On Translation Browsing a Copenhagen airport bookstore, a translator picks up a book. The journey between that impulse and his eventual translation of the memoir into English was both emotional and serendipitous. In the summer of 2016 I was passing through Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen with my wife, on our way home after a visit with family. We stopped to browse the bookstore, and I noticed a reprint of a book by Danish author Tove Ditlevsen called Gift, which had first been published in 1971. I hadn’t read much of her work, but I knew she was a big name, so I bought it, even though the cover was strange, a psychedelic skull on a gray background. It did not take more than a couple of sittings to devour this memoir of Tove Ditlevsen’s life from the ages of about twenty-three to thirty-five. It chronicles her rise as a best-selling author, while she also had four failed marriages, two back-alley abortions, and a five-year near-fatal addiction to the opioid Demerol. I distinctly remember laying the book down after the final page and thinking to myself, I think this is a masterpiece. This was an intuitive judgment, not a conclusion I had come to after analyzing the text. But looking back now, I think what caused me to deem this work a masterpiece is the combination of Ditlevsen’s writing style, which is concise, honest, and ironic, combined with the content of her story, which through her many troubling experiences pulls back the... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2021-04-06 13:12:22 UTC ]
A new memoir and rarities collection show the powerhouse vocalist and songwriter’s evolution into a poised, boundary-blurring pop superstar. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-10-04 17:32:58 UTC ]
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When Sonja Livingston began to write about her life with an itinerant mother and six siblings in the raw corners of western New York, she wrote, she says, in snatches. “I wrote of living in apartments and tents and motel rooms. Of places where corn and cabbage grew in great swaths. Of the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-02 08:48:29 UTC ]
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A federal judge this week denied former national security adviser John Bolton’s motion to dismiss the government's case against him, finding that the government has presented sufficient evidence to support its claim that Bolton breached his confidentiality agreements by publishing his memoir... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-10-02 04:00:00 UTC ]
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In his memoir Children of the Land, Marcelo Hernandez Castillo tells the story of growing up undocumented in California and having to navigate the convoluted and dehumanizing American immigration system. Hernandez Castillo captures the emotional and psychological toll that being both invisible... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-10-01 11:00:54 UTC ]
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Thread, Bookouture's non-fiction imprint, will publish Coconut, a memoir of "belonging, identity and finding home" by debut author Florence Olajide. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-29 21:34:05 UTC ]
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In "Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution in the Americas," Roberto Lovato finally tells the full story of his rebel life. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-09-29 18:31:05 UTC ]
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Sphere has acquired The Secret Diary of a British Muslim Aged 13¾ from stand-up comedian Tez Ilyas. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-28 11:30:14 UTC ]
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Former national security adviser avoids criticism of his former boss and undermines the credibility he is trying to assert. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-09-25 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Ex-National Security Council official claims she was pressured her to say manuscript contained sensitive information after her department had cleared itA former National Security Council official who while working there reviewed John Bolton’s memoir for classified information before publication,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-09-24 15:10:36 UTC ]
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At a September 24 teleconference, Judge Royce Lamberth suggested that a former NSC official's claims that Trump officials had abused the prepublication review process for John Bolton's bestselling memoir amounted to a "political diatribe." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-09-24 04:00:00 UTC ]
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When John Bolton was preparing to publish The Room Where It Happened, his memoir of serving in the Trump White House, he and his legal team took the routine step of submitting it for review at the National Security Council. It was Ellen Knight’s job to oversee that process, as she had done... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-09-23 20:07:06 UTC ]
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Bluebird has won a 14-way auction for actor David Harewood's “landmark” memoir on how racism impacts mental health. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-23 18:22:15 UTC ]
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'The Meaning of Mariah Carey,' the pop star's tell-some memoir, sparkles and entertains and explains its subject, despite a few too many I-don't-know-hers. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-09-23 15:38:47 UTC ]
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THE FOLLOWING IS an excerpt from W. J. T. Mitchell’s Mental Traveler: A Father, a Son, and a Journey Through Schizophrenia, a memoir about Mitchell’s son Gabriel, who struggled with schizophrenia for 20 years until his suicide at age 38. The excerpt makes reference to Carmen, Gabriel’s sister, a... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-09-23 12:30:11 UTC ]
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In a bombshell letter filed with the court this week, attorneys for the National Security Council official who led the prepublication review of John Bolton’s bestselling memoir 'The Room Where It Happened' confirmed the official's position that the book was cleared of classified information... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-09-23 04:00:00 UTC ]
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An editor recalls the experience of working with Justice Ginsburg to bring an unpublished memoir to print. Continue reading at The Paris Review
[ The Paris Review | 2020-09-22 16:44:31 UTC ]
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Custom House goes big on a debut, Nicole Maines sells a memoir to Dial, Crown pays seven figures for a new one from Deepak Chopra, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-09-18 04:00:00 UTC ]
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There are very few celebrities whose meals interest me. (Yes, I do hate Instagram, thank you.) But here’s one: Stanley Tucci, who announced today that he’s working on a memoir called Taste: My Life Through Food. Publisher Gallery Books described it as “intimate and charming reflection of Tucci’s... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-09-17 18:45:33 UTC ]
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Former President Barack Obama's memoir A PROMISED LAND will be published on November 17, 2020. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-09-17 16:53:16 UTC ]
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President Obama announced Thursday that his forthcoming memoir, 'A Promised Land,' will take readers inside his White House. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-09-17 15:24:24 UTC ]
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