Yiyun Li on Starting a Virtual Book Club During the Pandemic

When I first meet a writer on the page, I pose a simple question: What don’t you ask permission for? In Yiyun Li’s case, the answer is her freedom. Individualism might seem inevitable for a woman who was born in China and whose early work responds to authoritarianism, but—reading Li—one senses that these are among myriad […] The post Yiyun Li on Starting a Virtual Book Club During the Pandemic appeared first on Electric Literature. Continue reading at 'Electric Literature'

[ Electric Literature | 2021-09-15 11:00:00 UTC ]

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My Name Is A Direct Line To A Colonizing Ancestry I Still Benefit From

About twenty pages into Sofia Samatar’s memoir The White Mosque, Sigmund Freud appears, sitting in a train compartment late at night. Up to this point, Samatar’s story has been primarily about her travels across Central Asia to study The Bride Sect, a Mennonite group who fled persecution in... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-02-07 12:05:00 UTC ]
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In “I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself,” a Cruel Form of Public Shaming Has Replaced Prisons

Marisa Crane’s debut novel I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself is set outside of our reality: in an America where a cruel form of public shaming has taken the place of prisons. In Exoskeletons we meet Kris, a new mother struggling to see a future for herself and her kid in the wake of her partner’s... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-02-07 12:00:00 UTC ]
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17 Small Press Books From 2022 That You Might Have Missed

It’s January and you know what that means—a reset for your TBR pile! There are so many amazing books to look forward to in 2023, but before we get too far into the new year, I think it’s worth spotlighting some of the titles you might have missed last year. And 2022 was an incredible […] The... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-01-27 12:05:00 UTC ]
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My Boyfriend Won’t Say Why He Hates His Family, but I Don’t Think They’re That Bad

Talking about punishing parents, backstabbing besties, and book club breakups with guest Hugh Ryan Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2023-01-24 20:00:00 UTC ]
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Christine Ma-Kellams Wants to Survive What Happens in Your Writing

In our monthly 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 Christine Ma-Kellams, who’s teaching an online eight-week fiction workshop. From improving narrative... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-01-20 12:00:00 UTC ]
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We Need To Talk About Professional Jealousy

“I never thought I’d be one of those people,” she said. T Kira Madden and I were sitting in the private room of a fancy strip-mall restaurant in Albany, New York, and I was eating a very expensive salad. Earlier that afternoon, we had given a reading at a local bookstore with T Kira’s... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-01-19 12:05:00 UTC ]
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Meet the Champion of Debut Authors

If you are a debut author or a literary fiction and nonfiction stan, you’ve likely heard of Debutiful. Adam Vitcavage launched the podcast and website dedicated to highlighting the work of debut authors in January 2019. It has since become a beacon in the literary community, helping over 100,000... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-01-18 12:00:00 UTC ]
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This Week's Bestsellers: January 16, 2023

Holly Black has the #6 book in the country with the YA high fantasy 'The Stolen Heir.' Plus adult romance author Talia Hibbert makes the move to YA with 'Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute,' and January book club picks hit the bestseller lists. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-01-13 05:00:00 UTC ]
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America’s Public Libraries Reflect the Systematic Failures and Social Inequality of Our Country

Growing up, the library was not just Amanda Oliver’s favorite place but also her “first beloved destination, first embodied center… it was absolutely sacred.” However, soon after Oliver began her career as a librarian at a Title I school and then in the D.C. public library system, she witnessed... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-01-05 12:00:00 UTC ]
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8 Memoirs by Women About Multicultural Identity and Belonging

I was in my twenties the first time I read a memoir set in Lahore, my father’s city, where I’d spent time during my childhood. I was living in Syracuse, New York, then, and I read Meatless Days hungrily, soaking in familiar places and people, and when I finished it, I read it again. I […] The... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-01-04 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Book club helps inmates at this Ontario women's prison connect and communicate

Book Club for Inmates, a program run in federal penitentiaries, is having a big impact on inmates at Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ont., helping them develop great discussions and open up about their own lives. Continue reading at CBC

[ CBC | 2023-01-03 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Announcing the Winner of Electric Lit’s 2022 Book Cover Tournament

Over the holidays, we asked our social media followers to vote for the best book cover of 2022 and after an especially close competition, a crowd favorite won the hearts of book lovers. From 32 beautiful cover designs, here are the semi-finalists: Valley of Want by Ross White, cover design by... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2022-12-30 12:00:00 UTC ]
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10 Science Fiction Books by Black Women Writers

This past summer, an auntie of mine dusted off an old cardboard box of books from a cluttered storage unit, and handed me a slim blue and gold paperback with soft, slightly frayed corners and a creased spine by Octavia E. Butler. I had never read science fiction that featured a Black girl being... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2022-12-28 12:00:00 UTC ]
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How This ‘Book Club’ Takes Erotica to Unexpected Locations

The so-called Perverted Book Club is hosting readings in surprising locations across New York. Look out, Sbarro. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2022-12-22 17:00:10 UTC ]
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You’re Deciding the Best Book Cover of 2022

Tis the season for some literary pageantry and Electric Literature is hosting our third annual “Best Book Cover of the Year” tournament. You, our beloved readers, will decide a winner amidst a sea of book covers that published in 2022 via an interactive poll on our Twitter and Instagram... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2022-12-20 12:00:35 UTC ]
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How Your Book Club Can Fight Against Books Bans and Censorship

Censorship attempts and book bans are at an all time high, but even a handful of people in a book club can make a difference. Here's how. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2022-12-15 11:35:00 UTC ]
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The Hardest Part of Writing My Memoir Was Telling My Family About It

You should watch Euphoria, a friend told me while we were on a walk during our young daughters’ dance class. I wasn’t sure why she would suggest this. Particularly in the context of our conversation: I was confiding in her about the anxiety that felt like it had been boiling inside of me for... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2022-12-13 12:05:00 UTC ]
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Legally bookish: Reese Witherspoon and the boom in celebrity book clubs

The star has deposed Oprah Winfrey as queen of the online literary discussion groups – and plenty more A-listers are getting in on the act. Our reporter dives under the coversEvery novel I’ve ever read as part of a book club has involved a sprint to the finish. My latest group is no different,... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2022-12-12 06:00:54 UTC ]
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If You Want to Build a Story, Become an Architect

Mary-Alice Daniel has been on a journey, literally, across continents. She documents her experiences in A Coastline Is an Immeasurable Thing, which is a memoir about places, from which she has been uprooted, assimilated into, revisited, and settled, giving the reader a close look into the lives... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2022-12-05 12:00:00 UTC ]
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How to Tell If You Grew Up in a Cult

The first chapter of Daniella Mestyanek Young’s memoir Uncultured opens with a screech: It is 1993 and Mestyanek Young—then 5 years old—is inside a commune in Brazil, standing at the back of a line of children waiting to be paddled. As she explains, it’s a normal day in the Children of God, the... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2022-11-25 12:00:00 UTC ]
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