The TMO Literature and Books section collects together in-depth author interviews, book reviews, publishing news, and literary criticism in the form of essays and articles. We have also added a new section for original fiction and poetry (for submission guidelines see here).
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Michael Longley: Entwining Strands of Love, Nature, War & Death.
“Longley hasn’t advertised himself as a Muse-poet, but that is what he is, a love poet, and a nature poet, a celebrant of the female principle; and like Graves he is also a war poet, of the two world wars in which his father fought, and of the war of nerves in Northern Ireland, where [...]
Making Love in Spanish – Carlos Fuentes and The Eagle’s Throne
In early February fans and journalists gathered at the Purcell Room of the Royal Festival Hall in London. The reason? The presence of Carlos Fuentes, famous Mexican writer and one of the main representatives of the Latin-American Boom movement (literary movement dating back to the sixties). The presentation kicked off by mentioning Fuentes’s good friend [...]
Memories, Fight and Fantasy at the Hand of the Great Superhero of the Spanish Narrative – Isabel Allende in interview
Isabel Allende, the world famous Chilean writer and niece of the deceased Chilean president Salvador Allende, takes it with a sense of humor and a pinch of patience that, despite being one of the main representatives of literature produced in Spanish and a key character in Spanish literary circles, in some countries she is still [...]
Bootleg Chomsky Meets the Big Societal Novel – Robert Newman talks about The Fountain at the Centre of the World
Robert Newman's third novel, The Fountain at the Center of the World, has been described variously as serious and intelligent, moral, and according to the Three Monkeys Online review “a resoundingly successful attempt to construct a dramatic relationship between the public and the private”. The New York Times meanwhile wrote that “it reads like what [...]
Capturing the Moment: Geoff Dyer in Interview
Over the course of three novels and eight non-fiction books, addressing subjects as diverse as jazz, D.H. Lawrence, World War One and John Berger, Geoff Dyer has quietly become one of the most interesting and admired writers of his generation. His work has become particularly known for the distinctive approach he takes to the thin [...]
Tragedy is an extreme form of desire – Ken Harvey interview
As the years pass and one’s tastes refine, it’s increasingly difficult to discover a book, a film or a record that moves you profoundly. But every now and again it happens, and with authors you would never have thought of… For example Ken Harvey, a forty-year old debut-writer from Boston, gay and published by a [...]
“Good writers do not write to flatter people’s good feelings” – Tomás Eloy Martínez in interview
Known for novels such as Santa Evita and The Perón Novel (La Novela de Perón) and winner of awards such as the 2003 Rodolfo Walsh Award for his career in journalism, and the 2002 Alfaguara Prize with El vuelo de la Reina (‘The Flight of the Queen’), Tomás Eloy Martínez was also one of eighteen [...]
