The novelist on his new collection of journalism, why he regrets criticising Sally Rooney and how he’s never shaken off the influence of JG Ballard“I’ll see your eidolon next Tuesday,” writes Will Self, 61, when I email to arrange a video call to discuss his new collection of journalism, Why Read: Selected Writings 2001-2021, which is centred on the concern (as he later told me, or my on-screen spirit-image) that “people are dumbing down their entire response to their own culture by their unfettered use of social media”. Self’s 26 previous books include Umbrella, shortlisted for the Booker prize in 2012, and its sequels Shark and Phone, the latter a single 624-page paragraph which the Telegraph called an “epic anti-tweet”. Speaking from his home in south London, he said he liked the description “because the book was a deliberate attempt to call people’s attention to what was being lost by the digital. I don’t think the Umbrella trilogy is that hard to read at all; it’s only hard to read in contrast to a tweet. By Donald Trump!”How did you pick the pieces in Why Read?Until fairly recently, certainly since 2001, I probably wrote an average of 150,000 words of journalism every year, so there’s a vast amount to choose from. My New York editor said that in the age of the web, collections like this need a theme or else readers feel they’re just getting a grab bag they could’ve sourced themselves. So the emphasis fell on the impact on reading and writing of what I choose to call... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2022-11-26 18:00:32 UTC ]
News tagged with:
#south london
#deliberate attempt
#readers feel
#grab bag
#observer order
#delivery charges
#books include
Trump’s intellectuals want to graft coherence and ideology onto an incoherent leader. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2019-03-15 10:00:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#white house
From nine languages on three continents, the Man Booker International Prize will again split the winners' award between author and translator. The post At London Book Fair: The Man Booker International Prize Longlist appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2019-03-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#london book fair
Judges praise the 13 finalists – all but two published by indie houses – for ‘enriching our idea of what fiction can do’The “finest works of translation from around the world” are almost exclusively published by independent presses – at least according to the Man Booker International prize,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-03-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#chinese author
#stories set
#independent presses
Black & White has acquired a “mesmerising and compelling” new novel by Juliet Conlin in a two-book deal. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#black white
Orion Fiction has bagged the author Frances Quinn's debut novel at auction, telling the story of England’s smallest man. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#orion fiction
W.E.B. Griffin, the prolific author of nearly 250 books, nearly 160 of which were military fiction, died on February 12, his publisher, Putnam, confirmed. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-02-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#prolific author
The work and influences of Charles White, new video art from Africa, a performance festival at the Mak Center and lots and lots of art fairs. Here are nine exhibitions and events to check out in the coming week: “Charles White: A Retrospective,” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Over the... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-02-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#coming week
Black & White Publishing will publish its first fantasy novel, Crown of Feathers, by Canadian author Nicki Pau Preto under its Ink Road imprint. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-02-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
The exposure of a novelist’s ‘dissembling’ could spell trouble for unreliable narrators everywhereThere’s a new work that has the publishing world gripped, with editors in London and New York confessing themselves hooked. It races along like a thriller, with several dizzying twists and turns and... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-02-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#monster hit
#report makes
#magazine calls
FX announced a series order for the new drama “Y” — a television adaptation of the graphic novel “Y: The Last Man” — at the Television Critics Assn. presentation in Pasadena on Monday. Written by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra, “Y: The Last Man” is set in a post-apocalyptic world where all men... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-02-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#series order
#television adaptation
#post-apocalyptic world
Bonnier Books UK has hired Kate Manning to the newly created role of group director of sales, marketing and publicity of children’s trade. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-01-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#group director
The Man Group is ending its sponsorship of the UK's most prestigious literary prize, the Man Booker Prize, and complaints and criticism are now following. The post Man and the Prize: Reactions to the Booker Losing a Sponsor appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2019-01-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#man group
Hedge fund’s departure as £1.6m backer of the UK’s leading fiction award has prompted feverish speculation about the prize’s futurePrevious Man Booker prize winners are among those keenly awaiting the announcement of the new sponsor of the prestigious literary award, after the prize’s sponsor of... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#hedge fund
#man group
The Booker Prize Foundation said yesterday that it was "confident" of finding a new sponsor following the decision of the hedge fund company the Man Group to end its association with the Booker Prize and the Booker International Prize. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#man group
#booker prize
Man Group, which has sponsored the Booker Prize since 2002 - as well as sponsoring its International Prize from its beginning in 2005 - is to end its association with the prizes at the end of 2019. The Booker Prize Foundation said its trustees were "in discussion with a new sponsor and are... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#man group
Hedge fund firm says it plans to focus its resources instead on its diversity campaignThe Man Booker prize is searching for a new sponsor after the hedge fund company Man Group announced it was ending its 18-year relationship with Britain’s most prestigious literary award.The Booker Prize... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-01-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Black & White Publishing will publish The Secret Life of Tartan: How a Cloth Shaped a Nation this autumn, by fashion designer Victoria ‘Vixy’ Rae. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-01-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#secret life
Educational Development Corp. posted sales of $32.5 million in fiscal 2015, with earnings of under $1 million. By fiscal 2018, revenue had soared to $112 million and profits topped $5 million, but Randall White acknowledges that EDC had lots of challenges in dealing with the explosive growth. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-12-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#$1 million
#pw notables
#explosive growth
“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” is unlike any “Spider-Man” movie that has come before it. Sure, it’s the first that centers on the story of Miles Morales, a black-Latino teen whose ascendance as New York’s newest friendly neighborhood hero updates a theme that has long been associated with ... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-12-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#comic book
The 2019 Man Booker Prize for Fiction judges have been announced, with book trade heavyweights Peter Florence and Liz Calder on the panel. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-12-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#liz calder
#fiction judges