“When I Write Fiction, I’m in My Body as a Different Person”

Two decades ago, Arundhati Roy released her first novel, The God of Small Things. The response was pretty much everything an author could hope for from a debut. (It was a huge best-seller and won the Booker Prize.) But in the past 20 years, Roy has followed a different path than one might have expected, composing essays and books about India, where she was born in 1961, and establishing herself as arguably the most outspoken commentator on Indian politics. She has written about the role of India’s military in Kashmir and tribal areas, and spoken out against the rise of the Hindu right wing, including the current prime minister, Narendra Modi. Over the years, Roy has been threatened and even accused of sedition; she has also been the subject of debate in liberal circles, with some accusing her of being simplistic in her anti-capitalist rhetoric and naïve in her support for India’s Maoist uprisings. (She has also been a consistent critic of American foreign policy; in 2015, she met with Edward Snowden in Moscow, along with John Cusack and Daniel Ellsberg.) Continue reading at 'Slate'

[ Slate | 2017-06-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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2022 International Prize for Arabic Fiction longlist unveiled

The 16-strong longlist of books contending for the 2022 International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF), has been revealed, featuring nine countries. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-26 14:09:35 UTC ]
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Sites of Radical Possibility: The Best of 1970s and 80s Women-Authored Science Fiction and Fantasy

A late baby-boomer, I spent my tweens and adolescence in the 1970s under the Tolkien-woven spell of heroic fantasy, immersed in the imagined worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea trilogy (1968-72), Patricia A. McKillip’s Riddlemaster trilogy (1976-79), and Evangeline Walton’s Welsh-myth-remix... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-01-26 09:55:39 UTC ]
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Dutch Writing Campaign returns for fourth year

The Dutch Foundation for Literature has announced the New Dutch Writing campaign will return to the UK for the fourth year.   Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-25 17:20:43 UTC ]
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Can Science Fiction Wake Us Up to Our Climate Reality?

Kim Stanley Robinson’s novels envision the dire problems of the future—but also their solutions. Continue reading at New Yorker

[ New Yorker | 2022-01-24 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Young love: picture books oust children’s fiction for the first time in two decades

For the first time on record, picture books outsold fiction for young readers through the TCM, after clawing back a huge deficit. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-22 08:33:40 UTC ]
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Little People, Big Dreams: Children’s non-fiction posts all-time record return

If you chart the shift in the BookScan era of the publishing into Children’s & Young Adult Non-Fiction (CYANF), you see it evolving from, broadly, a more schools-book focused sector to one in which the vast bulk of the revenue is derived from trade titles. Continue reading at The Bookseller

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She has a bestseller and hit Netflix series. But Stephanie Land's 'Maid' isn't just about being a 'palatable poor person'

Stephanie Land, the author of 'Maid,' joins the L.A. Times Book Club on Jan. 25. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-01-19 19:34:16 UTC ]
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Hot Key Books snaps up two from sister writing duo

Hot Key Books has snapped up two new books from sister writing duo Katharine and Elizabeth Corr. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-19 18:16:51 UTC ]
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Science fiction — please, let’s not call it ‘sci-fi’ — is more than just a reaction to the present

New books and publications delve into the rich and evolving worlds of speculative fiction. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2022-01-19 16:00:20 UTC ]
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Pinch of Nom train thunders on as Yanagihara tops Original Fiction

Kay Featherstone and Kate Allinson's Pinch of Nom Comfort Food (Bluebird) has reigned in the UK Official Top 50 number one spot for a fifth week in total, shifting 33,624 copies last week. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-18 10:37:05 UTC ]
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Femi Kayode | 'I've gotten a bit frustrated by the Western-model of crime fiction'

Femi Kayode’s début novel, which is based on the real-life lynching of four undergraduates in Nigeria, is the first title in a forthcoming series from Raven Books. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-16 02:03:47 UTC ]
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A Personal Catalogue of the World’s Most Storied Bookstores

Two decades ago, I wrote my very first novel while working at The Community Bookstore, an independent bookstore in Brooklyn, New York. That job enabled me to complete my book, not just because of the flexible hours, but because the other staffers were all aspiring writers, and many of our... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-01-12 09:50:45 UTC ]
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Jabari Asim on Decolonized Souls, Black Love, and Writing the Past

When I reviewed Jabari Asim’s first short story collection, A Taste of Honey (2010),  I knew him to be a prominent essayist and cultural critic, author of What Obama Means and The N Word, former Washington Post deputy books editor and editor in chief of the iconic The Crisis, the journal of the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-01-12 09:49:19 UTC ]
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December Religion Bestsellers: Fox News Hosts Takeover; Mitch Albom Tops in Fiction

Two books by Fox News personalities—one by Rachel Campos-Duffy and Sean Duffy and another by Shannon Bream—cracked the top five on our Religion Nonfiction Bestsellers list for December. Mitch Albom tops in Religion FIction with his latest novel, ‘The Stranger in the Lifeboat.’ Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-01-12 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Jami Attenberg on Building a Writing Life

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[ The Millions | 2022-01-10 21:30:10 UTC ]
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Will Young writes mental health guide for Ebury Spotlight

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[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-10 07:27:21 UTC ]
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Join the #FReadom Letter Writing Campaign to Combat Censorship!

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[ Book Riot | 2022-01-04 11:30:00 UTC ]
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The best books to read by the fire: Let’s talk about our favorites in science fiction and fantasy

Feeling nostalgic? Try ‘The Chronicles of Prydain.’ For something more modern, there’s ‘The Midnight Bargain. And so many more. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2022-01-03 23:00:00 UTC ]
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