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 ]
‘How to Be an Antiracist’ and other books addressing systemic racism return to our bestseller lists. Plus musician Mikel Jollett debuts with the memoir ‘Hollywood Park,’ and science journalist James Nestor discusses the importance of ‘Breath.’ Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-06-05 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Among the notable deals last week were the sale of a memoir from a PBS NewsHour correspondent, a novel about a woman who gives birth to an owl, and international bestseller Michel Faber’s latest novel. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-06-05 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Katy Waldman reviews “The Shapeless Unease,” by Samantha Harvey, a memoir about the author’s yearlong battle with chronic insomnia. Continue reading at New Yorker
[ New Yorker | 2020-06-04 18:55:26 UTC ]
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Little A, an imprint of Amazon Publishing, will publish Matt Greene's memoir, Jew(ish): A Plea. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-04 01:10:30 UTC ]
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Snoop Dogg is producing the TV adaptation for Joe Ide's IQ detective series, after TV rights were initially snapped up in a seven-way bidding war by Alcon. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-03 14:06:32 UTC ]
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“The Dragons, the Giant, the Women” is a migration memoir of separations, relocations and reunions. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-06-02 09:00:08 UTC ]
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On this episode of Personal Space: The Memoir Show, Sari Botton interviews Matt Ortile, author of the memoir The Groom Will Keep His Name: And Other Vows I’ve Made About Race, Resistance and Romance, published by Bold Type Books. Ortile writes about owning his identity as a gay,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-06-01 20:04:21 UTC ]
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Transworld has bought UK and Commonwealth rights for memoir The Bright Field by Margaret Reynolds, professor of English at Queen Mary, University of London. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-01 08:56:53 UTC ]
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W&N has acquired Miss Aluminium, a memoir by Susanna Moore describing her experiences in Hollywood in the 1970s and her own "hard-won arrival at selfhood". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-31 19:23:49 UTC ]
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My approach to memoir writing demands a different schedule. It may be more organized. I take notes, I write in condensed bursts. I do that with poetry also, but the process is more alchemic. It’s uncontainable. It’s fluid, I can drift in another realm. The post I Didn’t Have a Plan: The Millions... Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2020-05-29 10:00:01 UTC ]
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Christian singer/songwriter Sandra McCracken brings her debut to B&H, Convergent signs a mother and son’s memoir about opioid addiction, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-05-27 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Patrik Svensson mixed natural history with memoir for his debut, which has become a surprise best seller and award winner in his native Sweden. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-05-22 09:00:23 UTC ]
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On this episode of Personal Space: The Memoir Show, Sari Botton interviews Stephanie Danler, author of the 2016 bestselling novel Sweetbitter, and now the memoir Stray, just published by Knopf. In the book, Danler poignantly tackles a variety of issues, including: the destructive nature of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-05-21 17:00:57 UTC ]
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"Hollywood Park," a new memoir from the frontman for the Airborne Toxic Event, recounts his childhood in L.A.'s Synanon cult — and his recovery. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-05-20 16:33:40 UTC ]
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Hutchinson has acquired Bananarama's memoir Really Saying Something in a "strong" six-figure deal, and will publish this October. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-20 05:26:25 UTC ]
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Stephanie Danler’s memoir Stray invites us to look closely at our own life: our family dynamics, our loss, our trauma, and the moments of happiness that still exist within that fragile frame. With deep introspection and stunning prose, Danler tells us about the years she spent after writing her... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-05-19 11:00:55 UTC ]
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Naomi Fry on “Miss Aluminum,” a new memoir by Susanna Moore, who is known for her 1995 thriller “In the Cut.” Continue reading at New Yorker
[ New Yorker | 2020-05-19 10:00:00 UTC ]
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A selection of recent books of interest; plus, a peek at what our colleagues around the newsroom are reading. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-05-19 09:00:05 UTC ]
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Bonnier Books UK has acquired Kate MacDougall's story of the dog walking business she founded in her mid-twenties, London’s No1 Dog Walking Agency. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-19 04:39:15 UTC ]
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Among the big deals this week are a new book by rapper Gucci Mane, a memoir of addiction and recovery by a politician and her son, and a nonfiction book by the cocreator of Showtime’s Billions. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-05-15 04:00:00 UTC ]
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