Download or read book Literary Festivals and Contemporary Book Culture written by Millicent Weber and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-04-09 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There has been a proliferation of literary festivals in recent decades, with more than 450 held annually in the UK and Australia alone. These festivals operate as tastemakers shaping cultural consumption; as educational and policy projects; as instantiations, representations, and celebrations of literary communities; and as cultural products in their own right. As such they strongly influence how literary culture is produced, circulates and is experienced by readers in the twenty-first century. This book explores how audiences engage with literary festivals, and analyses these festivals’ relationship to local and digital literary communities, to the creative industries focus of contemporary cultural policy, and to the broader literary field. The relationship between literary festivals and these configuring forces is illustrated with in-depth case studies of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the Port Eliot Festival, the Melbourne Writers Festival, the Emerging Writers’ Festival, and the Clunes Booktown Festival. Building on interviews with audiences and staff, contextualised by a large-scale online survey of literary festival audiences from around the world, this book investigates these festivals’ social, cultural, commercial, and political operation. In doing so, this book critically orients scholarly investigation of literary festivals with respect to the complex and contested terrain of contemporary book culture.

Download or read book A Particular Kind of Black Man written by Tope Folarin and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2019-08-06 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An NPR Best Book of 2019 A New York Times, Washington Post, Telegraph, and BBC’s most anticipated book of August 2019 One of Time’s 32 Books You Need to Read This Summer A stunning debut novel, from Rhodes Scholar and winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing, Tope Folarin about a Nigerian family living in Utah and their uncomfortable assimilation to American life. Living in small-town Utah has always been an uneasy fit for Tunde Akinola’s family, especially for his Nigeria-born parents. Though Tunde speaks English with a Midwestern accent, he can’t escape the children who rub his skin and ask why the black won’t come off. As he struggles to fit in and find his place in the world, he finds little solace from his parents who are grappling with their own issues. Tunde’s father, ever the optimist, works tirelessly chasing his American dream while his wife, lonely in Utah without family and friends, sinks deeper into schizophrenia. Then one otherwise-ordinary morning, Tunde’s mother wakes him with a hug, bundles him and his baby brother into the car, and takes them away from the only home they’ve ever known. But running away doesn’t bring her, or her children, any relief from the demons that plague her; once Tunde’s father tracks them down, she flees to Nigeria, and Tunde never feels at home again. He spends the rest of his childhood and young adulthood searching for connection—to the wary stepmother and stepbrothers he gains when his father remarries; to the Utah residents who mock his father’s accent; to evangelical religion; to his Texas middle school’s crowd of African-Americans; to the fraternity brothers of his historically black college. In so doing, he discovers something that sends him on a journey away from everything he has known. Sweeping, stirring, and perspective-shifting, A Particular Kind of Black Man is a beautiful and poignant exploration of the meaning of memory, manhood, home, and identity as seen through the eyes of a first-generation Nigerian-American.

Download or read book Death of a Ladies Man written by Alan Bissett and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By day, Charlie Bain is the school's most inspiring teacher. By night he prowls the stylish bars of Glasgow seducing women. Fuelled by art, drugs and fantasies of being an indie star, Charlie journeys further into hedonism, unable to see the destruction his desires are leading everyone towards.

Download or read book The Anti Racist Writing Workshop written by Felicia Rose Chavez and published by Haymarket Books. This book was released on 2021-01-05 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Antiracist Writing Workshop is a call to create healthy, sustainable, and empowering artistic communities for a new millennium of writers. Inspired by June Jordan 's 1995 Poetry for the People, here is a blueprint for a 21st-century workshop model that protects and platforms writers of color. Instead of earmarking dusty anthologies, imagine workshop participants Skyping with contemporary writers of difference. Instead of tolerating bigoted criticism, imagine workshop participants moderating their own feedback sessions. Instead of yielding to the red-penned judgement of instructors, imagine workshop participants citing their own text in dialogue. The Antiracist Writing Workshop is essential reading for anyone looking to revolutionize the old workshop model into an enlightened, democratic counterculture.

