Creative writing as an area of study is booming in Australia … Australian universities now offer more than 70 of these courses. There are numerous mature-age students willing to pay universities $100-plus an hour to sit in a postgraduate writing class. But “the creative writing boom throws up striking paradoxes.”
Category: publishing
Obama Beats Clintons To Win Grammy
Obama “beat both former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter to win best spoken word album for his audio version of his book The Audacity Of Hope: Thoughts On Reclaiming The American Dream.”
Trash Fiction – There’s a Real Skill To It
A surprising number of people believe they can write romance fiction and make a lot of money. But it’s really harder than it looks…
British Publisher Peddles Feminism, Softly
“Once dismissed for their bourgeois domesticity, the 20th-century female writers championed by Persephone (Books) are now enjoying stealth success. … Many of the books that Persephone has rediscovered are gentle domestic tales written by largely middle- and upper-class white women; it has also reprinted long-lost cookery books and sells its own branded aprons.”
To Be Understood By History, Write Neatly
The ferocious disagreements over transcriptions of Robert Frost’s diaries have made headlines lately, but the problem is larger than any single writer. “For dead writers, diary pages are the best evidence scholars have of the ways their minds worked–their first thoughts on a poem or story, their innermost ambitions and fears as human beings. No one wants to get that wrong.”
Patterson Leads In Lending (Well, His Name Does)
Novelist James Patterson, “who produces eight books a year, has sold 130 million copies worldwide. And a survey has found that libraries lend more of his books than those of any other author.” It’s a controversial finding, since “while Patterson maps out the fast-paced storylines and intricate plot twists, his novels are some times completed by others.”
Finally, A Handy Desk Reference For Literary Porn!
Erotic literature has a long and steamy history in cultures around the world. So it’s probably no surprise that scholars have an interest in cataloging it. And what better way to suck the sexual pleasure out of the genre than wedging it into an encyclopedia?
Spanish Mayor Proposes Paying Kids To Read
They would get one Euro for each hour reading. “A recent European Commission study showed 31 per cent of Spain’s students were leaving school early. Spanish students were also some of the worst at reading in Europe, with 21 per cent of 15-year-olds having difficulties, compared with the European Union average of 19.8 per cent.”
Will Students Read More If They Choose From Pop Reading List?
If high-schoolers are bored with the traditional classic reading lists for examinations, how do you get them more interested in reading? One plan is to let UK students choose any book from a popular TV book club’s reading list…
Could Arts Council Cuts Really Benefit UK Writers?
The UK Arts Council’s decision to overhaul its funding process has set the council’s directors on their heels as public and media outrage mount. But the council’s literature chief says that writers actually will be getting a good deal when all the dust settles.