Zadie Smith on Male Critics, Appropriation, and What Interests Her Novelistically About Trump

In an interview in 2000, Zadie Smith told the Guardian about the pressure she felt after the astonishing success of her debut novel, White Teeth. “I was expected to be some expert on multicultural affairs, as if multiculturalism is a genre of fiction or something,” she said. “Whereas it’s just a fact of life—like there are people of different races on the planet.” Whether it’s indeed a fact of life or, we now fear, a feature of American life that is at risk of erasure, multiculturalism in all its complexity is at the center of Smith’s books. From White Teeth to NW, which was published in 2012, Smith’s characters inhabit mixed urban communities, often in London. Her latest novel, Swing Time, is out this week; set in England and West Africa, the story concerns the friendship of two young girls who meet in a dance class (“our shade of brown was exactly the same”) and traces the paths of their lives over a quarter-century. Continue reading at 'Slate'

[ Slate | 2016-11-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #american life #white teeth #swing time #west africa #young girls

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National Book Critics Circle Awards Shortlist Includes Just One Translation

Add to the growing list of prize shortlists the latest from the NBCC, which includes just a single translation: Lauren Binet's HHhH, translated by Sam Taylor. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-01-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Unique double for British novelist

British writer and two-time Booker Prize winner Hilary Mantel has been named novelist of the year at Britain’s Costa Book Awards for ‘Bring Up the Bodies’. Continue reading at Stuff

[ Stuff | 2013-01-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A book critic's literary tour of Manhattan

New York Times critic Dwight Garner stopped at book-centered destinations throughout the Big Apple. 'I was smitten all over again,' Garner wrote after his excursion. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-12-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pizza Hut and W H Smith bite into book club

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[ The Bookseller | 2012-12-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Wilbur Smith moves to HarperCollins

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[ The Bookseller | 2012-12-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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W H Smith 'to expand to Russia'

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[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'Try W H Smith, not Amazon', says Mirror

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[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Britney Spears as... a novelist?

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[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-11-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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News Corp. Unit Interested in Penguin Group

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[ AllThingsD | 2012-10-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Interest Builds in 'The White House Boys'

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-10-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hearst appoints Discovery Network's Turnbull as replacement for Macleod Smith

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[ Media Week | 2012-10-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hachette Livre 'interested in acquisitions'

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[ The Bookseller | 2012-10-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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W H Smith profits expected to top £100m

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[ The Bookseller | 2012-10-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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W H Smith reports high street book sales increase

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[ The Bookseller | 2012-08-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Feds to E-Book Settlement Critics: Haters Gonna Hate

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[ AllThingsD | 2012-07-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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W H Smith unveils new travel fascia

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[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Novelist Russo boycotts ebooks

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Russo says his new work is a "tribute to the printed book" and will not be sold online. Continue reading at BBC News

[ BBC News | 2012-06-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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