Elif Shafak, author of ‘Honour’ – longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. ‘If there’s a dynamism in the book world in Turkey it is precisely because women read a lot.’
Elif Shafak would like to see more Turkish books translated into Kurdish. ‘I was mesmerized when I came to Hay that the road signs are in English and Welsh. Maybe one day in Turkey we will have Turkish and Kurdish road signs.’ Her country operated, she said, on the basis that ‘everyone is Turkish. We adopted the French approach.’
Shafak presented this year’s Raymond Williams Lecture at Hay Festival in association with PEN International. She writes in both English and Turkish and her latest novel Honour was longlisted for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction (now sponsored by Baileys). Here’s my review of Honour. Read more
https://annecharnock.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Screen-Shot-2015-08-01-at-10.11.12.png142154annehttp://annecharnock.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/AC-name-banner2.jpganne2013-06-05 15:01:282015-08-01 10:11:56Hay Festival #4: 7 Fiction Writers on Writing
I’m back from Hay Festival, the campervan is unpacked and I’ll be posting my favourite snippets from the 10-day literary event over the next few days. First up, Rhianna Pratchett in conversation with Guy Cocker.
Rhianna Pratchett: A Narrative Paramedic
‘Fifteen years ago when I was a games journalist, no one talked about narrative,’ said Rhianna Pratchett to a multi-generational Hay audience. Even today writers in the games industry, she said, were seen as narrative paramedics. ‘It’s only when a story is bleeding so badly that someone will say, “We really need a writer.” A lot of projects out there are like that.’ In general, writers were brought in too late because the industry failed to appreciate how much they added to a project. “There needs to be a narrative logic so that players actually care.”
Rhianna Pratchett is perfectly placed to comment on writing for the games industry. In 2007 she was a BAFTA nominee for her work on Heavenly Sword and she won a Writers’ Guild of Great Britain script award for Overlord. She’s also known for developing the voice of Lara Croft in Tomb Raider. Read more
https://annecharnock.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Screen-Shot-2015-08-01-at-10.12.54.png219231annehttp://annecharnock.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/AC-name-banner2.jpganne2013-06-04 10:15:142015-08-01 10:13:20Hay Festival #3: Rhianna Pratchett on Writing for Games
Will Self always pulls a big crowd at Hay and this year he dished out a sizzling mix of wit and venom, plus comic banter with interviewer Sarfraz Manzoor. In a (literally) terrific performance, he read from his latest novel Umbrella. As he later explained to the audience, Umbrella is the completion of a trilogy that follows ‘the outsourcing of violence’ in modern times.
He said Umbrella’s main character Audrey Death – a post-encephalytic patient in a London asylum – embodied the impact of technological developments in the 20th Century. In 1908 Henry T Ford built his first industrial production line, said Self, and in 1914 this new wave of industrialisation transferred to the trenches creating a production line of death. Read more
https://annecharnock.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2015-08-01-at-10.14.36.png258281annehttp://annecharnock.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/AC-name-banner2.jpganne2013-05-30 10:29:062015-08-01 10:22:39Hay Festival #2: Will Self and the Out-Sourcing of Violence
‘I do love the basic Anglo Saxon vocabulary,’ said US-writer Lydia Davis at Hay Festival. The remark was prompted by a question from the audience (Why do you write so many single-syllable words?) Davis continued: ‘I do like the Latinate, too, but Anglo Saxon is the language of great emotion. “I am so mad.” “You are so wrong.” When to use different registers of language is an interesting question. The story itself makes the choice.’ Read more
https://annecharnock.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/lydia.jpg277418annehttp://annecharnock.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/AC-name-banner2.jpganne2013-05-28 13:27:022015-08-01 10:24:09Hay Festival #1: Lydia Davis Booker International Winner
Will Self will be in conversation with Sarfraz Mansoor at Hay Festival.
