Who Needs an MFA When You Have This Literary Fiction Trope Checklist?

Writing literary fiction stories? Forget what you’ve learned about complex characters and earned endings. What you really need is to include the required tropes. To help you out, we’ve created this handy checklist. Literary Fiction Trope Checklist _____ 1. Starts with character waking up _____ 2. Starts with character looking out of window, describing scenery […] The post Who Needs an MFA When You Have This Literary Fiction Trope Checklist? appeared first on Electric Literature. Continue reading at 'Electric Literature'

[ Electric Literature | 2019-07-26 11:00:50 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "Who Needs an MFA When You Have This Literary Fiction Trope Checklist?"


9 New Translated Books by Women

August is Women in Translation month, dedicated to works of literature originally written by women in languages other than English. As we explained in our 2018 version of this list, such works make up a tiny percentage of the books published in the United States each year, though with increased... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-08-26 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


7 Books About Being Young and Messy in New York

My memoir is not unique. But only in the sense that my story unfolds with New York City as the backdrop, where so many other stories have unfolded and will continue to unfold long after I’m gone. That’s the beauty of this multilayered city: it unravels you, and no one’s unraveling is alike. Yes,... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-08-25 11:00:12 UTC ]
More news stories like this


How Yaa Gyasi Found Religion (in Literature)

“There isn’t much literary fiction that deals with evangelicalism. ‘Go Tell It on the Mountain,’ by James Baldwin, was the first book I read that spoke to that part of my life and it moved me so deeply to see faith rendered on the page with such care and brilliance.” Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-08-20 09:00:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this


It’s Time for Disabled Writers to Tell Their Own Stories

Alice Wong’s work as an activist, podcaster, writer, qualitative researcher, and editor is on full display in her new anthology Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century. Her new anthology is an extension of the projects she’s become known when it comes to always... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-08-19 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


The Delicate Balancing Act of Black Women’s Memoir

As Crown Publishing predicted, readers eagerly anticipated Michelle Obama’s Becoming. Autobiography and memoir are best selling categories because virtually everyone enjoys learning about the private life of public figures. In this case, many were curious about the woman who seemed to rise above... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-08-12 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


An Unconventional Love Story, Told In Trinidadian Dialect

Ingrid Persaud made the grandest of debuts in the literary world by winning the BBC Short Story Award in 2018 with “The Sweet Sop,” the first short story she ever wrote. After this extremely auspicious beginning, the Trinidad-born writer, whose resume includes stints in legal academia and art... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-08-04 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


A Queer Memoir About Navigating Toxic Masculinity

I met David Adjmi at a fancy writing residency. The kind of place where you work all day alone and then eat dinner together, have a drink in the parlor afterwards. I remember a night when someone suggested watching a movie. As people were perusing the house copy of the criterion collection... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-07-31 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Emma Straub on the Future of Indie Bookstores

Emma Straub is a New York Times bestselling author and owner of the beloved independent bookstore, Books Are Magic in Brooklyn. Her latest novel, All Adults Here, explores the complexity of love for your family, the love for yourself, and for the town you grew up in.  The story revolves around... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-07-30 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


It’s Time to Radically Rethink Online Book Events

Before the stay-at-home orders came down in Baltimore, the last thing I did in person was participate in a panel conversation about—ironically—“art and the apocalypse.” In retrospect, we should have cancelled, but the threat in Maryland still felt surreal; those were the days when it seemed like... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-07-28 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Ann and Jeff VanderMeer on Fantasy’s Influence on Today’s Literature

At Electric Literature, Ann and Jeff VanderMeer take a look at fantasy’s impact on comtemporary pop culture, in their introduction to the new collection, The Big Book of Modern Fantasy. “Fantasy becomes something of use to a writer to make a political or social statement,” they write. “It’s not... Continue reading at The Millions

[ The Millions | 2020-07-20 20:30:05 UTC ]
More news stories like this


How Fantasy Literature Helped Create the 21st Century

The following is the introduction to The Big Book of Modern Fantasy, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, to be published by Vintage Books on July 21, 2020. Introduction copyright (c) 2020 by VanderMeer Creative, Inc. Fantasy is a broad and various category that on the one hand can feature... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-07-16 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


10 Eclectic Books With Beatles Songs as Titles

A wide array of books, from literary fiction to romance to YA, have borrowed their titles from songs by The Beatles. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2020-07-10 10:34:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this


The Most Anticipated Debuts of the Second Half of 2020

There’s no doubt COVID-19 has forever changed the world as we know it. A small slice of life that had to shift trajectory is the publishing industry. Debut authors are especially struggling as the books they have worked on for countless years are released into a world without in-person book... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-06-30 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


10 Works of Literary Fiction for Runners

Over the past few months, as gyms and yoga studios and fitness centers have remained closed, many of you antsy yogis and barre-enthusiasts and Zumba-addicts have gone back to that most elemental of exercises: the run. For those of us who like to read and run, well, plenty of books on the subject... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-06-23 08:49:25 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Translation in Service of More Empathy, Less Fear: A Conversation with Megan McDowell, by Veronica Esposito

Interviews Veronica Esposito Photo by Camila Valdés Megan McDowell has translated many contemporary authors from Latin America and Spain, including Alejandro Zambra, Samanta Schweblin, and Lina Meruane. Shortlisted for the Man Booker... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2020-06-22 15:20:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


In “All My Mother’s Lovers,” a Mother’s Secret Letters Reveal Her Secret Life

Not to sound like an assistant district attorney from SVU, but it is beyond a shadow of a doubt that acclaimed essayist and book critic Ilana Masad has carved a prominent space for herself in the realm of mother-daughter literature with her debut novel, All My Mother’s Lovers. It sits upon a... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-06-22 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


I Am the Faceless Woman on the Cover of Your Novel

POC Book Cover Model I feel the most brown facing a solid, bright background that seduces preteens at the Scholastic fair. My long black-as-licorice braids with their sweet virginal shine beg for pity, are maybe a metaphor for tradition, repression, machismo, all the miserable Mexican girls that... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-06-15 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


10 Books Set in Museums

Museums are a lot like libraries and bookstores: quiet, contemplative spaces filled with wondrous objects that can light up your imagination and transport you to a different time and place. Now, like so many other cultural institutions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, most are shuttered for the time... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-06-09 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


20 New Asian American Books to Read Right Now

It’s been just over 45 years since the publication of Aiiieeeee!, a groundbreaking and trailblazing anthology that established the category of Asian American literature. Since then, we’ve seen the amalgamation of great organizations centering around Asian American Pacific Islander literature,... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-05-29 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Bursting the South Asian literary bubble

Today sees the launch of South Asian LitFest, a free, live online festival I've created to show celebrate and showcase authors both from the subcontinent and the diasporic South Asian writing community around the world. Why do we need it? Well, even as the publishing industry talks about... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-27 22:25:54 UTC ]
More news stories like this