Download or read book I Shot the Devil written by Ruth McIver and published by Blackstone Publishing. This book was released on 2024-07-09 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FIVE WENT INTO THE WOODS. TWO NEVER CAME BACK. Erin Sloane was sixteen when high school senior Andre Villiers was murdered by his friends. They were her friends, too, led by the intense, charismatic Ricky Hell. Five people went into West Cypress Woods the night Andre was murdered. Only three came out. Ativan, alcohol, and distance had dimmed Erin’s memories of that time. But nearly twenty years later, an aging father will bring her home. Now a journalist, she is asked to write a story about the Southport Three and the thrill-kill murder that electrified the country. Erin’s investigation propels her closer and closer to a terrifying truth. And closer and closer to danger. An unforgettable story of murder, trauma, and childhoods lost, I Shot the Devil is a taut, prize-winning debut novel from an electrifying new talent.

Download or read book The Tenth Muse written by Catherine Chung and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2019-06-18 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A RECOMMENDED BOOK FROM: Los Angeles Times * USA Today * O, the Oprah Magazine * Buzzfeed * The Rumpus * Entertainment Weekly * Elle * BBC * Christian Science Monitor * Electric Literature * The Millions * LitHub * Publishers Weekly * Kirkus * Refinery29 * Thrillist * BookBub * Nylon * Bustle * Goodreads An exhilarating, moving novel about a trailblazing mathematician whose research unearths her own extraordinary family story and its roots in World War II From the days of her childhood in the 1950s Midwest, Katherine knows she is different, and that her parents are not who they seem. As she matures from a girl of rare intelligence into an exceptional mathematician, traveling to Europe to further her studies, she must face the most human of problems—who is she? What is the cost of love, and what is the cost of ambition? These questions grow ever more entangled as Katherine strives to take her place in the world of higher mathematics and becomes involved with a brilliant and charismatic professor. When she embarks on a quest to conquer the Riemann hypothesis, the greatest unsolved mathematical problem of her time, she turns to a theorem with a mysterious history that may hold both the lock and the key to her identity, and to secrets long buried during World War II. Forced to confront some of the most consequential events of the twentieth century and rethink everything she knows of herself, she finds kinship in the stories of the women who came before her, and discovers how seemingly distant stories, lives, and ideas are inextricably linked to her own. The Tenth Muse is a gorgeous, sweeping tale about legacy, identity, and the beautiful ways the mind can make us free.

Download or read book Cherry Beach written by Laura McPhee-Browne and published by Text Publishing. This book was released on 2020-02-04 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A hypnotic and absorbing debut novel from an extraordinary new talent—a must-read for fans of Sally Rooney, Jennifer Down, Siri Hustvedt and André Aciman (Call Me By Your Name)

Download or read book Ministry of Moral Panic written by Amanda Lee Koe and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Best Debut Short Stories 2021 written by and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2021-08-24 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The annual—and essential—collection of the newest voices in short fiction, selected this year by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Kali Fajardo-Anstine, and Beth Piatote. Who are the most promising short story writers working today? Where do we look to discover the future stars of literary fiction? This book will offer a dozen answers to these questions. The stories collected here represent the most recent winners of the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers, which recognizes twelve writers who have made outstanding debuts in literary magazines in the previous year. They are chosen by a panel of distinguished judges, themselves innovators of the short story form: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Kali Fajardo-Anstine, and Beth Piatote. Each piece comes with an introduction by its original editors, whose commentaries provide valuable insight into what magazines are looking for in their submissions, and showcase the vital work they do to nurture literature's newest voices.

Download or read book Feeling Sorry for Celia written by Jaclyn Moriarty and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2014-06-17 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A #1 Bestseller in Australia and Book Sense 76 Pick Life is pretty complicated for Elizabeth Clarry. Her best friend Celia keeps disappearing, her absent father suddenly reappears, and her communication with her mother consists entirely of wacky notes left on the fridge. On top of everything else, because her English teacher wants to rekindle the "Joy of the Envelope," a Complete and Utter Stranger knows more about Elizabeth than anyone else. But Elizabeth is on the verge of some major changes. She may lose her best friend, find a wonderful new friend, kiss the sexiest guy alive, and run in a marathon. So much can happen in the time it takes to write a letter... A #1 bestseller in Australia, this fabulous debut is a funny, touching, revealing story written entirely in the form of letters, messages, postcards—and bizarre missives from imaginary organizations like The Cold Hard Truth Association. Feeling Sorry for Celia captures, with rare acuity, female friendship and the bonding and parting that occurs as we grow. Jaclyn Moriarty's hilariously candid novel shows that the roller coaster ride of being a teenager is every bit as fun as we remember—and every bit as harrowing.