At Hay Festival in 2006 I intercepted Will Self between events and he very kindly signed my hardback copy of The Book of Dave. Only… he wrote “From Anne” instead of “For Anne.” No matter how hard I try to untangle this briefest of encounters (what exactly did I say? what did he say?), I can’t fathom how this misunderstanding was precipitated. Maybe he thought I intended the book as a gift, hence “From Anne.” I did sense, just momentarily, that Will realized something had vaguely gone awry. In this comical, typically English exchange, neither of us remarked on the error (if that’s what it was). I said, “Thanks, Will.” And that was that.
Anyway, in readiness for attending his talk at Hay Festival later this month, I’ve read his novel Umbrella, in eBook format; nothing for him to sign this time. He’ll be talking with Sarfraz Manzoor not only about his novel but also about ‘the possibilities of the digital form’. Should be good.
https://annecharnock.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Umbrella.jpg350227annehttp://annecharnock.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/AC-name-banner2.jpganne2013-05-15 10:42:162015-08-01 10:26:30Hay Festival Reading: Will Self and ‘Umbrella’
I’ve deciphered my scribbly notes from last week’s Arthur C Clarke Award and Write the Future micro-conference, organized by Tom Hunter, and I thought I’d share my favourite quotes from the day:
Lauren Beukes, author of Zoo City (winner of the Arthur C Clarke Award in 2011) and The Shining Girls, quoted Muriel Rukeyser:
“The universe is made of stories, not atoms.”
Ben North of HarperCollins quoted Ludwig Wittgenstein:
“If a lion could speak, we could not understand him.”Read more
https://annecharnock.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2015-08-01-at-10.29.58.png222222annehttp://annecharnock.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/AC-name-banner2.jpganne2013-05-09 08:32:532015-08-01 10:30:45Favourite Quotes from Write the Future Micro-Conference
You can just see Chris Beckett at the podium if you squint.
Chris Beckett was presented with the Arthur C Clarke Award 2013 yesterday evening at a packed event at the Royal Society. Many congratulations! I hope this award will create a bigger readership for his brilliant book, Dark Eden.
And I’m holding off to the second paragraph to say – I told you so!
Yesterday I stuck my neck out and said Dark Eden was my favourite on the shortlist (and I’ve read and reviewed them all on this blog over the past month). It was the second book I read on the shortlist and here’s the review. Read more
https://annecharnock.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2015-08-01-at-10.29.58.png222222annehttp://annecharnock.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/AC-name-banner2.jpganne2013-05-02 10:22:442015-08-01 10:31:46Arthur C Clarke Award Winner? Dark Eden by Chris Beckett
Well, I’ve slept on it… and I’ve re-read my reviews. There are two novels that, for me, stand out from the six on the 2013 shortlist:
Chris Beckett’s Dark Eden and
Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars.
Each of the remaining four novels obviously have great merits in terms of subject matter, plot, writing quality or experimental daring in genre cross-over. But I’ve taken into account particular issues that rankle with me. For example, I’m a tad averse to meandering tales and loose writing styles. Read more
https://annecharnock.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2015-08-01-at-10.29.58.png222222annehttp://annecharnock.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/AC-name-banner2.jpganne2013-05-01 09:48:482015-08-01 10:32:52My Favourite on the Arthur C Clarke Shortlist
I have to admit that I haven’t read Kim Stanley Robinson’s fiction before and on the strength of 2312 I’ll read his Mars Trilogy, which established him as a big hitter, with a literary bent, in the realm of hard SF.
Truth is, I don’t really gravitate to other-world science fiction. I suppose because I’m mainly interested in social science fiction I’ve tended towards Earth-based scenarios. I’m now thinking I should reconsider this bias.
Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312 is the sixth, and final, novel I’ve read on the shortlist for this year’s Arthur C Clarke Award. The winner will be announced tomorrow evening (1 May) at the Royal Society in London. And I’ll be there!Read more
https://annecharnock.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2015-08-01-at-10.29.58.png222222annehttp://annecharnock.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/AC-name-banner2.jpganne2013-04-30 14:36:512015-08-01 10:33:54Arthur C Clarke Award #6: 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson
A global flu pandemic has decimated the human population and, if that’s not bad enough, the worst effects of global warming are taking their toll. The Dog Stars is set in Colorado nine years after the flu pandemic. Hig, a pilot, has made a life for himself at a remote airfield and he’s coping with his emotional trauma – ‘being at the end of all loss’ – thanks to the companionship of his dog Jasper.
https://annecharnock.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Screen-Shot-2015-08-01-at-10.29.58.png222222annehttp://annecharnock.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/AC-name-banner2.jpganne2013-04-29 08:30:332015-08-01 10:35:04Arthur C Clarke Award #5: The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
Hay Festival #4: 7 Fiction Writers on Writing
/in Writing FictionElif Shafak, author of ‘Honour’ – longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction.
‘If there’s a dynamism in the book world in Turkey it is precisely because women read a lot.’
Elif Shafak would like to see more Turkish books translated into Kurdish. ‘I was mesmerized when I came to Hay that the road signs are in English and Welsh. Maybe one day in Turkey we will have Turkish and Kurdish road signs.’ Her country operated, she said, on the basis that ‘everyone is Turkish. We adopted the French approach.’
Shafak presented this year’s Raymond Williams Lecture at Hay Festival in association with PEN International. She writes in both English and Turkish and her latest novel Honour was longlisted for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction (now sponsored by Baileys). Here’s my review of Honour. Read more
Hay Festival #3: Rhianna Pratchett on Writing for Games
/in Science Fiction, Writing FictionI’m back from Hay Festival, the campervan is unpacked and I’ll be posting my favourite snippets from the 10-day literary event over the next few days. First up, Rhianna Pratchett in conversation with Guy Cocker.
Rhianna Pratchett: A Narrative Paramedic
‘Fifteen years ago when I was a games journalist, no one talked about narrative,’ said Rhianna Pratchett to a multi-generational Hay audience. Even today writers in the games industry, she said, were seen as narrative paramedics. ‘It’s only when a story is bleeding so badly that someone will say, “We really need a writer.” A lot of projects out there are like that.’ In general, writers were brought in too late because the industry failed to appreciate how much they added to a project. “There needs to be a narrative logic so that players actually care.”
Rhianna Pratchett is perfectly placed to comment on writing for the games industry. In 2007 she was a BAFTA nominee for her work on Heavenly Sword and she won a Writers’ Guild of Great Britain script award for Overlord. She’s also known for developing the voice of Lara Croft in Tomb Raider. Read more
Hay Festival #2: Will Self and the Out-Sourcing of Violence
/in Book Reviews, Writing FictionWill Self in conversation with Sarfraz Manzoor
Will Self always pulls a big crowd at Hay and this year he dished out a sizzling mix of wit and venom, plus comic banter with interviewer Sarfraz Manzoor. In a (literally) terrific performance, he read from his latest novel Umbrella. As he later explained to the audience, Umbrella is the completion of a trilogy that follows ‘the outsourcing of violence’ in modern times.
He said Umbrella’s main character Audrey Death – a post-encephalytic patient in a London asylum – embodied the impact of technological developments in the 20th Century. In 1908 Henry T Ford built his first industrial production line, said Self, and in 1914 this new wave of industrialisation transferred to the trenches creating a production line of death. Read more
Hay Festival #1: Lydia Davis Booker International Winner
/in Book Reviews, Writing FictionLydia Davis: Novels simply take too long!
‘I do love the basic Anglo Saxon vocabulary,’ said US-writer Lydia Davis at Hay Festival. The remark was prompted by a question from the audience (Why do you write so many single-syllable words?) Davis continued: ‘I do like the Latinate, too, but Anglo Saxon is the language of great emotion. “I am so mad.” “You are so wrong.” When to use different registers of language is an interesting question. The story itself makes the choice.’ Read more
Hay Festival Reading: Will Self and ‘Umbrella’
/in Book ReviewsWill Self will be in conversation with Sarfraz Mansoor at Hay Festival.
