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Irish Times
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Austin Taylor: ‘I found it so fascinating and poignant how we portray women in the media, especially powerful women who make mistakes'
Austin Taylor is speaking to me from her parents' attic in the farmhouse where she grew up in rural Maine. The 26-year-old is the picture of vibrant youth – glowing skin, a long mane of thick blonde hair and an easy-going demeanour. She is about to begin a law degree at Stanford University and has already completed a double degree in chemistry and English at Harvard – they call it a double concentrator. She has also just published her debut novel, Notes On Infinity , which she sold in the US for a seven-figure sum. You could call her an over-achiever, but I'm not sure she'd agree. In fact, not too long ago, she felt like a failure. 'I certainly felt intense pressure at Harvard. You're surrounded by people doing incredible cutting-edge work, especially in the sciences. You're surrounded by the legacy of people who have come through the institution before you who have done incredible things. You're surrounded by professors who are doing amazing research and teaching, and your peers who have amazing ideas and are working on really cool stuff in addition to taking five classes a semester and doing really well. There's a sense that if you're not doing something absolutely incredible, you're falling short or failing. I certainly felt that way.' It's something she wanted to explore in Notes On Infinity, particularly around the 'move fast and break things' culture that exists at the nexus of scientific research and venture capital-funded biotech start-ups. The book tells the story of Zoe and Jack, two brilliant Harvard students whose breakthrough scientific discoveries prompt them to drop out and set up a biotech company that claims to have found the cure for ageing. It's a classic Icarus tale of young idealism warped by greed and ambition. 'The dollar amounts are just unimaginable,' she says of biotech VC funding, 'especially for really young people. I think the incentive structures that that amount of money creates are often problematic and scary, especially in science, because science is fundamentally such a slow, iterative, uncertain process and business, especially in pitching a start-up, is all about positive spin. And that's a fundamental tension. And sometimes that creates awesome innovation and other times it creates fire and broken glass and damage.' You can probably guess which of these paths her book follows. READ MORE [ Rethink needed on meeting the demand for Stem graduates Opens in new window ] The novel was somewhat inspired by the scandal surrounding Elizabeth Holmes and her blood-diagnostic start-up, Theranos. Holmes, a brilliant and beautiful scientist, was the face of the company but was eventually jailed for defrauding investors in a spectacular fall from grace. In Notes On Infinity, Taylor's protagonist Zoe is a beautiful, brilliant young woman who also becomes the face of her and Jack's start-up. 'One of the things I was interested in exploring was the obsession with women in [ Stem ] spaces and the tokenisation of women in these spaces. Elizabeth Holmes was lauded for her gender during Theranos's rise, then after its fall she was demonised for her gender. I heard a disturbing number of comments about how she must have used her sexuality to manipulate male funders. That fixation on gender and self-presentation and hair and clothes and make-up, I do think it's heightened by the fact that women are such a minority in science. Former Theranos chief executive Elizabeth Holmes leaving court in San Jose, California, in March 2023. Photograph: Jeff Chiu/AP/PA 'I did consume a lot of the reporting on the Holmes case because I found it so fascinating and poignant, particularly on issues of gender, how we portray women in the media, especially powerful women who make mistakes.' Taylor's path from growing up as the only child of a dairy farmer in rural Maine to taking a double degree at Harvard to becoming a sought-after debut author about to embark on a legal career is remarkably grounded. 'I had a pretty idyllic, rural childhood. I rode horses and worked on the farm in the summers, milking cows. But I was also very invested in school and I played a lot of sports and I had access to lots of great opportunities.' Her decision to go to Harvard was motivated by the pursuit of academic excellence, but when she arrived on campus, she felt out of place. 'That transition was pretty jarring, which is something that comes out in the novel. I didn't realise the extent to which most people at Harvard would have already been embedded in that sort of community of people who will go to Harvard. There are lots of ways that you can be in that pipeline, so I'm not talking about legacy or family connections, but people had gone to the same summer camps, or done the same competitive academic things like debate or math olympiad, or they had played sports together, and I truly had no connection to the institution at all, so when I showed up on campus for the admitted students weekend it was like everyone else already had friends and they knew how to act and they knew where things were and what parties were going on, and I was like how am I already not a part of this? " Her choice of degree – chemistry – reinforced that feeling of being an outsider. 