Family Reunion
“That far-away North Carolina graveyard, bearing the proud Scottish name of Grant, is a testament to immigration (and emigration) and the long twisting tales they engender. An immigrant and emigrant myself, so very far from where I come from, I often ponder the mercurial nature of belonging and the definition of ‘home,’ wherever that may be.” Lindsey Grant
Dublin WorldCon: A Genre Fiction Candy Store
“The single most disappointing thing about WorldCon is that you can’t do it all.” Jim Rushing was at Dublin WorldCon, a meeting of minds for genre writers.
Book Fairies on the Heidi Trail
It was only natural that at some point the The Woolf would again team up with the Book Fairies of Switzerland and share in a bit of literary fun! Louise Gooding and company hop on a gondola and hide books for unsuspecting wanderers.
Unmask! Unmask! Stephen King’s The Shining
“If you’ve read The Shining, you will see glimpses of King’s struggles in his protagonist. Jack was once an alcoholic. Jack also flew into violent rages when drunk, once so badly that he cracked his son’s arm in two. The Overlook is supposed to be where Jack will prove that he’s a changed man—a place of redemption. The hotel, however, has other plans.” Tess Mangiardi unmasks a cult classic: Stephen King’s ‘The Shining’.
Slouching Towards Switzerland
“It’s common for New Yorkers to have a kind of cultish love for their city. As if the city’s trash, dirty sidewalks, and crumbling transportation system are a Mecca for everyone who wants to be someone. New York is the best and worst of everything. This is its Baudelairean beauty.” Tess Mangiardi on Joan Didion, grief, and the city that never sleeps.
Blood Moon over Solferino: On building hope on battlegrounds
“Some business trips don’t go quite as planned. Take Henry Dunant, for example. The 31-year-old Swiss businessman from Geneva was on his way to meet with Napoleon III in Italy, to discuss water rights in Algeria, when he reached the small village of Solferino. He was met with a sight so harrowing that it would forever change his life and subsequently that of hundreds and thousands more.” Susan Platt on what really matters.
In the Right Place: Meet November’s WriteCon Tutors
On Saturday 10 November, two exceptional women visit Zürich to lead workshops at WriteCon 2018. Say hello to Alison Baverstock and Louise O’Neill and learn how they found where they belong.
Where Do I Belong? A Guide to Professional Organisations for Writers
As a writer, there’s always somewhere you belong. Crime, fantasy, romance, historical, sci-fi, YA, horror and children’s fiction, there’s room for everyone. Here’s a list of some key international, UK and US organisations, where you may find exactly what you need.
Howl-Outs: Pack Publications
Readers, friends and contributors of The Woolf are blazing a trail in the literary world. Have a look at their recent successes—there’s something for everyone.
Escaping the Ice Palace
“It wasn’t until many years later, while I was grappling with grief in my mid-twenties, that Kai and Gerda resurfaced on the scene and I finally figured out why they mattered so much back then, and why, after all these years, they still matter to me today.” Susan Platt on the magic of Hans Christian Andersen’s words, and an unfolding secret power.
What if your book is the child of two genres?
“What happens when a book is the child of two different genres? Three? How do the authors of this cross-genre fiction get their books into our hot little hands when shelf placement becomes anything but straightforward?” Jim Rushing asks a selection of writers.
In search of Princess Toadstool
“With each advancement, the stakes get higher and the problems and their solutions more complicated. The pitfalls are greater in number and better hidden, the enemies ever increasingly clever and indomitable. The things I don’t know far outnumber the things I do.” Author Lindsey Grant on gaming Life as a parent and an American expatriate living in Switzerland.
Writers Resist: Because we need to
“That night […] as some of ‘our’ refugees were coming to the Austrian border, we heard that Germany was closing the border to Austria. This was the beginning of the end of Schengen, Europe and everything we had hoped for as young students studying European law. What have we achieved since that night? What has split the world into two camps of supporters and opponents? What triggered all that hate? And why did I close my heart again after it had been ripped open so badly?” —Angie Weinberger
Zürich Writers Resist 2018: Clare O’Dea speaks
“But what use is this concern? It is choking. It is debilitating. It feeds a bright futile flame that burns no-one but me. I hate to tell you folks, but I do not feel on the winning side of anything right now with all my precious concern. And I know you feel it too, or you wouldn’t be here. You feel that concern, you live with it, you know its crushing weight.” Clare O’Dea
Adolf Feller: Über-Connector, Postcard Collector
“Sometimes we humans are compelled to create a context for ourselves so our passions can thrive, and one wonders if Feller’s business endeavours—exploring the relatively new world of lighting and electrical solutions—were his way of doing just that.” Adolf Feller: a man whose propensity for connectivity led him to build one of the world’s largest collection of postcards.
