Why All Americans Should Read “Celestial Bodies”

Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi won the Man Booker International Prize this year for its beautifully rendered portrayal of a family’s tangled history in the village of al-Awafi in Oman. The novel was the first book translated from Arabic to win the prize, and more surprisingly, it was the first novel by an Omani woman […] The post Why All Americans Should Read “Celestial Bodies” appeared first on Electric Literature. Continue reading at 'Electric Literature'

[ Electric Literature | 2019-11-26 11:59:00 UTC ]

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How to Write About Kink Without Going Full “Fifty Shades”

It is hard to talk about sex and literature without making some sort of Fifty Shades of Grey reference. But where Fifty Shades shows a caricature of S&M, the new anthology Kink is a celebration of the range of human desires. From the power of control and the titillation of voyeurism, this... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-02-12 12:00:00 UTC ]
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7 Books About Break-Ups and Heartbreaks

The best way to get over a breakup is to throw yourself into art and experience the catharsis of observing someone else’s pain. For some, this might be listening to Fleetwood Mac’s album Rumours on repeat. For others, perhaps a double feature of  Lost in Translation and Her. For readers, the... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-02-12 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Here’s the cover of Jonathan Franzen’s next novel.

On October 5, this timeline will be blessed/cursed by Jonathan Franzen’s first novel since 2015: Crossroads, or, if you’re not abbreviating, Crossroads: A Novel: A Key to All Mythologies, Volume 1. It’s the first novel of a trilogy, A Key to All Mythologies, which, yes, nods to the doomed... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-02-10 17:59:29 UTC ]
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HarperNorth snares first novel with Woods' gangland thriller

HarperNorth has snared its first fiction acquisition, a gritty gangland thriller by Karen Woods. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-08 01:06:27 UTC ]
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Voiceless in Vienna

LEOPOLD VON SACHER-MASOCH was the original kinky bastard. A 19th-century Viennese nobleman, he wrote the controversial 1870 novella Venus in Furs, which explored his fetish for pain and abasement, and inadvertently helped coin the term “masochism.” The Masochist, Slovenian poet Katja Perat’s... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2021-01-19 18:00:58 UTC ]
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A New Graphic Novel Shows the History of the Black Panther Party

David F. Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson’s graphic novel The Black Panther Party may be the first introduction to the revolutionary party for some. For others, it will provide additional context to the history. The graphic novel spans from the founding of the party by Huey P. Newton and Bobby... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-01-19 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Virago to publish first novel in two decades from Gayl Jones

Virago is publishing the first novel in two decades from Gayl Jones, Palmares, set in 17th-century colonial Brazil on Portuguese plantations and in the last fugitive slave settlement. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-17 23:38:33 UTC ]
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Let Us Be Negative Role Models for Each Other

For me, reading Torrey Peters’ debut novel Detransition, Baby is akin to listening to your favorite hometown band headlining their first stadium concert. You end up marveling over how experiences you thought you knew well are rendered in utterly unexpected ways, and realize how patterns from... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-01-15 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Duchess of York’s first novel to be published by Mills & Boon

Sarah Ferguson says historical tale Her Heart for a Compass is inspired by experiences in her own lifeThe Duchess of York has landed a book deal with the romantic fiction publisher Mills & Boon, revealing that she “drew on many parallels from my life” for the historical tale.Sarah... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2021-01-13 10:13:08 UTC ]
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There Are as Many Americas as There Are Pedros

“The world will come between you,” writes Marcos Gonsalez in the prologue of his memoir Pedro’s Theory: Reimagining the Promised Land. The you here refers to both the author and his father, an immigrant from Mexico, captured in a photograph from the author’s childhood. “Hundreds of years of... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-01-12 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Am I Argentine? On Identity, Tradition and Finding Ties to One’s Homeland

I consider myself Argentine. I tell people it is not only part of my origin story but my identity. My first novel is titled Hades, Argentina, and to my friends I’m sure that seems fitting, the natural summation of my life and literary ambitions so far. But the truth is I had never been to […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-12 09:48:41 UTC ]
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My Life Is a Result of the Legacy of Colonialism

I first read Nadia Owusu’s debut memoir Aftershocks in June, as the United States—led by the white nationalist backed Republican administration—was several months into a still ongoing unchecked global pandemic which was disproportionately killing Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous Americans.... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-01-11 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Abeer Hoque Is Going to Be Nice to You and You’re Going to Like It

In our series “Can Writing Be Taught?” we partner with Catapult to ask their course instructors all our burning questions about the process of teaching writing. This time we’re talking to Abeer Hoque, author of the memoir Olive Witch, who’s teaching a two-week seminar on one of the most... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-01-08 12:00:00 UTC ]
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7 Contemporary Novels About the Victorian Era

It’s a truism that historical fiction reveals more about its own age it than the one it portrays. We can’t escape or even perceive our own biases, the reasoning goes, so we end up helplessly projecting them onto a past where they don’t belong. But the past is not a museum, and contemporary... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-01-08 12:00:00 UTC ]
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A Black Salesman Tries to Bring Down Corporate Racism from the Inside

It’s no secret that the tech world has a troubling track record with diversity in the workplace, especially with the dearth of Black and Latinx employees in key roles. Author Mateo Askaripour confronts the lack of diversity within the workplace with satire in his debut novel Black Buck. Some... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-01-07 12:00:00 UTC ]
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In ‘The Liar’s Dictionary,’ People Work on the Definition of Love and Many Other Words

Eley Williams’s first novel follows characters living in London more than a century apart who toil to compile the same ill-fated dictionary. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-01-05 10:00:02 UTC ]
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Has the Parent Plot Ousted the Marriage Plot in Contemporary Fiction?

When my wife and I were expecting our first child, a friend described it as “the ultimate deadline.” Many writers I’ve known since have determined to finish their books before a baby arrives. Some do, of course, but the deadline wasn’t so ultimate in my own case. I was five years into my first... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-05 09:49:10 UTC ]
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7 (More) Literary Translators You Should Know

Translating novels, short stories, and poetry into English in a way that remains true to their original form can take years, even decades of dedication. And then there is the job of persuading the Anglophone publishing world to take chances. Translators’ labor is ultimately rewarding for readers... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-12-31 12:00:00 UTC ]
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7 Books That Prove You’re Not the Only Weirdo

Apologies, but I have to begin my introduction to this list of books by briefly mentioning my own book; shout your aggrievance about this to the heavens if you must. Writing my book, which is a hybrid of memoir and reporting about my dog, was difficult for me at times, because I’m not used to... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-12-11 12:00:43 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury lands first novel in 48 years by Wole Soyinka

Bloomsbury is to publish Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth by Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Laureate's first novel in 48 years.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-09 16:14:16 UTC ]
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