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 ]
Titles set to follow former rivals Loaded and Nuts in folding as young men turn to mobile phones, social media and free magazinesFHM and Zoo are to close by the end of the year, marking the end of the lads’ mag era that dominated UK magazine publishing in the late 90s and early 2000s.Publisher... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-11-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Seven Stories has delved into its own archive to put together a book about children’s illustration, which it will publish with Walker Books in October. Drawn from the Archive: Hidden Histories of Illustration is edited by Sarah Lawrence, Seven Stories’ collection director, who looks at the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It wants to be ‘the best photography fair in the world – bar none’. But can it possibly live up to the hype? Prepare to be amazed and probably overwhelmed as Photo London hits the capitalBack in 2011, I wrote a piece about London’s belated embrace of photography. Citing the Tate’s 2009... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-05-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Among all the charming stories in Shirley Jackson’s two charming midcentury memoirs of raising four charming children in the charming town of Bennington, Vermont, the one that I urge anyone who might ever want to write about his family to study like the Talmud is about a boy called Charles.... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2015-05-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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This week, Toni Morrison's new novel, the story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway, and Montmartre at the beginning of modernism. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-04-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'The Heart Goes Last,' which will be published in the U.S. on September 29, marks the celebrated Canadian author’s first stand-alone novel in 15 years. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-03-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new standalone novel from Margaret Atwood will be published by Bloomsbury in September. The Heart Goes Last, Atwood's first standalone novel since the Man Booker Prize-winning The Blind Assassin in 2010, will be published on 24th September, the day that will also see Virago publish the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Margaret Atwood's first stand-alone novel in 15 years will be published in September, alongside a new collection of short stories. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2015-03-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Children’s book illustrator Penny Dann has died at the age of 50. She had been suffering from cancer. Dann, who died on Saturday 20th December, illustrated anthologies, early readers, fairytales and poetry collections, and most recently illustrated Polly Parrot Picks a Pirate (Macmillan... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Toni Morrison’s new novel God Help the Child will be published by Chatto & Windus in April next year. The book is described as “spare and unsparing” and is “about the way childhood trauma shapes and misshapes the life of the adult”. It follows a woman called Bride, “whose stunning... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In a recent survey by industry newsletter Shelf Awareness, the novel 'We Have Always Lived in the Castle' by Shirley Jackson was booksellers' top pick for a great spooky tale. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-11-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The novelist is the first author to commit to public art project Future Library.Award-winning author Margaret Atwood is writing a new book--but don't expect to pre-order it on Amazon anytime soon. The book will be the first text included in Future Library, a public art project set to unfold over... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2014-09-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Novelist says it is 'delicious' to be first contributor to the Future Library, which will compile 100 texts for publication in 2114Depending on perspective, it is an author's dream or nightmare: Margaret Atwood will never know what readers think of the piece of fiction she is currently working... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-09-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sharlto Copley will star as the lead in Powers, Sony PlayStation Network’s first foray into original programming. Copley, of District 9 and recent box office grand slam Maleficent, joins the lineup of stars in the drama adapted from a Marvel comic book series. FX had been trying to develop the... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2014-08-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Since the demise of Noodle Kidoodle and Zany Brainy in the early 2000s, specialty “book-and-toy” stores have maintained a low profile. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Margaret Atwood, Donna Tartt and Booker winner Eleanor Catton are among the novelists longlisted for this year's Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2014-03-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Library chief, Roy Keating, says show will explore field from Misty comics and superhero classics to graphic novelsBoys in the late 1970s probably assumed the girls comic Misty was all boring romance, puppies and ponies. How wrong they were. They were full of "incredibly dark, weird,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Random House has launched new magazines aimed at exploring worlds created by their authors. First up: Margaret Atwood and George R.R. Martin. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-09-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In a promotional event timed to coincide with the global release of Margaret Atwood’s new novel MaddAdam, her publisher, Doubleday, is teaming with Wattpad to release an exclusive essay about the book as well as excerpts from the other novels in the dystopian trilogy of which it is a part. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-09-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In the early 2000s, while working as a producer at ABC’s 20/20, Bill McGowan put together a branding video for a dot-com entrepreneur. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-08-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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