News related to The Inventors

by Peter Selgin

Congratulations to Peter Selgin whose memoir, The Inventors, won the Housatonic Book Award in nonfiction!

31 Oct 2017|

Peter Selgin’s memoir, The Inventors, wins the Housatonic Book Award in nonfiction!

Nonfiction

Winner

The Inventors by Peter Selgin

Finalists

Walking the Llano: A Texas Memoir of Place by Shelley Armitage

A Piece of Sky, A Grain of Rice by Christine Hale

The Jaguar Man by Lara Naughton

A Road Unforeseen: Woman Fight the Islamic State by Meredith Tax

Arizona PBS Books & Co: Host Alberto Rios discusses The Inventors with author Peter Selgin.

08 Jun 2017|

In this memoir, Peter Selgin outlines the beginning of his passion for writing. As the child of an inventor and a twin, Peter always felt he had to compete for his parents’ attention. At the beginning of eighth grade, Peter meets a young teacher who took him under his wing: the two spend hours at the teacher’s cottage, drinking tea, playing chess and discussing books until the teacher resigns.

Listen to the interview here.

Peter Selgin’s memoir, The Inventors, included in Nine Books You May Have Missed in 2016, by William Belcher

04 Jan 2017|

Like many readers, my TBR (to be read) pile is out of control. I can’t read fast enough to keep up with the number of books added on a weekly basis. So, more often than not, I miss a lot of the books that make those end of year lists. As 2016 comes to a close, I thought it would be interesting to do two things: 1) take a look at small press books you and I may have missed this year and 2) ask our local booksellers what they’d recommend. Given my tastes and reading habits, you’ll see the...Forward

BREVITY’s Nonfiction Blog (Somewhat) Daily News from the World of Literary Nonfiction

19 Sep 2016|

On the Pleasures of Not Writing
By Peter Selgin


Not writing has many advantages. You can walk with both hands in your pockets. You can peel and eat an orange. Other fruits, too, become accessible to the non-writer.


When not writing it is possible to participate in all kinds of physical activities unavailable to writers. Swimming comes to mind, as well as other water sports such as water skiing and scuba diving. Operating any kind of watercraft, even a small rowboat or sailboat, is...Forward

Georgia College Connections | Peter Selgin talks about his new memoir The Inventors

27 May 2016|

Writer Peter Selgin is a dramatist, essayist, novelist, and artist, and a member of the faculty corps at Georgia College and the author of the new memoir The Inventors.


The Inventors is a memoir about the relationships Selgin shared with his father and a favorite teacher from his adolescence.


The Inventors is out now and available at bookstores and online. You can find out more at Peter Selgin’s website peterselgin.com.


If you enjoyed our conversation, we’ve included a recording...Forward

“Peter Selgin’s The Inventors examines the lives of two men who hid their pasts: Self-Made Men,” by Amy S. Mercer for the Charleston City Paper

21 Apr 2016|

Peter Selgin believes that every person is a product of their own invention. “We don’t have a faithful grasp of who we are, and we base our identities on a blend of memory and a mythology,” Selgin says. “Memories are about as reliable as myths. Like myths, they take on their own truths.” But what does it mean when the truth about someone, let’s say a father or a teacher, is different from what we’ve always known about them?

In The Inventors, Selgin examines the lives of two men who were...Forward

LitReactor Bookshots: The Inventors by Peter Selgin reviewed by Ed Sikov

12 Apr 2016|

Bookshots: Pumping new life into the corpse of the book review


With wit, remorse, ferocious intelligence, and a little well-deserved self-pity, Selgin recounts his odd life.


Invent a new title for this book:
Believe You Me


Read this if you like(d):
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov


Meet the book’s lead(s):
Peter Selgin, the book’s author; Paul Selgin, his father; and “the teacher,” who bonds with him when he’s in eighth grade and reappears throughout his life.


The Verdict:...Forward

Literary Hub runs an Excerpt from The Inventors: A Memoir by Peter Selgin

01 Apr 2016|

The rumors arrived before the new teacher did. That he was young, that he had gone to Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, that he wore cable knit turtleneck sweaters with bell-bottom jeans and square-toed leather boots with big brass buckles on the side. He wore his blond hair almost to his shoulders, like Illya Kuryakin in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. He planned to teach a special class, an experimental class for gifted students that he would hand pick. When the time came you, your brother, and your...Forward

Peter Selgin’s The Inventors National Book Tour

15 Mar 2016|

Peter Selgin’s The Inventors National Book Tour

...Destined to become a modern classic… - Derek Sanderson, Starred Library Journal review for Peter Selgin’s memoir The Inventors

15 Mar 2016|

Selgin’s (Life Goes to the Movies; Drowning Lessons) memoir debut focuses on the two men—the author’s father and his eighth-grade English teacher—who had the most impact on his life. In telling the story of his relationships with these individuals, he uncovers not only what they hid from him and most other people in their lives, but unravels what people keep hidden from themselves. Short interludes are interspersed throughout; some tell fablelike stories that enhance the larger...Forward

“Peter Selgin is a born writer, capable of taking any subject and exploring it from a new angle, with wit, grace, and erudition.”—Oliver Sacks


Both Selgin’s father and the man he calls “the teacher” led remarkable lives. Among other things, Paul Selgin helped design the so-called “proximity fuse” that hastened the end of World War II. As for the teacher, he became a forceful advocate for human rights and diversity, championing the cause of indigenous peoples and refugees from...Forward