Download or read book Eyes Too Dry written by Alice Chipkin and published by . This book was released on 2018-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meet Tava, a twenty-four-year-old medical student in a deep depression. Alice, her friend and housemate, is trying to figure out how to support her. Time unravels, leaving both women bewildered at the emotional landscapes that have opened before them.Eyes Too Dry started out as a series of private conversations between the authors by way of a comic-in-correspondence. Their decision to make this work public was fuelled by their struggle to find stories and artwork that spoke to their experiences of encountering depression, suicidal ideation and emotional weight. In a world that tells us to 'keep calm and carry on' they are offering a narrative that is vulnerable, honest and uncertain. They hope to add new ways to talk about, visualise and relate to these complex emotions.'I have never seen mental illness depicted in this way, and the illustrations convey the physical and emotional toll of depression more powerfully than anything I've ever seen before. This is an important book about a topic that still holds so much stigma, and the more people that read it the better.' - Rebecca Shaw'To struggle with the textures of our mental landscape can feel like the most brutalizing, lonely thing. What Chipkin and Tavassoli have gifted us is one-of-a-kind: the lens of kinship. Through their dual perspectives, we eavesdrop on a tender conversation: How can I be there for you? and How can I not push you away? While most media focuses on the so-called failures or successes of mentally ill people to regain normalcy, these artists keep their focus on relationship. We witness questions of health and the realities of illness as traversed through that most precious, private kingdom: homiedom. The depth and nuance of these pages is treasure in the palm.' - Shira Erlichman

Download or read book The New Literary Middlebrow written by B. Driscoll and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-09-15 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The middlebrow is a dominant cultural force in the twenty-first century. This book defines the new literary middlebrow through eight key features: middle class, feminized, reverential, commercial, emotional, recreational, earnest and mediated. Case studies include Oprah's Book Club, the Man Booker Prize and the Harry Potter phenomenon.

Download or read book Closing Down written by Sally Abbott and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2017-04-26 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shortlisted for the Aurealis Award for a Science Fiction Novel 2017 'a polished, accomplished, imaginative novel' - SYDNEY MORNING HERALD What would you do if all you held to be familiar was lost? Australia's rural towns and communities are closing down, much of Australia is being sold to overseas interests, states and countries and regions are being realigned worldwide. Town matriarch Granna Adams, her grandson Roberto, the lonely and thoughtful Clare - all try in their own way to hold on to their sense of self, even as the world around them fractures. The past is long gone. The question now is: do they have a future? An extraordinary and timely debut novel from a compelling new Australian voice 'an arresting vision of survival and resilience in a broken world' - AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW 'The characters and their strange world are so powerfully drawn that the book's oppressive mood lingers with the reader long after they've looked up from the page.' - SATURDAY PAPER '...a disturbingly good read' - MARIE CLAIRE 'Like all good speculative fiction, Sally Abbott has taken what's happening in the geo-politico-social sphere and ramped it up to the nth degree.' - THE BIG ISSUE

Download or read book The Loudness of Unsaid Things written by Hilde Hinton and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'My heart grew, then broke, then mended itself. A wise, funny, brave novel and a story that you will never want to forget.' Favel Parrett An unforgettable story of loneliness, isolation and finding your way. Heart-wrenching, wise and wryly funny, this novel will make you kinder to those who are lost. Miss Kaye works at The Institute. A place for the damaged, the outliers, the not-quite rights. Everyone has different strategies to deal with the residents. Some bark orders. Some negotiate tirelessly. Miss Kaye found that simply being herself was mostly the right thing to do. Susie was seven when she realised she'd had her fill of character building. She'd lie between her Holly Hobbie sheets thinking how slowly birthdays come around, but how quickly change happened. One minute her Dad was saying that the family needed to move back to the city and then, SHAZAM, they were there. Her mum didn't move to the new house with them. And Susie hated going to see her mum at the mind hospital. She never knew who her mum would be. Or who would be there. As the years passed, there were so many things Susie wanted to say but never could. Miss Kaye will teach Susie that the loudness of unsaid things can be music - and together they will learn that living can be more than surviving.

