Category: words

Louise Glück Felt ‘Panic’ At Receiving Nobel Literature Prize

“‘Mostly I am concerned for the preservation of daily life with people I love,’ she told the prize organisers on 8 October, when asked how she felt about winning. ‘It’s disruptive. [The phone] is ringing all the time. It’s ringing now.’ Speaking to the press outside her house that same day, she said she felt ‘agitation and joy’ before getting in a waiting car.” – The Guardian

The Not-So-Hidden Literary Heritage Of Harriet The Spy

An ode to Dorothy Sayers’ Harriet Vane? You bet. But also, “Harriet is a writer devoted to routine. She loves her tomato sandwiches, her egg creams, and her spy route and notebook both because they give her a lot of pleasure and because they ground her. Like a working artist, she doesn’t want to think about the mundane details. That’s what a parent—and later, a partner—is for: somebody who can deal with practical things so an artist doesn’t have to. When Harriet’s routines are disrupted, all hell breaks loose. A thousand more writers would call that realistic.” – LitHub

Roald Dahl’s Family Apologizes For The Author’s Antisemitism

The author’s antisemitism was well known and public, including in a 1983 interview in which he claimed “There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity. … Even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason.” The apology statement is buried, but present, on the author’s site, but “no mention is made of Dahl’s antisemitic views in the author’s official biography on the site. The family’s apology was not sent to Jewish organisations.” – The Guardian (UK)

It’s Hard To Write About America

Not that you would know it from the number of books out there – but capturing the country isn’t easy. “Gross simplification comes along with trying to describe America. I’m convinced that trying to do this is like pouring Lake Michigan into a shot glass. It just can’t be done.” And yet. – LitHub

Not To Be Hyperbolic, But Writers Save Lives

Just ask author Alex Wheatle, the (fictionalized) subject of one of Steve McQueen’s new Small Axe series of films. Wheatle served time in prison after the Brixton riots of 1981. A cellmate told him to read Black British history and books by Black authors. “Wheatle, now an author with 15 books to his credit, says the fiction novels which gripped him most in jail were those of Chester Himes.” – BBC

Will Publishing’s Latest Merger Kill Off Small Presses?

Literary diversity is in jeopardy with the proposed Penguin Random House/ Simon & Schuster merger, or so small publishers claim (with numbers to back them up). “This lack of competition doesn’t inflate consumer prices; it decreases labor costs. In other words, it disadvantages writers. Nowadays, the Big Four might not even make an offer for those big literary debuts. These are not guaranteed hits, after all.” – Los Angeles Times

Can Fiction, Even If It’s Thinly Disguised Reality, Be Considered An Invasion Of Privacy?

Emmanual Carrère is a lauded French author. His latest book, Yoga, “was initially tipped as a contender for the country’s top literary prize, the Goncourt. Then came questions about gaps in the mostly autobiographical narrative, and the revelation by Carrère’s ex-wife, the freelance journalist Hélène Devynck, that Carrère is legally barred from writing about her without her consent — an agreement she alleges he broke in Yoga.” – The New York Times