“In the age of [James] Patterson, [Harry] Potter and Game of Thrones, Indian authors have brought their own special flavours to the table: mass-market fiction based on reinterpretations of the two great Hindu epic narratives, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.” Readers are devouring it, and it’s becoming very big business.
Category: words
Independent Bookstores Are Making A Go Of It Again (But It’s A Lot Of Work)
“A lot of a bookstore’s success is case-by-case, but the fact that some bookstores are thriving and a lot of bookstores are opening means that there’s something inherently successful in the model.”
Novels Have Shaped Our Notions Of Love And Marriage. Here’s How
The love/marriage story is one of the most enduring plotlines in all literature. These stories have strongly influenced how we look at relationships and what we desire.
Another Word Of The Year For 2016 – This One’s Based On Actual Searches For Its Definition
Dictionary.com noticed big spikes in searches for this word after the Brexit vote and following a speech by President Obama in June expressing concern about Donald Trump’s rhetoric. (There was an even bigger spike last year from South Africa following attacks on foreign workers.)
Maurice Sendak Estate And Rosenbach Museum Settle Lawsuit For Good
The two-year legal struggle over the late author’s collection of rare books, fought between the Philadelphia institution where Sendak had kept those books and his archives and his executors, who wanted them back, is over at last.
Twitter Has Become A Playground For Poets
“Amid the trolls and politicians blasting out 140-character broadsides, poets and their readers have embraced Twitter as a vehicle for higher language. The premium Twitter places on brevity and emotional honesty is uniquely well-suited for an artform that so prizes not just candor and exhortation, but verbal economy.”
The Intimate, Exhaustive Relationship Of Elena Ferrante’s English Translator To The Author And The Works
In North America, people really would like to meet the author, whoever she is. Instead, they get her English translator: “Public appearances and interviews with [Ann] Goldstein have gone a little way towards filling the void created by Ferrante’s choice to remain anonymous and do only the bare minimum to promote her books.”
Fire Up Your Wallet: The Guardian Gets Authors To Tell Us The Best Books Of The Year
And this is only Part I. Julian Barnes sums up 2016: “Is it a sign, or a consequence, of this dreadful year that the best books displayed stern lucidity in the face of darkness and death?”
This Year’s National Book Award-Winning Author: Write The Book That Terrifies You
Colson Whitehead had his idea for The Underground Railroad many years ago, but he says he wasn’t ready to write it until now. “I always have these ideas, and I think, ‘That would be really good; if I was a better writer, I could pull it off.’ And then I try to become a better writer to do it justice.”
There’s A Canadian Literature Civil War Happening Right Now, And Here’s How It Got Sparked
Steven Galloway was fired from the University of British Columbia’s creative writing program a year ago, but the unrest on social media came about when Joseph Boyden, Margaret Atwood and other authors wrote a letter asking for due process for him. “There is fallout on both sides. And the collateral damage has been pretty devastating: nastiness among colleagues and strangers, threatened friendships, sorrow.”