By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Dialogue with the Mirror’ is a 1949 short story by the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez. Published when he was just twenty-two years old, it is an early work written when Márquez was still finding his way towards his mature style. In the story, a man looks at himself […]
Credit…Allie Sullberg OLIVETTI, by Allie Millington Typewriters — the manually powered writing machines once made by Remington, Underwood and Royal — are wondrous things. To see their magic in action, try this trick: Set a typewriter out on a table with a sheet of paper pre-rolled into its carriage, and wait. Nearly every child, and […]
In 2021 a man on an island approached me and asked me if I was trans. When I said yes, he told me “I could barely tell, you’ve become very attractive to men, you must feel like you’ve reached your goal.” Playing with the male gaze seems to be a losing battle. You get judged […]
Smart robots have populated fiction for generations, but now with artificial intelligence exploding around us, we’re seeing more titles than ever that grapple with this technology. In the following novels and stories, authors delve into personal relationships between humans and A.I. consciousnesses that may or may not inhabit bodies. Themes of loneliness, love, personhood, and […]
When my Abuela died in early 2021, I couldn’t say goodbye to her in person. The day that she died, I felt her at the end of my bed. I was twisted in guilt. I was asleep, but it was a flimsy sleep, not deep. She was laughing at me. “What are you crying for? […]
This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter— sign up here . I never start a novel knowing where I’m going. I don’t write linearly, and not in clear, numbered drafts, from a beginning to an end. I gather and cut and gather some more. I call it the flea market process of […]
