In May we announced our second title, This Is Not Who I Am: Our Authenticity Obsession, by Emily Bootle. Emily is a talented cultural critic and journalist and This Is Not Who I Am - her first collection of essays - is an intelligent, timely and relatable exploration of authenticity in all its forms and complexity, and what it means to 'be yourself' in the modern world. We are very excited for people to read it when it is published on 8th November.
Anna Leszkiewicz, Associate Editor at the New Statesman says: 'Emily Bootle is one of our shrewdest and wittiest cultural critics. Keenly attentive to the many absurdities of celebrity coverage, corporate branding tropes, social media affectations and online discourse, This Is Not Who I Am dismantles the contradictions that underpin contemporary culture. Turning her gimlet eye on the influencer economy, Kim Kardashian, astrology, artisanal coffee, Jane Austen, and the kind of man who considers himself “a creative, which is to say he has a humanities degree”, Bootle exposes the fundamental collective delusion that links all of the above - our insistence on cultivating and exhibiting a single “authentic” self.'
Emily has just been announced as part of the Cheltenham Literature Festival lineup, where she will be taking part in an event called Get Rich or Lie Trying: Authenticity and Influence in the Internet Age with Hanna Bervoets (We Had to Remove This Post) and Symeon Brown (Get Rich or Lie Trying). In what promises to be a fascinating discussion, the three writers will dig deep into what authenticity means online. You can find out more about the event and how to book tickets here: https://www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/literature/whats-on/2022/get-rich-or-lie-trying-authenticity-and-influence-in-the-internet-age.
This Is Not Who I Am: Our Authenticity Obsession is published on 8th November. You can preorder it now from ortacpress.com/shop.
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