Where are fiction’s real working-class heroes? | Letter

Working-class lives are unlikely to be properly represented in fiction if the publishing industry is run by middle-class graduates, says Nick MossKeiran Goddard is right to say that too many novels that claim to portray working-class life just give us “recent arts graduate feels emotionally, financially and erotically unsatisfied” (Close to Home by Michael Magee review – Belfast struggles, 21 April). He then raves about Michael Magee’s novel about a “sullen man in his 20s who has returned to Belfast after university”. The gatekeepers of the publishing industry are, all too often, recent university graduates, white and middle class, who work as literary agents and assistants. Their peers fill the broadsheet culture sections.Little wonder then that they can only recognise working-class stories when mediated through their own experience as graduates. The idea that there are other stories to be told and other working-class voices appears to bypass even your reviewer. I guess, given that most working-class kids are now being priced out of university, even the “recent arts graduate returns home” trope will soon focus solely on the lives of twentysomethings in the home counties. Nick Moss London Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2023-04-30 16:40:05 UTC ]
News tagged with: #middle class #literary agents #publishing industry

Other Publishing stories related to: 'Where are fiction’s real working-class heroes? | Letter'


Octogenarian wins Indie Foreign Fiction Prize

Octogenarian Israeli author Aharon Appelfeld has won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Phoenix Yard to expand fiction

Phoenix Yard Books, which launched in 2011, is to expand its fiction publishing in 2013 with... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #phoenix yard #fiction publishing


Curious Fox signs first fiction titles

Raintree has acquired the first titles for its fledgling fiction list, Curious Fox, from Fiction... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #fiction titles #curious fox


BoSacks: No B.S. : The Real Secret to Publishing Success

By Robert M. Sacks In any given year, I give about a dozen “talks” about the publishing industry. Sometimes it is to interested companies and sometimes it is to the industry at large during publishing conventions... Continue reading at Publishing Executive

[ Publishing Executive | 2012-05-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #publishing industry #real secret #publishing success


HC finds Real detectives story

HarperCollins has bought world rights in The Real Lady Detective Agency, an account of a true-... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Canadians File Class-Actions Against E-Book Publishers

Last week, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Apple and five publishers for allegedly colluding on ebook prices, and class-actions suits in the U.S. continue. Three Canadian law firms are filing class-action suits against as well ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-04-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #allegedly colluding


Pulitzer Prize for history, but not for fiction

The late Manning Marable won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for history, honored for a Malcolm X book. But no Pulitzer Prize was awarded for fiction. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-04-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #pulitzer prize


Media Decoder Blog: Pulitzer Fiction Snub Has Book Publishers Fuming

An unconventional collection of novels failed to generate a consensus among the Pulitzer board members. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2012-04-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Edward Humes' work is rubbish

The author of 'Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair With Trash' discusses how he became fascinated with garbage.Edward Humes is a man of eclectic storytelling tastes. A former journalist awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for a series of stories he wrote for the Orange County Register on the military... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-04-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #southern california #american dream #writing process


The Real Bad Guy in the E-Book Price Fixing Case

This week, the Obama administration’s Justice Department struck a great legal blow against our open market for books, and indeed against open markets in America. Even though online retailer Amazon has captured more than 50 percent of many key book markets—like the one for ebooks—antitrust... Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2012-04-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #obama administration #open market


Figment lets young writers share and critique work

Figment is a website that gives teenagers and young adults a forum for posting their work and giving advice to others. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #young adults #giving advice


'Real-life Downton' memoir to MJ

Diane Banks at Diane Banks Associates has sold the memoirs of a 95-year-old former domestic... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Book review: 'The Selected Letters of Charles Dickens'

The author's exuberant use of words in private is as vivid as in public.The Selected Letters of Charles Dickens Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-04-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #book review #charles dickens


Big Newspaper Publishers Cut Work Force 7% in 2011

While 2011 saw fewer announcements of layoffs and buyouts in the newspaper industry than previous years, attrition continued quietly and relentlessly, with the nation’s biggest newspaper publishers trimming their combined work forces by 7.2 ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-04-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #newspaper industry #previous years #combined work


Kurt Vonnegut: unpublished work released through Kindle

A Vonnegut novella titled 'Basic Training,' about a young man visiting an eccentric relative, is available through Kindle only. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-03-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #kurt vonnegut


Studios gorge on young-adult fiction amid success of 'Hunger Games'

The literary genre is white-hot in Hollywood, with filmmakers bidding on unpublished books and paying as much as $1 million for the rights to relatively modest sellers.The back-to-back blockbuster successes of "Harry Potter," "Twilight" and now "The Hunger Games" have turned the hunt for fresh... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #hunger games #$1 million #harry potter


Stranger Than Fiction: Oprah Was Bad for Book Sales

By encouraging readers to tackle longer, more sophisticated novels, the queen of daytime TV may have hurt overall fiction sales. Continue reading at The Atlantic

[ The Atlantic | 2012-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #fiction sales #book sales #encouraging readers #daytime tv


Google gives us some insight on the inner workings of Google Translate

Google may have started out as a search engine, but the scope of its services has grown considerably in the 20-plus years since its origin. Of the many products in its grand stable, Google Translate has become a workhorse platform, lending its multi-lingual chops to Chrome, Google +, Android,... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2012-03-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #search engine #grown considerably #core mission #video interview


Works revamps book range

The Works is enhancing its retail experience around books, creating genre sections, themed window... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #retail experience


Edith Pearlman takes the NBCC fiction prize

Other National Book Critics Circle honorees include writer John Lewis Gaddis for 'George F. Kennan: An American Life' and Maya Jasanoff for 'Liberty's Exiles.' Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-03-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #american life