'I was convinced I needed to do something practical with my college time. There were lots of people questioning my decision to even go to Harvard. I think this is really common in rural areas actually. You can go for free to your state university so people are like, why would you choose to go to this elite university that feels very other to our community, particularly when you're going to be paying an amount of money, that seems silly? That divide and that perception is only worse now, given all of the things that are going on in America. I think that and coming from a farming family gave me this fixation that I needed to do a hard science, be practical and have a skill.' When she took some English classes, it reignited her childhood love of writing. 'If you had asked me when I was 10, 'what do you want to be when you grow up?', I would have said 'writer'…but I came to realise that was a not a particularly stable or likely career path. In fact, I think it seemed like a total pipe dream, so I turned away." After college, she worked for a non-profit in New York for a year before returning to her family home to take a year out in an attempt to recover from debilitating migraines. 'I had some time and I thought, what I've actually always wanted to do was to be a writer, so let me try.' But it wasn't all smooth sailing. She wrote a novel, and submitted it to publishers but couldn't find a home for it. 'Which was very upsetting,' she says. But even as that first novel was dying on submission, she had already moved on to Notes On Infinity . Where did she find the determination to push on with another book in the face of that early rejection? 'I think it was mostly that I was really compelled by the idea for Notes. And I was really convinced that it could be special. Then there was a degree of stubbornness, which is part of my personality for better or for worse, and also a degree of naivety, which was necessary for me to do the whole thing. I think if I had thought too hard about how likely any of this was to work out, I simply wouldn't have done it because the odds are so low.' [ Pat O'Connor: 'Why would girls study Stem if they have no career path afterwards?' Opens in new window ] The book deals – in addition to the American deal, the book has sold for six figures in the UK, and at auction in Germany – have changed her life, she says. They've given her the time and space to get better at writing, although she says she has not yet touched any of the money. 'I don't think I've ever had a phone call where there was a 'you-should-sit-down' moment. Even the first payments are more money than I've ever seen in one place, ever.' She is planning on working as an attorney with an interest in the interface between AI and media and arts. 'I recognise we must make space for AI's vast potential but, as a firm believer in the power and importance of good storytelling, I am concerned that existing legal frameworks provide inadequate protection for writers and the publishing ecosystem.' She has no plans to stop writing – a double concentrator in life too, it seems. In fact she has already finished a draft of her second novel, which will centre around a similar subculture of very powerful young male tech founders and a young woman's relationship with an older, more professionally powerful man. But she is very excited to be going to Stanford – to study law, and for the weather too, which is balmier than the northerly climes she is used to, but also for another reason … 'I've started drafting my third novel…" she says. 'And it's going to be set in Silicon Valley.' Notes on Infinity by Austin Taylor is published by Michael Joseph.
ABC News
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
How Powerless author Lauren Roberts became a bestseller at just 22 years old
The idea for Lauren Roberts' debut novel came to her when she was just 18 years old. So she did what any teenager with access to a phone would do next: start a live stream to share her idea with BookTok. "And [my followers] were like, 'We want to read it!' Telling me to add this trope and that trope," the US writer tells ABC Arts. She spent the next three months writing Powerless, which went on to become a bestselling YA romantic fantasy (romantasy) novel, in between studying at college and working a part-time job. "I'd be up until 4am every day writing, and then I'd wake up and go to school and then [to my job] and do all of that all over again." After finishing the first draft, Roberts hired a freelance editor to help shape her manuscript, asked her mum if she could leave college and moved back home, where she Googled: "How to self-publish a book." Somehow, in 2023, she pulled it together and published her debut just after her 19th birthday. The world was very interested, as it turns out, in Roberts' protagonist Paedyn Gray, a pickpocket from the slums of Ilya considered a powerless Ordinary in a society that only serves Elites with special abilities. Until, that is, she unwittingly saves the life of Prince Malakai and is thrust into the kingdom's annual purging competition, a series of deadly trials meant to showcase the most powerful Elites and reinforce the tyrant King Edric's rule. By late 2023, Roberts had signed a deal with a traditional