New, provocative literature
Operating as usual
Quarterfinalists for the BookLife nonfiction prize.
https://booklife.com/news/authors/03/14/2022/forty-four-books-advance-to-the-booklife-prize-quarterfinals.html
Tips, news, information and resources for indie and self-published authors.
To understand the struggles of bookstores, you don't have to look at numbers. Here, Nicola DeRobertis-Theye tells of a great store on a main street, across from a ginormous university, in a town of intellectuals, but "most undergraduates had never heard of us," and even other bookstores in town didn't recognize the name.
https://lithub.com/coming-of-age-in-a-struggling-berkeley-bookstore/
The bookstore where I worked for four years was named University Press Books. Its name appeared on a large sign above the door, but perhaps slightly too far above, because only about half of the pe…
![More publishing gossip!"[I]t’s certainly true that publishing has long demanded too much for too little..."https://gwend...](https://img5.medioq.com/440/542/10160034244405428.jpg)
More publishing gossip!
"[I]t’s certainly true that publishing has long demanded too much for too little..."
https://gwendabond.substack.com/p/not-all-cinderella-stories-have-happy?s=r
Our fairy godmothers need a union and more support, or, editorial burnout
Publishing gossip!
https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2022/03/inside-the-succession-drama-at-scholastic
When the CEO of Scholastic died suddenly last year, he left control of the family empire to a former colleague—his ex-girlfriend. Now there may be a showdown brewing over billions of dollars in kids’ fare.
A celebrity ghostwriter reveals what she learned from her clients.
https://www.thecut.com/2022/03/lessons-in-success-from-a-celebrity-ghostwriter.html
After years of crafting others’ success stories, one celebrity ghostwriter is ready to tell her own — by following their formula.
The English pub in literature.
https://thebaffler.com/outbursts/the-dregs-burns
The pub has long been a favored site and subject for English literature—a staging ground for transgression, where the norms of behavior break down.
More about authors on Substack.
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a39369153/novelists-on-substack-trend/
But the success of their migration depends on whether—or not—the social Internet can function like a writing workshop.
“Women’s voices are not being heard. Women are more than half our culture. If half the adults in our culture have no voice, half the world’s experience is not being attended to, learned from, or built upon..."
https://lithub.com/why-are-so-many-men-still-resistant-to-reading-women/
All of us—to a greater or lesser extent, and often without realizing it—tend to expect less of women, listen to them less attentively and feel uncomfortable with them in positions of authority. Bu…
Our local savant Kathryn Craft on bringing secondary characters to life.
https://writerunboxed.com/2022/03/10/secondary-characters-deserve-a-life-of-their-own/
People who change are a menace to the stability of their relationships. In real life, even the positive change we might desire for our loved ones can be fraught, if we aren’t up for accommod…
"Children in every demographic group have been affected, but Black and Hispanic children, as well as those from low-income families, those with disabilities and those who are not fluent in English, have fallen the furthest behind." Terrible, and not surprising.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/08/us/pandemic-schools-reading-crisis.html
The fallout from the pandemic is just being felt. “We’re in new territory,” educators say.
What the Incas used in place of written language.
https://lithub.com/how-the-inca-used-knots-to-tell-stories/
The Inca are most often remembered not for what they had but for what they didn’t have: the wheel, iron, a written language. This third lack has given rise to a paradox, the Inca paradox. Could it …
B&N keeps growing.
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/88694-barnes-noble-s-solid-2021.html
After seeing growth last year, B&N CEO James Daunt says the trajectory has changed for America's largest bricks-and-mortar bookseller.
Using AI to read ancient texts. (But can it read my handwriting?)
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/mar/09/ai-could-decipher-gaps-in-ancient-greek-texts-say-researchers
From imperial decrees to Sappho’s poems, Ithaca system can find word patterns and suggest age of text
Women's Prize for Fiction longlist
https://womensprizeforfiction.co.uk/features/features/news/announcing-the-womens-prize-2022-longlist
We are thrilled to reveal this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist. The 2022 longlist comprises of sixteen incredible books,...
Writers on Substack: "Notably, when Substack launched a media campaign for its literary programming in late 2021, they didn’t have a single high-profile female novelist to their name; today, that still remains true."
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a39369153/novelists-on-substack-trend/
But the success of their migration depends on whether—or not—the social Internet can function like a writing workshop.
On the legacy of Shirley Hughes.
(The author gets extra credit for writing "homed in" rather than "honed in.")
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/mar/05/shirley-hughes-explored-the-dramas-of-childrens-lives-in-a-changing-world-michael-rosen
The author and illustrator behind the Alfie and Dogger series thrilled parents and grandparents as well as the young, writes former children’s laureate Michael Rosen
On what you need to write a memoir (not necessarily great hindsight).
https://www.bookforum.com/culture/an-excerpt-from-body-work-on-memoir-love-and-writing-to-find-a-new-narrative-24858
An excerpt from Body Work on memoir, love, and writing to find a new narrative – Melissa Febos
"Treat writing like a date."
https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/how-to-love-writing-a-book
When you’re in the weeds of the writing process, it’s easy to lose sight of why you started in the first place. Here, author Radhika Sanghani shares her tips on how to love the process of writing your book.