Download or read book Shadowboxing written by Tony Birch and published by Scribe Publications. This book was released on 2006-03-06 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: COMMENDED FOR THE 2011 KATE CHALLIS RAKA AWARD SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2006 QUEENSLAND PREMIER’S LITERARY AWARDS — AUSTRALIAN SHORT STORY COLLECTION ‘Change for us came so unexpectedly. One day my father was stalking the family as he had done for most of our lives, skulking from room to room, accompanied by a menacing silence that we had long ago accepted. And then he was gone.’ Shadowboxing is a collection of ten linked stories in the life of a boy growing up in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy in the 1960s. A beautifully rendered time capsule, it captures a period of decay, turmoil, and change through innocent, unblinking eyes. Michael’s family, led by his long-suffering mother, live as though under siege, surviving his father’s drinking and rage as well as the forces of ‘urban renewal’. Their neighbourhood is a world of simple pleasures as well as random brutality; of family life and love as well as violence and tragedy. As Michael experiences all this with a combination of wonder and fear, he matures into a sensitive adult who can forgive but never forget. Shadowboxing is a riveting story of loss and permanence, power and weakness, stoicism and resistance. PRAISE FOR TONY BIRCH ‘Stunning series of linked stories about growing up in '60s Fitzroy.’ The Age ‘There's a Hemingwayesque minimalism about this writing, but in Hemingway the pathos was reined in more. In the 10 linked stories in Shadowboxing, the pathos is often barely contained and the effect is quite shattering ... Birch’s descriptions of the lower socio-economic world of inner Melbourne in the ‘60s are brilliant and he evokes, with a curious nostalgia, a claustrophobic world that anyone would be lucky to escape from unscathed. He has a great ability to pare down his prose, laying bare the raw flesh of the matter in the process. Despite their rigours, the stories are engaging, with flashes of larrikin humour. The book is even something of a page-turner at times, although the calamity of one page often leads only to heartbreak on the next.’ The Australian

Download or read book What Fear Was written by Ben Walter and published by . This book was released on 2021-11-11 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From vanishing islands to talking flathead and nightmarish bushfires, Ben Walter's visionary Tasmanian fictions are unique in the landscape of Australian writing. An unemployed man chooses only to apply for jobs advertised in The Economist; a failed mountain expedition is mocked by the dead bodies of past climbers; and a father and son travel urgently to witness the miracle of Lake Pedder emptying. In What Fear Was, Walter combines beautiful, mesmerising writing with surreal discomfort and absurdist hilarity to completely upend the idea of an Australian short story. 'Lyrical and inventive, savage and strange. You've never read anyone like Ben Walter. Total mastery of language and imagery, paired with an unrivalled imagination and immense storytelling chutzpah. The shot in the arm Australian literature has been screaming for.' - Robbie Arnott 'With its unforgettable descriptions of the natural world, and the unsettling things that sometimes take place there, What Fear Was is an extraordinary collection of stories. Deeply strange, beautifully lyrical and intensely moving; no one in Australia writes like Ben Walter. The weird realism of What Fear Was is wholly unique and deeply valuable in contemporary Australian fiction.' - Ryan O'Neill. 'What Fear Was is a darkly funny, surreal and tender collection, wonderfully Tasmanian in its entanglements. You never know where Ben Walter's stories will take you - there are no straight lines here - but it's truly a pleasure to follow his trail.' - Jennifer Mills

Download or read book The Artist s Portrait written by Julie Keys and published by Hachette Australia. This book was released on 2019-03-26 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SHORTLISTED FOR THE MUD LITERARY PRIZE 2020 'An intriguing read with compelling descriptions of early 20th-century Sydney in all its squalor, debauchery and fascinating historical detail.' Who Weekly 'a brisk, original tale written with verve' Mud Literary Prize judging committee A story about art, murder, and making your place in history. Whatever it was that drew me to Muriel, it wasn't her charm. In 1992, morning sickness drives Jane to pre-dawn walks of her neighbourhood where she meets an unfriendly woman who sprays her with a hose as she passes by. When they do talk: Muriel Kemp eyes my pregnant belly and tells me if I really want to succeed, I'd get rid of the baby. Driven to find out more about her curmudgeonly neighbour, Jane Cooper begins to investigate the life of Muriel, who claims to be a famous artist from Sydney's bohemian 1920s. Contemporary critics argue that legend, rather than ability, has secured her position in history. They also claim that the real Muriel Kemp died in 1936. Murderer, narcissist, sexual deviant or artistic genius and a woman before her time: Who really is Muriel Kemp?