program designed for the podcast age. Hosted by Jude Brewer and with original music composed for each episode, the podcast features the voices of today’s literary icons reading their essays, poems, and fiction. In our first episode, Mitch Albom reads an excerpt from... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-12-03 09:47:32 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Of Bohumil Hrabal’s six great loves, guess how many were cats? (Hint: almost all of them.) | Lit Hub Memoir The car culture that’s helping destroy the planet was by no means inevitable: on the relentless campaign to force Americans to accept the automobile. | Lit Hub History Here are the 78 best... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-11-30 12:30:39 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Quercus has acquired The Deception of Harriet Fleet, a historical fiction debut set in the landscape of County Durham, described as a "recasting of Jane Eyre" that is "chilling, dark and brimming with suspense". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-28 07:05:41 UTC ]
More news stories like this
“UNLIKE MOST JEWISH BOYS from New Jersey, I have a Jamaican accent,” writes Ross Kenneth Urken in Another Mother, his memoir in which he goes in search of both his recollections of the Jamaican nanny who raised him and all of the things he never knew about her before she died. He writes,... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-11-24 20:00:33 UTC ]
More news stories like this
THE QUEER COMING-OF-AGE MEMOIR is a weapon against erasure. The best of these memoirs move us by daring to be profoundly specific, providing a necessary consolation to readers who might have believed until then that they were alone in the dark. That their suffering would have no choice but to... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-11-24 13:30:59 UTC ]
More news stories like this
If Michelle Obama's memoir left you looking for more of the same, you're not alone. Check out these books like BECOMING and fill that hole in your heart. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-11-20 11:36:56 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Elton John was greeted by a standing ovation last night as the legendary singer took to the stage to discuss his life in the spotlight. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-19 16:03:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Henry Barajas’ Latinx memoir and graphic biography of his social activist great-grandfather, 'La Voz de M.A.Y.O.: Tata Rambo' with art by J. Gonzo, will be published this month by Image Comics. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-11-19 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
I first encountered Carmen Maria Machado in 2016, reading her short fiction “Horror Story” in Granta. Her innovative and acclaimed debut collection Her Body and Other Parties had not yet been published, but I scourged the internet for everything I could find. What I found were stories about... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2019-11-15 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Comedian and actor Alan Davies is publishing a memoir, Just Ignore Him, with Little, Brown. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-15 09:50:15 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Michael O’Mara Books is to publish a memoir by Jay Jayamohan, a consultant paediatric neurosurgeon at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, and star of the acclaimed BBC fly-on-the-wall series Brain Doctors. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-15 05:03:30 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Carmen Maria Machado explains why she dedicated a chapter of her new book to recapping a sci-fi show from the ‘90s. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2019-11-14 23:07:23 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Altan’s cri de coeur is a timeless testament to the art and power of writing amid Orwellian repression. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2019-11-14 18:01:28 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Look forward to a trip around the world, and back in time, while learning the history of far flung places with these 2020 global historical fiction reads. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-11-14 11:32:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Orlando Patterson’s “The Confounding Island” is a sociologist’s analysis of his birthplace as well as a personal memoir of affection and failure. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2019-11-13 19:00:09 UTC ]
More news stories like this
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has claimed his memoir Permanent Record has been censored in China, saying it breaks the terms of his publishing agreement. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-13 03:25:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Get to know the facts and the legend surrounding Sisi, Empress of Austria, through these historical fiction and nonfiction books. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-11-12 11:40:14 UTC ]
More news stories like this