Happy Birthday, Helvetica!
“Miedinger got to work. Following his brief, he designed a sans serif font entitled ‘Neue Haas Grotesk’. It worked. Understated, functional, compact and neutral, it was the essence of Swiss modernity.” Sixty years on, J.J. Marsh celebrates Helvetica font.
Letters Live: The Heartbeat of Humanity
“Something extraordinary happens when the performer takes the stage. For a brief moment, they become one with the words and the sentiment infused into the letters, bringing their spirits out of the past and into the present.”
‘C’ is for Cookie
“I am supposed to be the custodian of my child’s development, yet linguistically, she will soon surpass me. With regards to understanding, fluency, and ability to assimilate, the student will become the teacher.” Lindsey Grant wrangles a toddler who’s learning about her world in several languages.
Small Presses Making Waves
“I can’t imagine creating any other way. More eyes and hearts in what we’re making are always better.” We talk to Sean Platt, Sam Jordison, Joanna Penn and Nichola Smalley, who are making waves in different ways, with their imprints.
Robert Walser: A miniaturist
“Yet write he did. At some point in his thirties, cramps in his hands had made writing painful. He interpreted this as a psychosomatic rejection of the pen and turned instead to the pencil. This changed his output from wry and witty tales to wanderings through the landscape of the mind.” J.J. Marsh on beloved Swiss writer Robert Walser.
On Virginia Woolf, Orell Füssli’s The Bookshop, and beginnings
“There’s something interesting about a story that circles—however tightly, however loosely. This is the story that (like most others) is anchored from the start of its telling in a place and an action. It’s an action that is borne of friction: in the world, between characters, or internally.” Libby O’Loghlin on diving deep, and surfacing at the beginning.
Something Good
“As much credit as I give the Von Trapp family and all their musical life-coaching, this notion, ‘Nothing comes from nothing’, was around long before Maria and the Captain were serenading each other on the subject.” Lindsey Grant on writing, and starting at the very beginning.
Less in Ordinary Time
“Cowbells have a constancy, yet they are arrhythmic, a subtle protest against the Swiss clockwork of the cities. It’s a mindful cue to ‘think less in ordinary time’ of lockstep and paced life, of hours and minutes, appointments and regularities.” Caitlin Krause pens a dreamscape that brings us back to the beginnings of time—and ourselves.
The Voyage Out: Mr. Pinocchio
In the first instalment of The Voyage Out, Susan Platt ventures into the magical realm of Mr. Pinocchio: a children’s toyshop born from the mind of a multilingual story-lover.
The Borderlands of Identity
Novelist Lindsey Grant, one of the original forces behind NaNoWriMo, adds a personal note to the blurring of boundaries, as she prepares for the birth of her first child in a country that’s not her own.
Explorations in a parallel cultural universe
In Explorations in a Parallel Cultural Universe, Berlin-based Chris Corbett digs down into the after-dark, dying art of book touring to promote his first novel.
SWAGLit
Jo Furniss, member of our writerly pack, is leaving prints of her own all over Singapore, as she co-founds SWAGLit, Singapore’s newest litmag for writers.
Author Day: The Numbers
The Woolf‘s very own Jill J. Marsh unearths treasure chests of writerly goings-on at FutureBook’s very recent Author Day in London.
Eulogy for Orell Füssli The Bookshop
Long-time Zürich resident, writer and entrepreneur Susan Platt pays her respects to a much-loved and soon-to-be-departed Zürich institution: Orell Füssli The Bookshop.
Glass, Concrete and Stone
JJ Marsh ponders displacement, memory, and the emotional importance of place.
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2018 Poetry Prize winners
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