Happy to argue: ‘What I’m not happy about is being told to shut up.’ Photo: facebook.com/LionelShriver/Suki Dhanda
Until September this year, Lionel Shriver was best known as the author of the 2003 Orange Prize-winning book We Need To Talk About Kevin, and to a lesser but no less acclaimed degree, works such as So Much For That and The New Republic. Her latest novel, The Mandibles, was published earlier this year and examines a United States set in the year 2029 following a total economic collapse.
Much of the attention she’s been getting recently, however, has not been about her new novel but rather a speech. In September, Shriver spoke at the Brisbane Writers Festival, Australia, where she shared her disdain for identity politics when it came to writing fiction; her speech focused specifically on cultural appropriation – which refers to the adoption of customs or experiences from one culture by another, generally when the subject culture is a minority one.
Win a prize this Mother's Day by subscribing to our annual plan now! T&C applies.