At Hay Festival in 2006 I intercepted Will Self between events and he very kindly signed my hardback copy of The Book of Dave. Only… he wrote “From Anne” instead of “For Anne.” No matter how hard I try to untangle this briefest of encounters (what exactly did I say? what did he say?), I can’t fathom how this misunderstanding was precipitated. Maybe he thought I intended the book as a gift, hence “From Anne.” I did sense, just momentarily, that Will realized something had vaguely gone awry. In this comical, typically English exchange, neither of us remarked on the error (if that’s what it was). I said, “Thanks, Will.” And that was that.
Anyway, in readiness for attending his talk at Hay Festival later this month, I’ve read his novel Umbrella, in eBook format; nothing for him to sign this time. He’ll be talking with Sarfraz Manzoor not only about his novel but also about ‘the possibilities of the digital form’. Should be good.
So, what do I think of Umbrella? Read more
Favourite Quotes from Write the Future Micro-Conference
/in Book Reviews, Science FictionI’ve deciphered my scribbly notes from last week’s Arthur C Clarke Award and Write the Future micro-conference, organized by Tom Hunter, and I thought I’d share my favourite quotes from the day:
Lauren Beukes, author of Zoo City (winner of the Arthur C Clarke Award in 2011) and The Shining Girls, quoted Muriel Rukeyser:
“The universe is made of stories, not atoms.”
Ben North of HarperCollins quoted Ludwig Wittgenstein:
“If a lion could speak, we could not understand him.” Read more
Arthur C Clarke Award Winner? Dark Eden by Chris Beckett
/in Book Reviews, Science FictionYou can just see Chris Beckett at the podium if you squint.
Chris Beckett was presented with the Arthur C Clarke Award 2013 yesterday evening at a packed event at the Royal Society. Many congratulations! I hope this award will create a bigger readership for his brilliant book, Dark Eden.
And I’m holding off to the second paragraph to say – I told you so!
Yesterday I stuck my neck out and said Dark Eden was my favourite on the shortlist (and I’ve read and reviewed them all on this blog over the past month). It was the second book I read on the shortlist and here’s the review. Read more
My Favourite on the Arthur C Clarke Shortlist
/in Book Reviews, Science FictionWell, I’ve slept on it… and I’ve re-read my reviews. There are two novels that, for me, stand out from the six on the 2013 shortlist:
Chris Beckett’s Dark Eden and
Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars.
Each of the remaining four novels obviously have great merits in terms of subject matter, plot, writing quality or experimental daring in genre cross-over. But I’ve taken into account particular issues that rankle with me. For example, I’m a tad averse to meandering tales and loose writing styles. Read more
Arthur C Clarke Award #6: 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson
/in Book Reviews, Climate Change, Science FictionI have to admit that I haven’t read Kim Stanley Robinson’s fiction before and on the strength of 2312 I’ll read his Mars Trilogy, which established him as a big hitter, with a literary bent, in the realm of hard SF.
Truth is, I don’t really gravitate to other-world science fiction. I suppose because I’m mainly interested in social science fiction I’ve tended towards Earth-based scenarios. I’m now thinking I should reconsider this bias.
Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312 is the sixth, and final, novel I’ve read on the shortlist for this year’s Arthur C Clarke Award. The winner will be announced tomorrow evening (1 May) at the Royal Society in London. And I’ll be there! Read more
Arthur C Clarke Award #5: The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
/in Book Reviews, Climate Change, Science FictionA global flu pandemic has decimated the human population and, if that’s not bad enough, the worst effects of global warming are taking their toll. The Dog Stars is set in Colorado nine years after the flu pandemic. Hig, a pilot, has made a life for himself at a remote airfield and he’s coping with his emotional trauma – ‘being at the end of all loss’ – thanks to the companionship of his dog Jasper.
This is the fifth novel I’ve read on the Arthur C Clarke Award 2013 shortlist. The winner will be announced on Wednesday 1st May. Read more