More thoughts on novel structure.
https://lithub.com/having-trouble-with-novel-structure-look-at-it-like-a-mixtape/
The following first appeared in Lit Hub’s The Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. * In the spring of 2019, I found myself tangled up in a writing riddle that on the surface seemed easy to sol…
Let's also arrest parents for providing harmful food to kids! And school cafeteria workers! After all, poison the body, poison the brain, right?
https://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/politics-government/2022-03-07/house-gop-backs-criminal-charges-for-librarians-lending-harmful-books-to-kids
House Republicans overwhelmingly approved of criminally charging librarians who knowingly expose minors to “harmful materials.”
On the need for sensitivity readers.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/08/stop-moaning-sensitivity-readers-diversity-publishing
Since 2011, all my book editors have been white. Why wouldn’t I want another perspective on the characters I invent, asks author and screenwriter Juno Dawson
According to Matt Bell, the best advice for starting to write a book is the same as what hitting coaches tell baseball players. (Wait, does anyone remember baseball?)
https://lithub.com/dont-overthink-it-the-argument-for-just-starting-to-write/
You are writing a novel. You are writing a book. You might be reading this with a blank page in front of you, or with a partial draft already under way. In either case, you might find it helpful to…
"Video games are influenced by more traditional forms of storytelling, but also influence storytelling back. And tracing their history uncovers some unusual ways that video games have played with conventional ideas of fiction."
https://daily.jstor.org/are-video-games-like-novels/
Video games as interactive storytelling? Maybe not at first glance, but as Eric Hayot explains, the interplay between game and narrative is real.
"To write about artistic mystery is as mysterious as the art itself": Elizabeth Strout in conversation with #elenaferrante.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/mar/05/i-felt-different-as-a-child-i-was-nearly-mute-elena-ferrante-in-conversation-with-elizabeth-strout
The author of the Neapolitan quartet and the Pulitzer prize-winning novelist discuss identity, ambition, truth – and the ‘convulsive’ urge to write
A biography of Milton that emphasizes the darkness and the difficulty: "the real question isn’t just ‘was it normal?’ but ‘what does it mean for something like that to be normal?’"
https://chireviewofbooks.com/2021/12/14/making-darkness-light/
Oxford Professor of English Literature Joe Moshenska has done something arguably long overdue in Milton studies. Approaching the Olympian of English letters from a mix of new historical and reader-…
On the complexities of demonic possession and exorcism -- not as buried in the past as we might prefer to think.
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v44/n05/james-butler/thou-old-serpent
Almost no first-hand accounts of the experience of possession exist. The actions and utterances of possessed women –...
"It looks like the entire curriculum is developed to normalize sexuality, normalize nudity and normalize vulgar language..." Sexuality IS normal, but can we find the smallest grain of understanding for this point of view?
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/04/us/maus-banned-books-tennessee.html
State lawmakers, led by the governor, are rethinking what public school students should read and learn.
The hero's journey as story structure.
https://writerunboxed.com/2022/03/05/good-storytelling-and-the-heros-journey/
So my video today is different than previous videos. For one, it is FORTY MINUTES [email protected]#[email protected]#!! But also, it’s not something that all of y’all will necessarily want to ride along with …
Research with interesting, and maybe disturbing, implications.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/mar/02/podcasts-headphones-perceived-intimacy-host-increased
Experiments found a voice coming from ‘inside our heads’ can be twice as persuasive as one coming from a speaker
From the Olympics to the Marines to audiobooks - an American story?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/duvall-hecht-who-popularized-audiobooks-as-founder-of-books-on-tape-dies-at-91/ar-AAUuCy9
An enterprising entrepreneur, he spun the tedium of his daily commute into a cottage industry that gave bibliophiles a novel way of experiencing literature.
"I can say with certainty that history textbooks are basically designed to alienate students. Instead of enlightening them" - a sentiment that agrees with everyone's personal experience.
https://www.mic.com/impact/history-class-textbooks-1619-project
Writer Noah Berlatsky argues that for students to actually learn history, we have to show them more meaningful sources.
Next time someone calls you a birdbrain, retort that it's better than being an apebrain. Birds have real language, with grammar!
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/do-birds-have-language-180979629/
In the cheeps, trills and tweets of birdsong, scientists find some parallels with human speech
For writers who are feeling a bit unbalanced lately (don't we all?):
https://selfpublishingformula.com/episode-320/
Following a near-death experience, Michael La Ronn juggles writing with family life and a full-time job.
Can elegant stories also be "hair-raising"? Reflections from Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB) on an #edithwharton reissue.
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-ghosts-of-patriarchy/
Edith Wharton’s ghost stories show that there is nothing scarier than life (and death) under patriarchy....
Can't argue with the headline.
https://newrepublic.com/article/165601/good-riddance-amazon-terrible-bookstores
Amazon is as dominant as ever—and its retail ambitions aren’t going anywhere. But booksellers can toast the end of its disastrous foray into their turf.
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