The first-person essays boom: top editors on why confessional writing matters

A Slate piece on first-person writing has prompted debate in the digital media community. We asked editors at BuzzFeed, Jezebel and other leading sites to weigh in on the importance of such pieces – and why there is a gender divideOn Monday, Laura Bennett’s Slate piece on the boom of first-person essay writing sparked a fierce online debate between editors and writers: how can one best work between the vulnerability of a writer and the traffic goal of an editor? What’s the line between publishing someone’s personal experience and exploitation?In response to Bennett’s piece, we asked senior editors at several publications known for publishing first-person stories about what they value in them, how they look after their writers, and why it is that so many confessional stories seem to be written by women, and not men.This route to publication and a book/movie deal simply is not open for non-white womenAnd now Pollitt’s up at bat. Her three previous essay collections gathered brilliant commentary on welfare, abortion, surrogate motherhood, Iraq, gay marriage and health care, mostly from the pages of The Nation. But with “Learning to Drive,” she gets personal, and shameless. She has decided to wave her dirty laundry (among which she found unidentified striped panties) and confesses to “Webstalking” her longtime, live-in, womanizing former boyfriend. (Take that, you rat!) It’s hard to tell if she’s coming into her own, trying to sell more books or has lost it entirely. Or... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2015-09-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #gay marriage #health care #dirty laundry #ve heard

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Writing Discipline Envy: Tracy K. Smith Wakes Early and Meditates

Tracy K. Smith’s To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul is available tomorrow, so we asked her a few questions about her readers, when she writes, and her favorite book to recommend to others. * Who do you most wish would read your book? People who are weary of the limits of […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-11-06 09:56:46 UTC ]
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Jane Garrett, Book Editor With a Prizewinning Touch, Dies at 88

History books she shepherded over 44 years at Alfred A. Knopf won a raft of Pulitzers — seven in all — as well as Bancrofts, though one recipient set off a furious academic debate. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-11-03 21:36:32 UTC ]
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David Mitchell, Weekly Editor Who Exposed a Corrupt Cult, Dies at 79

His tiny California newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize for its exposé of Synanon, a renowned drug rehabilitation program that had turned into a violent operation. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-11-01 21:32:07 UTC ]
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Frankfurt: Swedish, Lithuanian Publishers See Booming Children’s Book Sales

Two publishers in Frankfurt are seeing success with up-and-coming children's book authors, both at home and through foreign rights deals. The post Frankfurt: Swedish, Lithuanian Publishers See Booming Children’s Book Sales appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2023-10-20 11:38:33 UTC ]
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To Write Her Debut Novel, Molly McGhee Had to Leave Publishing

On March 11, 2022, Molly McGhee shared a resignation letter on Twitter. She was quitting her job as an assistant editor at Tor, despite the fact that her first acquisition, The Atlas Six, had debuted at number three on the New York Times Bestseller List. She cited “systemwide prejudice against... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-10-20 11:03:00 UTC ]
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Lauren Groff on Writing Her Own Robinson Crusoe

Books & Books recently had the pleasure of hosting three-time National Book Award finalist and best-selling author Lauren Groff, presenting her new novel, The Vaster Wilds. The New York Times calls it “a lonely novel of hunger and survival.” The brilliant Groff reads from her adventure novel... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-10-20 08:11:49 UTC ]
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Penguin Random House and We Need Diverse Books Open Submissions for the 2024 Creative Writing Awards

The awards partnership between Penguin Random House and We Need Diverse Books will award $60,000 in scholarships. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-10-18 18:22:57 UTC ]
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Tiffany D. Jackson is Writing a YA Novel About the Marvel Superhero Storm

Tiffany D. Jackson's newest book is YA novel about the Marvel superhero Storm, titled Storm: Dawn of a Goddess. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-10-17 15:40:54 UTC ]
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An Open Letter in Support of Adania Shibli From More Than 350 Writers, Editors, and Publishers

