Essential reading for anyone interested in writing biography or memoir, with practical advice from successful biographers and creative writing teachers.
Description
The thirst for real-life stories, is an area of creative non-fiction that is exploding in popularity. Biographers Carole Angier and Sally Cline teach life writing at the world famous Arvon Foundation and have distilled the essence of their course into this practical handbook for writers.
The Arvon Book of Life Writing answers all the key questions writers have when tackling a biography or memoir: issues of research, authorisation, interpretation, being 'true' and ethical considerations. Practical exercises develop writing skills in empathy, managing drama and suspense, interviewing, narration and reflection and developing the story.
The book contains tips and advice from 20 well-known professional literary, cultural, political, sports and celebrity biographers, as well as family memoirists, travel writers and ghost writers.
The contributors include: Hermione Lee, Michael Holroyd, Hilary Spurling, Kathryn Hughes, Geoff Dyer, Diana Athill, Margaret Drabble, Andrew Lownie, Nicholas Murray, Richard Holmes, Lyndall Gordon, Victoria Glendinning, Clare Mullen, Diane Johnson, Nancy Milford, Millicent Dillon.
Carole Angier is the biographer of Jean Rhys (shortlisted for the Whitbread/Costa Prize and winner of a Writer's Guild Non Fiction Award) and Primo Levi. She is a regular critic for The Independent, The Sunday Telegraph, The Spectator and The Literary Review. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and teaches life writing at the University of Warwick and Birkbeck College, London University and also works as a one-to-one mentor with emerging writers. Sally Cline is an award-winning biographer and short story writer for print and radio, the author of 9 books, including 3 ground-breaking literary biographies. She is an Advisory Fellow for the Royal Literary Fund, and a judge and mentor for new writers.
| ISBN: |
9781408124185
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| Australian Pub.: |
August 2010
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| Publisher: |
BLOOMSBURY ACAD & PR
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| Imprint: |
A&C BLACK
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| Subject: |
Creative Writing
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| Edition Number: |
1
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