The Guardian
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Learning to Write, One Sentence at a Time
At the Guardian, Angela Chen profiles poet Robin Coste Lewis, who was only permitted to write one sentence a day after sustaining severe brain damage: “I would sit there for eight hours a day thinking of one line and it became…
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Nowhere to Hide
At the Guardian, Lisa McInerney explains how writing short fiction helped her to develop the skills to write a novel: Short fiction leaves its author nowhere to hide. I cannot disappear into a character or some grand conspiracy, as I can…
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Books May Be Getting Longer
Books are steadily increasing in size, according to a survey that has found the average number of pages has grown by 25% over the last 15 years. According to the Guardian, “the average length has increased from 320 pages in…
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Letter From Woolf Costs A Pretty Penny
For the Guardian, Alison Flood reports that a letter from Virginia Woolf to her friend Philip Morrel will go to auction with a guide price of £1,000-£1,500. The letter tells of Woolf’s experience during the Battle of Britain and urges her friend…
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Fact, Fiction, Other
Geoff Dyer, author of numerous nonfiction titles, discusses the increasingly blurry border between fiction and nonfiction—and more importantly, whether that distinction matters—at the Guardian: As the did-it-really-happen? issue gives way to questions of style and form, so we are brought back to…
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Writers Versus Censorship and Repression
For the Guardian, Sian Cain reports on recent efforts from high-profile writers to push China to release Nobel Laureate and poet Liu Xiaobo from prison. According to Cain, Xiaobo was detained for “inciting subversion of state power,” and his supporters, including Margaret Atwood…
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E-books Threaten Warehouse Jobs
The rise of e-books are threatening jobs in publishing once again—this time, it’s the warehouse workers that once distributed physical books. Penguin Random House is laying off warehouse workers, since electronic books are delivered wirelessly and never need to be…
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You’re Such a Gollum
A man is facing two years in prison after comparing Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to the Lord of the Rings character, Gollum. However, the judge in the case isn’t sure that the comparison is really an insult: The judge adjourned…
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Women Don’t Read Real Books
Call it “Goldfinching,” after Vanity Fair’s 2014 yes-but-is-it-art interrogation as to whether Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer prize-winning, mega-bestselling book The Goldfinch is or is not literature. It’s the process by which a popular and previously well-regarded novel and, more importantly, its…
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On Pandering—to White Women
For the Guardian, Sian Cain investigates Marlon James’s recent series of criticisms that accuse publishers of “pandering to white women.” James, the 2015 Man Booker prize winner, has been particularly vocal about the subject on social media. In a recent Facebook post,…
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Literature Is a Luxury Brand
They have a swish sounding publisher. They write for the New Yorker or the Guardian. They’re overwhelmingly likely to have attended an elite university such as Oxford or Stamford. They have an MFA. It’s all indicative of one clear message:…
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TMI, Sylvia
Better to say “I’m bad” and hope the reader responds “No, not bad, just human.” For the Guardian, Blake Morrison explores the reasons writers are so attracted to the confession, whether it be narcissism or catharsis.