From the shock and awe of labour to domestic isolation, a wave of recent novels captures the transformative nature of being a motherThey say nothing prepares you. Before having my baby, I approached the literature of motherhood as though I were about to sit an exam. If my studies tempered the shock of birth and early parenthood, then I didn’t notice. The sheer physical and emotive force of the experience left me profoundly shaken. Words felt insufficient. And yet I kept reading – everything I could get my hands on. I wanted answers. I wanted to feel recognised. I wanted this untranslatable experience to be translated into language. Most of all, I think, I wanted restitution for all the maternal stories that had been left untold by centuries of silencing and minimising, not just for myself, but for all of us.Books about motherhood come in waves: the recent spate only the latest in a long line of literary endeavours. In the 1950s there was Shirley Jackson’s Life Among the Savages. The 1960s wave saw Margaret Drabble’s The Millstone and Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook, alongside Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique; the 1970s The Women’s Room by Marilyn French, Adrienne Rich’s Of Woman Born, and In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens by Alice Walker. In the 1980s writing about motherhood became even more transgressive and imaginative, with Beloved by Toni Morrison, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, and Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter. The early 2000s saw an... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2024-01-20 11:00:01 UTC ]
Writing fiction itself might be (and often is) considered an act of translation: from experience to language, from emotion to logic, from chaos to legibility. Perhaps it is a mere coincidence, or a stroke of good luck, then that these three fall debut novelists selected for our craft series each... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-12-17 12:00:00 UTC ]
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I wrote What It’s Like in Words in my dressing room in the St Martin’s theatre in the West End whilst playing Miss Casewell in The Mousetrap, and over nine months and approximately 300 shows it occurred to me how similar the processes of writing and acting are. They may appear binary forms of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-12-04 09:55:59 UTC ]
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From tales of alienation to comforting novels set in bookshops, Japanese authors have written nearly half of this year’s bestselling translated novels in the UK. What’s their secret?• Read an an exclusive Q&A with Haruki MurakamiAnyone who has been in a bookshop in the last few years will... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-11-23 09:00:37 UTC ]
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The Handmaid’s Tale has risen more than 400 places on bestseller charts since Wednesday with a similar rush for copies of On Tyranny by Timothy SnyderBooks about democracy, dystopia, tyranny, feminism and far-right politics rapidly climbed bestseller charts in the wake of Donald Trump winning... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-11-07 15:33:10 UTC ]
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Glory Edim's 'Gather Me' traces the dramatic arc of her life as well as her discovery of Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison and other Black writers. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-10-21 17:03:20 UTC ]
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Earlier this May, an Esquire article by Kate Dwyer called “Why Are Debut Novels Failing to Launch?” channeled the fear of debut novelists everywhere: What happens if no one buys my book? Book sales are an important way for editors and agents to gauge whether to invest in an author. If her first... Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2024-10-16 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Breaking Bourgeois Taboos in Cairo: Ihsan Abdel Quddous’s A Nose and Three Eyes, by Gretchen McCullough Book Reviews [email protected] Mon, 10/14/2024 - 14:18 Five or six years ago, I was reading Ihsan Abdel Quddous (1919–1990) with my Arabic... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2024-10-14 19:18:43 UTC ]
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With earnings having dropped by 60%, it is harder than ever to keep going as a writer – even if your work gets rave reviewsThe 2022 publication of A Hunger, Ross Raisin’s fourth novel, was his “lowest moment”, the 45-year-old author says. “It was a deflating experience.”The book received... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-10-14 15:35:55 UTC ]
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Ever since novelists started mixing with Hollywood, film and prose have been easy bedfellows. A lot of authors are proud cinephiles. Others go so far as to credit movies as major form or content influences. And thanks to the fleet marketing department at Criterion and the rise of Letterboxd,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-09-27 15:48:15 UTC ]
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Give me more Putinas, por favor: A Conversation with Giannina Braschi, by Sandra Guzmán Interviews [email protected] Mon, 09/23/2024 - 15:16 Photo by Laurent BadessiThe last time I saw Giannina Braschi was a year ago at the 92NY in New York City.... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2024-09-23 20:16:07 UTC ]
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An international writing organisation appeared to greenlight the use of AI, prompting anger, the resignation of four board members and an entire creative community to ask: ‘What?!’Please spare a thought for artificial intelligence (AI). It may not have feelings yet but, if it did, it would feel... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-09-11 10:00:07 UTC ]
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Striding the Borderlands: Charles Ferdinand Ramuz’s Great Fear on the Mountain, by Alice-Catherine Carls Book Reviews [email protected] Thu, 09/05/2024 - 14:03 Caroline Cingria, C. F. Ramuz, pastel (1903) / Images courtesy of Noël CordonierLumen... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2024-09-05 19:03:58 UTC ]
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The Irish literary scene is thriving, which makes choosing just five other Irish writers likely to appeal to fans of Rooney a daunting task. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2024-08-22 11:49:16 UTC ]
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Letter to Mohamed Choukri: Writing between Silence and Prattle, by Mohamed Berrada Cultural Cross Sections [email protected] Wed, 08/07/2024 - 15:25 Mohamed Choukri (left) and Mohamed Berrada / Photo courtesy the estate of Mohamed ChoukriIn the... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2024-08-07 20:25:04 UTC ]
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Queer-Feminist Writing from 1970s Turkey: A Conversation with Maureen Freely on Sevgi Soysal, by Ipek Sahinler Interviews [email protected] Tue, 08/06/2024 - 16:31 Maureen Freely (left) & Funda Soysal (right)Maureen Freely is an author,... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2024-08-06 21:31:04 UTC ]
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No Sally Rooney, one clear favourite and a novel set in space - this is a longlist of unexpected discoveries and big ideas• Three British novelists make Booker 2024 longlist among ‘cohort of global voices’It is 10 years since the Booker prize expanded its remit to include American novelists. The... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-07-30 13:04:15 UTC ]
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The 13-strong longlist for this year's 2024 Booker Prize has been announced. Among those listed are three debut novelists and several marquee names, including Percival Everett, Rachel Kushner, and Richard Powers. Six Americans made this year's list. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-07-30 04:00:00 UTC ]
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While reading a debut novel, oftentimes, there exists a momentary thrill of forgetting about craft. Instead, it can feel as if these writers grew up alongside their stories—in parallel lines and lives, naturally accumulating sentences with every inch they grew. There is a tender, literary... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-07-17 11:00:00 UTC ]
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The National Arts Club recently awarded Colm Tóibín the Medal of Honor for Achievement in Literature. Read remarks by novelists Jeffrey Eugenides and Yiyun Li, who spoke about Tóibín’s influence and friendship. Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-07-17 08:55:27 UTC ]
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