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Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: Richard Ford, Most Recent at Top [Help]
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Blog: Galley Cat (Mediabistro) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Authors, John Grisham, Kathryn Stockett, Richard Ford, Mississippi flag, Add a tag
Blog: PowellsBooks.BLOG (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Interviews, Literature, Mystery, Hilary Mantel, Richard Ford, rene denfeld, Cecilia Ekback, Add a tag
During these cold, dark days of winter, there's nothing I enjoy more than losing myself in a book that evokes the mood of the season. Set in Swedish Lapland in the early 18th century, Wolf Winter is a wonderfully atmospheric novel that perfectly captures what it's like to live in a remote, unforgiving landscape. Debut [...]
Blog: Galley Cat (Mediabistro) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Awards, Richard Ford, Add a tag
American author Richard Ford has won the Femina Prize, one of France’s top literary awards, for best foreign novel for his book Canada.
The novel is the story of a boy whose parents rob a bank and commit a murder. Here is more about the book from HarperCollins:
After a five-year hiatus, an undisputed American master delivers a haunting and elemental novel about the cataclysm that undoes one teenage boy’s family, and the stark and unforgiving landscape in which he attempts to find grace. A powerful and unforgettable tale of the violence lurking at the heart of the world, Richard Ford’s Canada will resonate long and loud for readers of stark and sweeping novels of American life, from the novels of Cheever and Carver to the works of Philip Roth, Charles Frazier, Richard Russo, and Jonathan Franzen.
Previously, Ford was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and Pen/Faulkner Award for his novel Independence Day. (Via France24).
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Add a CommentBlog: The Pen Stroke | A Publishing Blog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Canada, The Writer's Life, Insecurity, Richard Ford, 50 Book Pledge, HarperCollins Canada, Add a tag
50 Book Pledge | Book #41: Canada by Richard Ford |
Every writer, without exception, is forced to confront their own insecurity. An internal fear that takes the form of a single debilitating statement: I’m not good enough. Like poison, these four words creep up every time you put pen to paper and make you question the merit of your words. If not dealt with, insecurity can not only sap your confidence but also kill your creativity. So, what do you do? You silence it.
Be warned that this does not happen overnight. Instead, you have to tackle it each and every day. The method you use is entirely up to you. Some writers like to read a quote, others write a phrase and, still others, like myself, recite a statement. The key here is repetition because the more you do this the stronger your belief will become. Slowly the fear will lose its strength leaving you with just your words. Yes, reaching this place of belief is difficult but once you do you’ll have conquered the greatest obstacle of all: Yourself.
Blog: An Awfully Big Blog Adventure (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Toronto, Annie Dillard, Graham Greene, Shropshire, Hudson Bay, Richard Ford, Phaidon Press, Canada, Add a tag
Blog: Beth Kephart Books (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Richard Ford, Andrew Goldman, New York Times, Add a tag
It has been six years since your last novel was published, and I gather you weren’t writing for some of that time. What were you doing? Jack Daniel’s and the “Today” show?
Living, it’s called living. You might call it wasting time, but I just call it living. Going bird hunting, reading books, watching the Red Sox, doing things with my wife that we wouldn’t have time to do if I was writing a book. There’s a whole lot to do once you can get out from under the yoke of working.
— excerpted from "Richard Ford Is a Man Who Actually Listens," Andrew Goldman interview, New York Times
Blog: Schiel & Denver Book Publishers Blog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Rights deal, Todays Picks, Richard Ford, Add a tag
A new collection of stories from the late Nobel Prize-winning author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn; a début by a former Macmillan, Penguin and Hachette marketer; and Richard Ford’s new novel were among the rights deals signed this week.
At Canongate, senior editor Francis Bickmore bought UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada), to Solzhenitsyn’s stories. Rights to Apricot Jam and Other Stories were bought from Counterpoint Press through Anna Carmichael at Abner Stein. The book will be published in October.
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Well I envy you if you can go to Nova Scotia! If it were me, I think I'd approach Canada via the historical angle. The Viking site at L'Anse aux Meadows, and the history of the Native Americans, and the French arrivals and then the Scottish - and the various alliances and battles.
I agree it's a huge country, and difficult to make sense of from a distance - but I'd love to go to Quebec and Montreal... I've been to Toronto several times as my sister used to live there. There's a lovely board walk along the shore, and it feels different from an American city - the French influence is quite obvious, and of course all the signs are dual language, and all the distances are in kilometres...
