Posts Tagged Authors I Admire
Archive
June 14, 2021 by Simon Sweetman
Roger McGough Had Done Enough – And Long Before He Wrote A Poem To Save My Life
What I said was that I’d first read the poem when I was about 15. And had loved it ever since. Had thought about it – and often – for nearly 30 years. And because that clearly wasn’t lofty enough I added that the poem, this one poem, was in fact a guiding light. I […]Archive
April 24, 2021 by Simon Sweetman
Authors I Admire: # 17 Owen Marshall
I’ve been thinking about Owen Marshall a bit lately. I feel like, in some way, I’m often thinking about him, have been since I was about 15 or 16. That’s when I met him – er, on the page, that is. I’ve never met him. I’d like to. I’d love to interview him one day. […]Archive
May 3, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
Authors I Admire: # 16 Willy Vlautin
In 2012 I was on holiday in San Francisco and I stumbled upon a reading at the famous City Lights bookstore. Well, we were visiting the store, checking it out when I saw a flyer advertising the reading. We were back there later that week. Willy Vlautin was there as a friend of the main act, […]Archive
March 22, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
Authors I Admire: # 15 Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway is one of the great voices of American literature. His raw, gritty take on life was developed through his work as a journalist and war correspondent and his short stories and novels are filled with his, now widely mimicked, take on minimalism and realism. Hemingway cloaked emotional drama in his stories by using […]Archive
February 27, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
Authors I Admire: # 14 Nik Cohn
It’s hard naming favourite music writers, like being forced to pick a favourite band I guess. You don’t always want to listen to The Beatles or much as Kendrick Lamar might take your fancy you can’t just listen to only that. It’s the same with great writers – you get different things from different people. […]Archive
October 10, 2016 by Simon Sweetman
Clive James: Play All – A Bingewatcher’s Notebook
Play All: A Bingewatcher’s Notebook Clive James Yale University Press Writing about television isn’t easy – it’s easier now because TV is better: more people are invested in shows that have our attention in a way the movies used to. It’s easier now too because of Clive James. He’s left his mark on poetry and […]Archive
August 23, 2016 by Simon Sweetman
Sweetman Podcast: Episode 29 – Sylvie Simmons
Welcome to episode 29 of Sweetman Podcast brought to you by Phantom Billstickers. This one is a chat with Sylvie Simmons – that’s Sylvie Simmons the music writer, Leonard Cohen biographer and MOJO staff writer, legendary rock writer who was on the tour bus with Black Sabbath and Van Halen, who published the first interview […]Archive
June 2, 2016 by Simon Sweetman
Authors I Admire: # 13 Neil LaBute
You might normally find an appreciation of Neil LaBute under film or theatre – rather than discussion of him as an author. Actually, you might not find a written appreciation of Neil LaBute anywhere…his work hardly ever ends happily, barely starts out that way and usually gets toughest in the middle. He works without including […]Archive
April 9, 2016 by Simon Sweetman
Greil Marcus: The History of Rock’n’Roll in Ten Songs
The History of Rock’n’Roll in Ten Songs Greil Marcus Yale University Press T-Bone Burnett is quoted, in this book, “Listen, the story of the United States is this: One kid, without anything, walks out of his house, down the road, with nothing but a guitar and conquers the world.” It’s a good quote – but […]Archive
September 22, 2014 by Simon Sweetman
Authors I Admire: # 12 Greil Marcus
I’m currently halfway through a book called The History of Rock’n’Roll in Ten Songs – it’s the latest (brand new) book from Greil Marcus. Impossible to chart rock’n’roll’s history through ten songs you say. Well, not if you’re Greil Marcus. Fortunately for him (and us) no one else is Greil Marcus. There is only one […]Archive
September 21, 2014 by Simon Sweetman