The Character Loses Battles, but the Writer’s Won the War 

In Moranthology, Caitlin Moran’s 2012 compendium of her decades of brash, personal columns for the British press, Moran jokes that as a teenage girl living in public housing in Wolverhampton, England, her career options were limited to “prostitution,” “working the checkout at the Gateway supermarket,” or “becoming a writer.” Moran chose door No. 3, of course, and in this month’s novel How to Build a Girl, she loans the line to protagonist Johanna Morrigan, a 14-year-old girl living in public housing in Wolverhampton, England. Johanna—a voracious reader and even more insatiable masturbator—is too poor for records and too young to fuck, so she learns what rock music sounds like and what semen tastes like via borrowed library magazines, then rebrands herself as the London party girl Dolly Wilde, cinches a job as a teen music journalist, and sets out to hear and taste for herself. “If I don’t keep this job,” Johanna tells her mother, “then my only future career options are working in Argos or being a prostitute.” Continue reading at 'Slate'

[ Slate | 2014-09-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #caitlin moran #voracious reader

Other Publishing stories related to: 'The Character Loses Battles, but the Writer’s Won the War '


Books that should have won the Booker

So the Man Booker Prize longlist was announced just last week, and unless you've been living under a rock - you will know that Anna Smaill, none other than the NZ author of my favourite book of the year (totally true, cause The Bone Clocks was published last year), is on it! Continue reading at Stuff

[ Stuff | 2015-08-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #anna smaill #favourite book #bone clocks


Staff Pick: Small Wars, Faraway Places: Global Insurrection and the Making of the Modern World, 1945-1965

Reviews editor Everett Jones recommends Michael Burleigh’s lengthy, speedy account of two decades of imperialist 'little wars' Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-07-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #modern world


America’s Next Slate Writer

Hello, Slate Plus members! I’m writing this on my first day as a Slate senior editor. (Readers of the Slate Book Review might know me from the essays I’ve been writing about children’s books.) I’ve joined the magazine to focus on Slate Plus content—everything from the Slate Academy podcasts... Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2015-07-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #ve joined


The day I met EL Doctorow: from Persian translations to his view of a writer's duty

After celebrated novelist’s death last week, Saeed Kamali Dehghan remembers an interview with him on everything from books to Iran’s copyright infringementMost famous writers don’t have a clue that their work has been translated into Persian and that they are literary celebrities in Iran. When... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-07-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #eventually find #copyright protection


Publisher finds that writers' influences are mostly male

When Tramp Press asked authors submitting manuscripts to name the writers who inspire them, only 22% were female - pointing again to ‘the larger issue in the industry: our habitual dismissal of women’An Irish publisher has stoked the flames of the gender debate currently running in the literary... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-07-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #publisher finds #larger issue #irish publisher #literary world


Fantasy Writer Greenwood Launching Publishing Group

Ed Greenwood, best known as the bearded creator of the Forgotten Realms universe for Dungeons and Dragons, is launching an unconventional publishing group of his own, called The Ed Greenwood Group (TEGG). Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-07-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Style writer Francesca Hornak to Pavilion Books

Portico, an imprint of Pavilion Books, has bought two books by Sunday Times Style writer Francesca Hornak. Commissioning editor Nicola Newman bought world rights in History of the World in 100 Modern Objects and Worry With Mother from Olivia Guest of Jonathan Clowes Ltd. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #pavilion books


'Jack Strong' brings true Cold War thriller to life

Fans of Cold War novelists John le Carré and Tom Clancy should warm up to "Jack Strong," a gripping political thriller based on the exploits of Ryszard Kuklinski, a high-ranking Polish army officer who shared top-secret Soviet documents with the CIA between 1972 and 1981. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2015-07-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #tom clancy


Ales Kot, the writer taking comic books to mindbending new dimensions

He has only been in graphic storytelling for three years, but already the Czech-born writer has produced several influential series for the biggest publishers – and his latest is set to reinvent crime noirAt 28 years old, Ales Kot is at the forefront of a new generation of writers injecting... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-07-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #graphic storytelling #biggest publishers #american comics


Booksellers asked to nominate 'outstanding' travel writers

Michael Palin, Bill Bryson and William Dalrymple are just some of the names already nominated for the Edward Stanford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #outstanding contribution #travel writers #michael palin #bill bryson #travel writing


'The Seven Good Years' collects quirky, touching family stories by Israeli writer Etgar Keret

Etgar Keret presents his memoir: a series of raw and witty stories that document seven years of a father-son relationship. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-07-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


'Partisan bias': war over bestseller list

He sold more books than almost everyone else on the bestseller list. But the New York Times smelled a rat. Continue reading at The Sydney Morning Herald

[ The Sydney Morning Herald | 2015-07-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #bestseller list


Joseph Goebbels' family win legal battle to be paid royalties for diary extracts

Random House Germany had argued against paying to publish Nazi propaganda minister’s diaries in new biography on moral groundsDescendents of Joseph Goebbels, Adolph Hitler’s propaganda minister, are to be paid royalties for extracts from his diaries published in a new biography, following a... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-07-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #joseph goebbels #adolph hitler #propaganda minister #copyright laws #moral grounds


Taiye Selasi: stop pigeonholing African writers

Why must writers from Africa always bear the burden of representing their continent? They should be granted artistic freedom, as other authors areAfrican literature, as it’s called, is enjoying a bit of a moment, with the western media regularly heralding splashes, rebirths, dawns. When I... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-07-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #african literature #middle eastern #takes place


Second World War novel bought in six-figure deal

The Borough Press has bought The Chilbury Ladies' Choir in a “major” six-figure deal. Kate Elton, executive publisher of fiction and non-fiction, and Cassie Browne, commissioning editor at The Borough Press, have bought UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, at auction, to The Chilbury... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #kate elton #executive publisher #jennifer ryan #karolina sutton #curtis brown #alexandra machinist


Could the Nomination of the Next Librarian of Congress Spark a Political Battle?

The president will get to appoint a new librarian of Congress, the first in the digital information age. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-07-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Apple Loses E-book Appeal—Now What?

Last week, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, by a 2–1 margin, affirmed Judge Denise Cote’s 2013 finding that Apple orchestrated a 2010 conspiracy with five major publishers to fix ebook prices. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-07-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #circuit court #apple orchestrated #major publishers


Apple loses ebook price fixing appeal

Apple did conspire with publishers in the US to fix the prices of ebooks, an appeal court has found.  The technology company had appealed against an earlier decision by Judge Denise Cote, who said that Apple and publishers were guilty of conspiring to raise the prices of ebooks. Apple appealed... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #technology company #circuit court


Apple loses appeal on ebook antitrust suit

A federal appeals court Tuesday let stand a 2013 lower court ruling that concluded Apple conspired with several top book publishers to raise ebook prices. The Justice Department had accused Apple of unfairly taking control of a nascent market that had been dominated by Amazon.com. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2015-07-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #justice department #accused apple