There is inherent in difficulty as it pertains to the writing of fiction, something alienating. In non-fiction the writer has the luxury of retreating behind the complexity of their subject. It is permissible for them to say that their material requires a lexical density and conceptual intricacy that militates against accessibility.
You can’t do that in [...]
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This week our guest Soapboxer is author Hamish MacFarlane. Hamish’s first novel was published in 1998. You can read it for free, along with an excerpt from his novel-in-progress, on his website.
Success sucks: when getting published kills your writing.
Some fiction writers I speak to don’t mention publication. Perhaps they see it [...]
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Celebrity Autobiographies - A Secret Pleasure
In recent years there has been much disquiet in literary circles over the increasing popularity of celebrity autobiographies. Or, more to the point, over the amount of money publishing houses are prepared to pay their ‘authors’ – I use that word loosely – and the question of whether they are [...]
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On the Soapbox this week we have a guest, Monica Janssens - author of the upcoming novel Castle in the Clouds - writing about literature and depression.
* Thanks to Laurence ‘GreenReaper’ Parry for the picture.
HAS THE MISERY MEMOIR REACHED THE END OF THE ROAD? by Monica Janssens
My name is Monica and I’m a writer. In [...]
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So I said to the Foxes in the Den: “There’s a massive furore going on about age ranging in children’s books. Darren Shan is very passionate on the subject; I’ll email and ask him to do a Soapbox.” It wasn’t until I was half way through writing my request that it dawned on me… this [...]
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Posted in Entries by Emma, Fiction: literary, Non-fiction: essays, Thursday Soapbox, tagged A Secret Alchemy, Add new tag, commercial fiction, Emma Darwin, Francis Spufford, genre fiction, Gilead, literary fiction, literary snobbery, Marilynn Robinson, The Mathematics of Love, Thursday Soapbox on June 5, 2008 | 52 Comments »
As a counterpoint to Clare Sudbery’s piece last week “In Praise of Popular Culture”, on the Soapbox this week we have the author of “The Mathematics of Love” and soon-to-be-released “A Secret Alchemy”, Bookfox Emma Darwin, putting the case for literary fiction.
Truffling Out the Riches by Emma Darwin
So, which way up is your literary snobbery? [...]
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On the soapbox this week is our guest, Clare Sudbery - novelist, storyteller, editorial consultant and blogger extraordinaire - taking a break from her popular blog Boob Pencil, to complain about cultural snobbery.
*Thanks to Chris Seufert on Flickr for this image, here representing the fox of popular culture with the lion of literary fiction [...]
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The Thursday Soapbox, this time by Book Fox, Mary, arguing that there are too many books.
* Thanks to queenodesign on Flickr for the photo of Minnie Atkins’ sculpture of a particularly ferocious looking fox. (Don’t worry, we’re all pussy cats really - you can disagree with us!) Also thanks to Saunderses on Flickr for [...]
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On the Soapbox this week we have Catherine Jones, Chair of the Romantic Novelists’ Association (a.k.a writer Kate Lace) about assumptions and prejudices towards romantic novelists.
*I actually had to raid my own Flickr account for this rather strange picture of a foxy-looking beast alongside a heart and some flowers.
Pride in the Face of Prejudice [...]
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On the Soapbox this week, writer of the political romantic comedy More Than Love Letters and campus novel Hearts and Minds, Rosy Thornton, looks at the way we categorise books.
*Thanks to Natmandu on Flickr for this picture of a beautifully wrapped book, from the Slightly Foxed Bookshop in New Zealand.
Books Should Be Books! by [...]
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