publisher who wanted to pick up the first instalment in her dystopian tale of romance and political intrigue. Since then, she's written four more books (the third novel in the Powerless trilogy, Fearless, came out in April) and become a New York Times bestselling author. And a TV adaptation is underway. All this by the age of 22. "I can't believe this has happened. I didn't imagine this would ever be a thing," Roberts says of her success. She says life has simultaneously changed "so much" and "not at all". She's still living in the same apartment with her cats. But she's quit her part-time job and is now writing romantasy full time. "I get up and I just write most of the day. But, aside from incredible [book] tours — when I get to meet so many people that love these books and it's like, 'Whoa, this is crazy' — it doesn't feel big. It's just me in my apartment." Roberts is still learning to navigate the pressure — and scrutiny — that have accompanied her success. Not only is she a young author new to the publishing world, who started out as a BookTok influencer, she's also faced criticism over what some readers believe are similarities between her debut and popular YA fantasy series such as Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games and Victoria Aveyard's Red Queen. Roberts has been open about this for years. "Absolutely, there are similarities to The Hunger Games … and to so many other amazing books out there," she says now. "And that's how it is because there are billions of works." Still, the Goodreads pages for her books are filled with reviews by readers arguing the Powerless series is, at best, derivative and too heavily reliant on romance and dystopian fiction tropes and, at worst, a rip-off of various fantasy novels. Roberts says this "can be a little frustrating". "But I do remind myself that, a lot of the time, they're 14-year-olds and we know how the internet is. And at the end of the day, there's inspiration from every angle, and tropes are something that are in every book. "On the internet, I don't feel the need to address it because it's simply not true." This strategy is working — for now, at least. While Roberts can't say much about the Powerless TV adaptation, she confirms, "There are things happening behind the scenes [and] we're very excited." There's also an upcoming international book tour, including Australia. "We're travelling from one side of Australia to the other, with tons of stops, and I'm really excited to answer the readers' burning questions," she says. There are more books in the works, too, including another Powerless novella titled Fearful, out in September. After that, Roberts plans to slow down the release schedule. Not only did she write Powerless in three months, she also finished the first drafts for follow-up books Reckless and Fearless in the same amount of time. Roberts wrote Powerful, the first Powerless novella, in just 28 days. "It is daunting. It's not like, 'I'll just write for two hours today and whatever.' It's definitely three months of head-down writing," Roberts says of her process up until now. "This past year, it has been go, go, go. So I'm reaching a point where I do want to space out the books a little more. Nothing crazy, but even just writing one book a year." Rebecca Yarros, another high-profile romantasy author, signalled plans to do the same in November 2023. At the same time, the publishing industry is facing increasing comparisons to fast fashion, with some readers attributing the "Sheinification of books" to what they perceive as the decreasing quality of fantasy novels. The Powerless series is frequently brought up as part of these conversations online. Roberts doesn't let the criticism get in her way, instead choosing to "focus on the positives". She says her number one goal in finishing the Powerless series is "staying true to what 18-year-old me started". Lauren Roberts will be discussing Powerless at events in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth from June 21-29.
Irish Times
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Thirst Trap by Gráinne O'Hare: For fans of well-written absolute riots
Thirst Trap Author : Grainne O'Hare ISBN-13 : 978-1035046195 Publisher : Picador Guideline Price : £16.99 Even in the age of conglomeration – when the average novel features merely as an insignificant line item on the balance sheet of a titanic multinational – publishing remains a noble enterprise. Also, happily, an amusing one. Amusement derives from the fact that publishers have absolutely no idea what people want to read until all at once a particular book sells in droves – at which point commissioning editors scramble to find lots of books just like it, turning the bookshop shelves into a slightly uncanny parade of homogeneous entities, like Andy Warhol's duplicated soup cans. If you liked that, try this! Hence all those YA cover versions of The Hunger Games (The Scorch Trials?); hence David Baldacci's series of thrillers about John Puller, who is in no way a wholly saturated derivative of Lee Child 's Jack Reacher; and so on, ad infinitum. This is a roundabout way of saying that Gráinne O'Hare's debut novel, Thirst Trap, is being insistently marketed in such a way as to appeal to fans of Sally Rooney , Eliza Clark , Naoise Dolan et al. The Dolan readership in particular has been micro-targeted, as