So I hope you have fun! I'll look forward to your blog! :)
As a Torontonian now living in Germany, I found this a fascinating post.
It is hard to get one's head around "Canada" even for a Canadian. I think that's why most seem to identify strongly with the region they come from. The fact that most Canadians are relatively new to that land also affects the essence of what it means to be Canadian: it's a slightly amorphous thing, not like what it means to be British or German or just about anything else. And it's forever changing in the cities as the ethnic mix is in constant flux - making for a fascinating, dynamic identity, but a not-quite graspable one in its constant shape-shifting nature.
Don't be put off by those pictures of the Toronto skyline - one hardly ever sees the city like that, and then only from the islands - the city itself is made up of numerous neighbourhoods - each with its own very distinct character: Chinatown, Little Italy, Greektown where the signs are in English and the languages of the inhabitants and the food is incredible; The Annex with its Victorian Mansions and funky mix of university students and professors, artists and writers; Queen St. West with loads of art galleries and interesting pubs and restaurants...
British Columbia is gorgeous! The culture of the First Nations People is very strong there which I found fascinating and wish I could have spent more time there.
I'm with Katherine - envious if you get out East! I never made it to the East coast, but it's also supposed to be stunning with a fascinating regional culture and history.
I hadn't meant to go on like this - sorry! I do hope you have a good trip - full of adventure and discoveries. I look forward to reading more on your blog!
Thank you, Katherine and Lynn. You've both given me things to think about. Canadian history is something I know little about. I must remedy that. And as most of my time will be spent in the east, your bits about fascinating regional culture and history, not to say anything of stunning landscape, are most encouraging.
I'm sure there will be a blog. I can't bear the idea of travelling without writing it all down. I'll probably do the same as with my Belize travels and have a Canada blog button on my website, so do look out for it. I'm not going until September but as and when I find things that are interesting, I'll probably throw them all in.
A post like this makes one want to start packing. So happy to hear you are off on another travel adventure. I'll look foward to your blog.
I wasn't in Canada long but one of my most magical memories is of swimming in a lake in the summer with all the mountains around. That, and all the warnings about bears the Canadians enjoy giving you. You'll have great time.
One thing I found odd was the pattern of place names. Here the language patterns of the names often indicate the local history - Viking names in the north etc. However, in Canada you see UK place names scattered almost randomly across the map - though presumably where settlers settled. Takes some getting used to.
Penny - lake swimming sounds good to me. Just back from Pembrokeshire [see this coming Saturday's Authors Electric] where swimming definitely wasn't the order of the day - though it has been every other year, and I'm definitely missing it.
Lynn - thanks for your comments on the essence of being Canadian. It's just this sort of thing I want to hear. From now onwards, and throughout the trip, I'll be trying to get a better understanding of what 'being Canadian' is all about.
When I first moved to Shropshire, I arrived without roots. I was born in London and grew up there, but I never felt as if I belonged. Maybe my mother's alienation rubbed off on me - a Guernsey girl fleeing Hitler's army during the Second World War, she never felt at home in London, or indeed anywhere else. But thirty-five years after my arrival here, I now feel like a proud Salopian. It's living and breathing a place over time, I guess, that makes it yours - if you want it to of course And, as you're experiencing as a Torontonian in Germany, once you've got that it remains with you wherever you go.
I'm a Canadian living in the UK. I love both countries, both are beautiful and dear to me in different ways. Those vast roads you talk about, they are long, and journeying through the praries on the trans-canada highway is dangerous. It will feel like driving through a day and half of the same flat open space, it is hard not to fall asleep. Also, it is difficult even when you are a local resident to know when and where the next petrol (gas) station is. The signs in rural Canada are non existent. If they were ever put up in the first place, a snow plow probably knocked them down. That said, have an amazing time. The country is beautiful, the bears are not nearly so mean, the people will welcome you with open arms, and there is lots to do. Do please visit BC. Everyone goes to Toronto, but don't by pass Vancouver, or better still go to Victoria! (Perhaps my west coast roots are showing.) I've lived in five different provinces, and each have something worth seeing. I am sure you will be happy to be home, as I am, when I return to the UK. There is so much unsung about the wonderfulness that is living here! Canadians love breakfast, it's a thing, so make sure to hit an IHOP, or TimHorton's while you are out there. There is many quick, but tasty breakfasts that I do miss. I could ramble all day, but if you want any local info, just email me. Places like Cultus lake, Whistler, or Harrison rarely get a mention in travel books, but are well wroth the journey.