Karen Stevens's collection of essays offers practical advice and inspiration for those embarking on the long, lonely journey of writing a novelAccording to Karen Stevens, "writing a novel is the longest and loneliest journey a writer can embark upon". Her collection of essays by established and new writers splits that journey into four stages: inspiration, research, voice and form. There is also practical advice from a literary agent and an editor who notes honestly that "chance does play a part" in getting published. Lionel Shriver is equally frank about what comes after the acceptance of your first novel: "struggle and disappointment". Although Hanif Kureishi candidly admits, in an excellent piece from 2002, that "most writers do not entirely understand what they are doing", these essays are both perceptive and inspiring. Alison MacLeod writes beautifully on the voice of a novel: "It is the unknown quantity every novel needs." Kishwar Desai admits to being driven by "the demons of insecurity" to over-research, and Jane Feaver, writing about form, advises authors to develop "an alertness to the collective materiality of words". But all agree with Wena Poon: the process of writing a novel is a "strange and wondrous journey".PublishingPaperbacksEssaysPD Smiththeguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2014-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
Stephen Carver, Guinevere Glasfurd, Brian Needham and Jo McMillan respond to Joanne Harris’s article about horribly low pay in the publishing worldRegarding Joanne Harris’s article (Horribly low pay is pushing out my fellow authors – and yes, that really does matter, 7 December), I guess I’m a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-12-11 17:07:25 UTC ]
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Yes, using reviews drawn from more than 150 publications, over the next two weeks we’ll be calculating and revealing the most critically-acclaimed books of 2022, in the categories of (deep breath): Fiction; Nonfiction; Memoir and Biography; Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror; Short Story Collections;... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-12-09 09:52:42 UTC ]
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I’m a daily runner. When I run varies, depending on the day’s contours, but I always lace up and head out. Earbuds in, audiobook on, running app ready to track my slow miles along semi-rural roads. Often, I don’t want to go. No matter how much I practice, I find running difficult. When I was […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-12-08 09:53:23 UTC ]
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As a cultivated writing praxis, creative nonfiction allows for a broader panorama of experience than a genre restricted to the empirical. It is one which permits dreams to presage and queer bodies to serve as repositories of memory. With the best of intentions, I believe Waiting in the Wings, my... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-12-07 09:51:50 UTC ]
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Jane Smiley is a master of plot, with multiple awards for her novels, including the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle award for A Thousand Acres (King Lear as set on an Iowa farm circa 1979). She’s also distilled her years of teaching and cultural criticism into a superb writing... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-12-06 09:53:58 UTC ]
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Finally, a Kindle you can write on! This week, we dive into Cherlynn’s review of the Kindle Scribe, Amazon’s first e-reader that can also capture handwritten notes. The hardware is great, but as usual, Amazon’s software feels half-baked. Also, Devindra and Cherlynn discuss the rise of new... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2022-12-02 13:30:56 UTC ]
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When I turned 10, I was finally allowed to own a pen. At school, that was when we moved from pencils to ink, and our parents were told to get us all-new stationery. That was also the year we learned to write in cursive, because we were finally big kids and cursive writing meant we could… sign... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2022-11-30 14:00:19 UTC ]
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Book review podcasts are an engaging way to discover new books. Check out these podcasts across different genres, including All The Books! Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-11-30 11:32:00 UTC ]
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Challenging myths about heterosexual white South African men, Prinsloo published four books of short stories in 12 years. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2022-11-28 05:37:53 UTC ]
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The Miami Book Fair began as a two-day event in November 1984, when a small group of determined individuals—including educators from Miami Dade College, independent booksellers, and librarians—founded Miami Book Fair International. In the nearly 40 years since, Miami Book Fair has grown into one... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-11-22 09:51:48 UTC ]
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Our Children’s Starred Reviews Annual features nearly 400 reviews of exceptional books for young readers, a selection of interviews with some of today’s top authors and illustrators, our 50 Best Books of 2022, and a cover by Felicita Sala. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-11-21 05:00:00 UTC ]
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If you’re a literary genius, you’ve got it easy—right? Wrong. Even Jane Austen, indisputably one of the greatest novelists in the English language, spent years struggling to be published and became so dispirited that there were moments when she almost walked away. The story begins with an... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-11-18 09:54:04 UTC ]
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My clearest memory of my freshman year of college takes place in the emergency room of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, where I was studying English Literature at Boston University and living on the eighteenth floor of Warren Towers, in Tower C, in a room with southern exposure. Despite... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-11-17 09:53:52 UTC ]
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The new literary magazine is distributed in Europe via Antenne Books in print and online. Founding editor Benoît Loiseau shares how independent literature forms forge new inroads into publishing for minority authors and readers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-11-15 05:00:00 UTC ]
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A new anthology collects some of the writings, interviews and speeches of the comic and civil rights activist. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-11-14 20:11:45 UTC ]
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“I’d never read anything like it,” says the actor and director, whose memoir “All About Me!” is newly out in paperback. “It was hysterically funny and incredibly moving at the same time. It’s like Gogol stuck a pen in his heart, and it didn’t even go through his mind on its way to the page.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-11-10 10:00:12 UTC ]
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The new literary magazine is distributed in Europe via Antenne Books in print and online. Founding editor Benoît Loiseau shares how independent literature forms forge new inroads into publishing for minority authors and readers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-11-10 05:00:00 UTC ]
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For some frustrating reason, I’ve lost a lot of specific memories from my time as a young father; that period is now like a home from my past that I yearn to visit, but is always out of reach. And yet I can vividly recall the night I first read Crockett Johnson’s celebrated children’s book […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-11-08 09:53:17 UTC ]
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BookLooks, RatedBooks, and more biased online rating systems getting books banned. That, plus this week's book censorship news. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-11-04 10:40:00 UTC ]
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A play based on the writer’s memoir about the death of her husband, in its first New York revival, goes small to powerful effect. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-11-02 23:00:05 UTC ]
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