they say in marketing seminars: Thirst Trap's cover design is a dead ringer for the cover of Exciting Times ; the jacket copy mentions 'the very best and the very worst', though not the most exciting, 'of times'. READ MORE The problem with all of this isn't that it's cynical. (Actually, like all marketing, it's sort of ingenuous, in that it hopes that people can be persuaded by the straightforward invocation of things that they already like.) The problem is that it tends to efface the individuality of a given novel – which only really matters, of course, when a given novel has some individuality to speak of. Which is to say that while Thirst Trap does share certain qualities with Exciting Times (a generational ambience, a matter-of-fact attitude to queerness, an interest in the between-state of being in your 20s), it is the work of a writer with a distinctive sensibility and with gifts and perceptions of her own. O'Hare has been publishing short fiction in various Irish and UK venues over the last couple of years. A young Belfast writer who now lives in England (where she is pursuing a PhD in 18th-century women's life writing), she has written a novel about what it's like to be a young woman in contemporary Belfast. It's an absolute riot – funny, compassionate, observant and wise, the work of a real writer. A 'thirst trap', for my non-Generation Z (or non-terminally-online) readers, is a sexy picture of oneself, posted online in order to attract attention. In O'Hare's sly usage, however, it might also refer to the experience of being in your late 20s in a contemporary western country, when the culture around you is largely oriented towards 'the sesh' – a world in which crippling hangovers are taken for granted, in which life happens, if it happens at all, in pubs and clubs, and in which a sort of tacit alcoholism underwrites, and undermines, the quest for a meaningful life. O'Hare's present-tense narrative follows three characters, all of them about to hit 30. Maggie, a legal secretary, is gay; she is being strung along by Cate, who calls Maggie when she's drunk. Roise, who works in a 'corporate hellscape', is straight, and fancies Adam, her 'superior' at the bland office where she works. Harley is bisexual, works in a hotel, and pursues self-destruction, or self-obliteration, via cocaine and one-night stands. [ Sally Rooney: 'I enjoy writing about men ... the dangerous charisma of the oppressor class' Opens in new window ] This all sounds very standard-issue but O'Hare attends so closely, so wittily, and so empathetically to every single one of these characters that the events of their lives assume the seismic importance of, precisely, events in life. There is no cynicism or amateurism here – only a nuanced and non-judgmental engagement with character that is the essence of the best fiction. The three women all share a tumbledown rented house. The fourth member of their quartet, Lydia, has been killed in a car crash a year before the action of the novel begins, and lingers as a shaping presence in their lives. Early in the novel, Maggie practises running up and down the stairs of the rented house, but stops when she remembers 'there's rot below'. The rot, of course, is below these young women's lives; the house might be the house of capitalism, though the book doesn't make a big deal of the suggestion – it isn't that sort of novel. It is, rather, the sort of book that involves you skilfully in the thoughts and feelings of persuasive characters. It bounces along, cracking jokes, scarcely putting a foot wrong, except in the (slightly too sentimental) epilogue. It is enormously impressive and fun. As the marketing department might say: if you like good books, try this. Kevin Power is associate professor of literary practice in the School of English, Trinity College Dublin
BreakingNews.ie
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BreakingNews.ie
Debut novel by Dutch author wins 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction
A debut novel by a Dutch author has won the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction with the judges praising it as 'a classic in the making'. Announced at a ceremony held in central London on Thursday, Yael van der Wouden, 38, won the award for her novel, The Safekeep, which explores repressed desire and the unresolved aftermath of the Holocaust in post-Second World War Netherlands. Advertisement The novel follows Isabel, a young woman whose life in solitude is upended when her brother's girlfriend, Eva, comes to live with her in their family house in what turns into a summer of obsession, suspicion and desire. Writer and chair of judges for the fiction prize, Kit de Waal, said: 'The Safekeep is that rare thing: a masterful blend of history, suspense and historical authenticity. 'Every word is perfectly placed, page after page revealing an aspect of war and the Holocaust that has been, until now, mostly unexplored in fiction. 