Writers – Interesting Literature

Five Fascinating Facts about William Gibson

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

1. William Gibson popularised the term ‘cyberspace’ in a short story of 1982.

Defined as ‘the notional environment in which communication over computer networks occurs’, cyberspace first appeared in fiction in William Gibson’s 1982 story ‘Burning Chrome’ (no relation to Google Chrome, we’re told), a story about a couple of freelance hackers. (Before it was published, Gibson read this story out at a science fiction convention – to an audience of four people.)

5 Sly Habits Able to Poison Your Writing Creativity

By Lesley Vos

Once upon a time, someone somewhere told people they couldn’t be creative writers if didn’t have particular genes or characteristics of brains.

Gone are those days when we believed those yucks.

Writers have learned to unlock and develop creativity with particular daily routine and lifestyle. Positive thinking, mindfulness, tons of writing techniques, and even drinking a coffee work on us, modern age’s children striving for work-life balance. Great minds agree on the direct linking between beneficial habits and their influence on writing productivity.

But the question remains there still:

Five Fascinating Facts about Plutarch

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

1. Plutarch effectively invented the genre of biography.

Plutarch’s innovative approach to biography was to take two important figures – one from Greek civilisation and the other from the Roman empire – and compare and contrast their characters, fortunes, and outlooks. This is the basis for his most famous work, the Parallel Lives.

Five Fascinating Facts about Sappho

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Although only a small amount of her poetry has survived, the ancient Greek poet Sappho (c. 630 – c. 570 BC) has had a posthumous literary reputation. She has become an icon for lyric poets, and, of course, a symbol for homosexual love between women.

Five Fascinating Facts about Edmund Spenser

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

1. The word ‘blatant’ was invented in Spenser’s epic poem The Faerie Queene.

Spenser coined the word ‘blatant’ when he came up with the fictional many-tongued creature, the Blatant beast, in his epic poem. The Faerie Queene is a vast allegorical work of fantasy which mythologises England (using native myths, such as St George, alongside a sort of Chaucerian English) as a great Christian nation, ruled over by ‘Gloriana’ (i.e. Queen Elizabeth I).