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Hatchet Job of the Year

http://www.hatchetjoboftheyear.com/

“The Hatchet Job of the Year Award is for the writer of the angriest, funniest, most trenchant book review of the past twelve months. It aims to raise the profile of professional critics and to promote honesty and wit in literary journalism. Hatchet Job of the Year is a crusade against dullness, deference and lazy thinking. It rewards critics who have the courage to overturn received opinion, and who do so with style. Most of all, it is a public celebration of that most underpaid and undervalued form of journalism: the book review.”

Click here to see the shortlist.

11th January 2012

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How to Respond to Rejections & Negative Feedback

http://theeditorsblog.net/2011/05/25/how-to-respond-to-rejections-negative-feedback/

My personal stance on this is not to respond at all. Nothing that comes to my mind in the very seconds after reading a rejection or negative feedback is going to be useful. I know this because what comes out of me will be emotional and not logical. And why shouldn’t it be? But further, does it do any good for my writing (or my career) to stick myself in a muddling swamp of argument over an opinion?

What I would do is before incinerating the rejection or feedback, I would comb it for constructive criticism. Find it, use it, write better. All the other harshness is as good as a piece of chewed gum embossed with tire marks. There are a lot of things that influence my life. I’m not letting road gum have its day.

Be stronger.

26th May 2011

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writing literary criticism rejections feedback

“

I was once asked about the most devastating review I ever received. My answer was that it had never been written because the only person who could write it was me.

But if somebody else did happen to come up with that devastating review, how would I react? I hate to say it, but I would respect that critic immensely and consider him or her my best reader ever. Because in the end a writer never succeeds in writing the great book he dreams of writing. And that´s what drives him on.

- Carsten Jensen, former literary critic and author of We, the Drowned.

(Source: thedailybeast.com)

13th May 2011

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carsten jensen writers authors we the drowned books critics readers reading literary criticism

Amazon launches, “The Backstory,” a literary hub that “includes interviews with authors, guest reviews, authors’ favorite playlists, recipes, podcasts, essays and more.”

WHat’s interesting about The Backstory is that Amazon is clearly trying to become more than just a destination to buy books. By providing features like Author video interviews Amazon is bringing high-quality content to its platform, alongside e-commerce. And via the ties with Facebook and the company’s blog, Amazon aims to create a community around its content.

26th April 2011

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amazon the backstory authors writers books interviews essays podcasts literary criticism

Reviewers on Reviewing

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2011/02/reviewers-on-reviewing.html

This is a good read. And it comes at a good time. After reading the New Yorker article, head over to a post by Jean Hannah Edelstein pointing out a recent issue with The New York Times.

As much as writers loathe a harsh review and would rather have an Amazonian-majority prove a book’s worth, Edelstein adds, “There’s still plenty of space for experts, though — I think it’s important not to forget that.”

Expert reviewers.

9th February 2011

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literary criticism literary reviews critics reviewers

nprfreshair:

Writer Wilfrid Sheed, on why he stopped writing reviews later in life: “As a novelist, you really don’t need any more enemies than the course of life is going to send you,” he told Terry Gross in a 1988 Fresh Air interview. “On humane grounds, I think that you lose the killer instinct as you go along. I think criticism can be a blood sport, really to be indulged by the young. As you get old, you imagine that perhaps the person is ill or you imagine all the situations that have happened to yourself at one time or another and you really can’t go on giving [criticism] because you know how much it hurts.”

21st January 2011

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literary criticism wilfrid sheed

Reblogged from NPR Fresh Air by nprfreshair

Fun post by Rachelle Gardner on rejections, and if you’ve ever received one, it might not be all that bad compared to these… (a few examples below):

“…a long dreary tale full of unlikeable people doing pointless things…”

“[character] comes across as clueless and it is hard to be sympathetic when she misses obvious signs like the decaying body in the trunk of her husband’s car…”

[Amazon reader-review about The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis]: “I bought these books to have something nice to read to my grandkids. I had to stop, however, because the books are nothing more than advertisements for “Turkish Delight,” a candy popular in the U.K. The whole point of buying books for my grandkids was to give them a break from advertising, and here (throughout) are ads for this “Turkish Delight”! How much money is this Mr. Lewis getting from the Cadbury’s chocolate company anyway? This man must be laughing to the bank.”

… or laughing from the grave?

25th October 2010

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reviews rachelle gardner literary criticism