This letter was originally published by ArabLit. The shocking and tragic events that began on October 7th and are ongoing today have had repercussions all over the globe, including within the publishing world. Award-winning Palestinian author Adania Shibli, who was a finalist for the 2020... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-10-17 09:05:58 UTC ]
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From ancient Jewish texts to AI, a sequence of figures turns matter into meaning

Computer languages are ultimately rendered in ones and zeros, even AI programs. Though this technology is new, the concept it’s hinged on is not. Isaac Asimov’s iconic science fiction collection I, Robot, tells the story of androids created at U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men Inc. The androids... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2023-10-17 06:00:00 UTC ]
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Write Who You Love: J. Ryan Stradal on Memorializing His Mother Through Fiction

Since my first novel was published, at almost every interview and live event, I get asked a version of the same question. Usually people seem just curious, but occasionally there are notes of hostility or amazement. They want to know why, and often how, I write my female protagonists. The answer... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-10-16 08:50:29 UTC ]
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Salman Rushdie to Write Memoir About Stabbing Attack

Rushdie, who was grievously injured onstage last year, said the forthcoming book was a way “to answer violence with art.” Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-10-11 14:10:29 UTC ]
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How to Write a Memoir While Dying

Writers are often advised to write as if we are dying. Awake to our mortality, the theory goes, we will write with urgency and acuity about what matters. We will write honestly, vulnerably, bravely without fear of judgement. We will write for the pure readers: ourselves and our loved ones. We... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-10-11 08:50:48 UTC ]
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How the nation's most famous newspaper editor took on Trump and his own reporters

Former Washington Post editor Martin Baron joins the L.A. Times Book Club Oct. 11 to discuss "Collision of Power," his book about Trump, Bezos and the future of journalism. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-10-02 13:00:31 UTC ]
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Why It Matters That Marvel Comics Are Becoming Penguin Classics

This month, Penguin released the three latest titles in its Penguin Classics Marvel Collection. We spoke with the series editor, Ben Saunders, and two authors who wrote forewords to the books, Jerry Craft and Rainbow Rowell, about the importance of enshrining comics in the literary canon. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-09-20 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Top 5 food and beverage brands ranked by ‘share of influence’: Datacenter Weekly

Plus, Nielsen names a new CEO, Hispanic audiences are undercounted, macroeconomic news in a nutshell—and more. Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2023-09-15 18:24:18 UTC ]
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August Religion Bestsellers: ‘The Artist’s Way’ Tops, ‘The Stranger’ Lives On

Over 30 years since it was first published, Julia Cameron’s famous ‘The Artist’s Way’ takes #1 in Religion Nonfiction, Mitch Albom’s ‘The Stranger in the Lifeboat’ remains #1 in Religion Fiction. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-09-13 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Claire Keegan: ‘I can’t explain my work. I just write stories’

The much-acclaimed Irish author of Small Things Like These on her quietly devastating new story and why George Saunders wouldn’t read it aloud for a podcastClaire Keegan’s five books to date run to just 700 pages and some 140,000 words. “I love to see prose being written economically,” she tells... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-09-02 17:00:10 UTC ]
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WLT to Host “Indigenous Literatures of the Americas” Event at Green Feather Books, by The Editors of WLT

WLT to Host “Indigenous Literatures of the Americas” Event at Green Feather Books, by The Editors of WLT News and Events [email protected] Mon, 08/28/2023 - 15:10 World Literature Today, the University of Oklahoma’s award-winning magazine of... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2023-08-28 20:10:58 UTC ]
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Pidgeon Pagonis on the Urgency of Writing a Memoir as an Intersex Writer

Pidgeon and I met in the summer of 2020, the summer of sickness, and violent change. We spoke over Zoom, nearly 800 miles apart—I had been hired as a developmental editor for an intersex activist named Pidgeon Pagonis. A developmental editor is a bit of a catch-all title: we do a bit of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-08-17 09:20:26 UTC ]
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