'It is also a love story with beautifully rendered intimate scenes written with delicacy and compelling eroticism. Advertisement 'This astonishing debut is a classic in the making, a story to be loved and appreciated for generations to come. Books like this don't come along every day.' Queen Camilla, fourth from right, with the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist and chair of judges Kit de Waal (Twiggles/Women's Prize Trust/PA) Van der Wouden will receive £30,000 along with a limited-edition bronze statuette known as the Bessie which was created and donated by the artist Grizel Niven. The judging panel for the Women's Prize for Fiction included novelist and journalist Diana Evans, author, journalist and mental-health campaigner Bryony Gordon, writer and magazine editor Deborah Joseph, and musician and composer Amelia Warner. Also announced at the ceremony was the recipient of the non-fiction award which was won by physician Dr Rachel Clarke for The Story Of A Heart, a book that explores the human experience behind organ donation. Advertisement The book recounts two family stories, documenting how medical staff take care of nine-year-old Kiera in her final hours following a car accident while offering a new life to also nine-year-old Max who is suffering from heart failure from a viral infection. Journalist, broadcaster and author Kavita Puri who was the chair of judges for the non-fiction prize, said: 'The Story Of A Heart left a deep and long-lasting impression on us. Clarke's writing is authoritative, beautiful and compassionate. 'The research is meticulous, and the storytelling is expertly crafted. She holds this precious story with great care and tells it with dignity, interweaving the history of transplant surgery seamlessly. 'This is a book where humanity shines through on every page, from the selfless act of the parents who gift their daughter's heart in the depths of despair, to the dedication of the NHS workers. It is unforgettable, and will be read for many years to come.' Advertisement Clarke, who is behind Breathtaking, Dear Life and Your Life In My Hands will receive £30,000 along with a limited-edition piece of art known as the Charlotte which was gifted by the Charlotte Aitken Trust. Queen Camilla, centre, with the 2025 Women's Prize for Non-Fiction shortlist and chair of judges Kavita Puri (Twiggles/Women's Prize Trust/PA) The judging panel for the non-fiction prize included writer and broadcaster Dr Leah Broad, whose work focuses on women's cultural history along with novelist and critic Elizabeth Buchan. The writer and environmental academic, Dr Elizabeth-Jane Burnett was also a judge for the non-fiction award along with the author and writer of The Hyphen newsletter on Substack, Emma Gannon. Previous winners of the fiction prize include Tayari Jones with An American Marriage and The Song Of Achilles by Madeline Miller, while the first winner of the non-fiction prize was awarded last year to Naomi Klein for Doppelganger: A Trip Into The Mirror World. Advertisement The awards were announced by the Women's Prize Trust, a UK charity that aims to 'create equitable opportunities for women in the world of books and beyond'.
Daily Mail
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Forgotten classics take centre stage in this week's Retros: THE STEPDAUGHTER by Caroline Blackwood, FROM SCENES LIKE THESE by Gordon M. Williams, THE WOMAN IN THE HALL by G. B. Stern
THE STEPDAUGHTER by Caroline Blackwood (Virago £9.99, 128pp) It's hard to think of a blacker portrait of betrayal and damage, conveyed in so few pages, than this debut novel. The narrator, J, writes a series of imaginary letters in her head after her wealthy lawyer husband abandons her in a fabulous New York apartment. But she is left with her silent, compulsively overeating teenage stepdaughter Renata, whom she despises so much that 'one often has a longing to try to damage her even more'. Her lifestyle is contingent on looking after Renata, until a breathtaking twist reveals a different perspective and J is forced to confront a new narrative – for all of them. Wickedly witty, it is the fate of the pathetically passive Renata that haunts in the closing pages. From Scenes Like These is available now from the Mail Bookshop FROM SCENES LIKE THESE by Gordon M. Williams (Picador £10.99, 352pp) Despite being bright at school, working-class Duncan leaves aged 15, preferring harsh, underpaid labouring on a local farm with brutal Blackie and womanising Telfer, who has dreams of emigrating to Canada. Duncan's vision of what is manly is distorted by his cold, paralysed father, local footballers and the economic decline of 1950s Scotland. But when he meets middle-class Elsa, he believes, momentarily, in love and a future. At the same time, secretly pregnant Mary arrives at the farm, desperate to secure someone with prospects for her unborn child. This 1969 Booker-shortlisted portrait of small-town claustrophobia, violence and unfulfilled lives is bleak, bitter and brilliantly believable. THE WOMAN IN THE HALL by G. B. Stern (British Library £9.99, 352pp) Single mother Lorna Blake wants nothing but the best for her disadvantaged daughters and, in the London Society of the 1930s, there's plenty of spare cash to be found – if you know how to work the system. So, Lorna spins tales of poverty, sickness and abuse as she 'grifts' her way into homes, dragging her reluctant girls on the 'visits'. But the past catches up with Lorna, and both of her daughters will be forced to develop their own talents, as their mother, when cornered, proves a ruthless survivor. Criss-crossing continents, this is rich with humour and eccentric characters – although Lorna, as befits a con artist, is unknowable until the end.
