Joseph O’Neill’s novel Netherland (Pantheon Books) has been selected as the winner of the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. O’Neill’s novel won over finalists Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum for Ms. Hempel Chronicles (Harcourt); Susan Choi for A Person of Interest (Viking); Richard Price for Lush Life (Farrar, Straus and Giroux); and Ron Rash for Serena (Ecco).
I’m [...]
Katherine Center blogs here about the publication day for her second book. It’s a sweet and candid look at the joy of waking up to know your book is on store shelves today. I haven’t read either of her books, but really enjoyed this post, mostly because it gives me hope. Maybe I’ll have a [...]
Last week, Meaghan O’Rourke began a series of essays on grief at Slate Magazine. I adore the essay form, and am especially moved by these pieces. O’Rourke, a poet and the culture critic at Slate, finds a place for both her lyric talent and her critic’s eye in these essays, which exquisitely balance personal pain [...]
Where does creativity come from?
Amy Tan gives a terrific tongue-in-cheek talk about creativity in the video above, and it’s great food for thought. I’m in the imagining stage of a new novel, so I’m grappling with creativity in a way that feels fresh to me. I spent years, years which I now consider my fiction-writing [...]
My wonderful writing friend Shannon Jackson Arnold sent me a link to a Top 10 Blogs for Writers list compiled by Michael Seltzer at Writing White Papers. I’ve checked out a few, and they seem to be full of useful information for writers, ranging from inspiration and productivity to freelance writing opportunities. Check them out!
Shannon’s [...]
For a long time–probably since, lo these many years ago, I graduated with a BA in English Literature–I’ve gravitated toward literary fiction. I’ve savored books for their rich characterizations, their glorious wedding of setting and theme, their epiphanies. And I’ve steadfastly avoided genre or commercial fiction. You might (in fact, I think my mom does) [...]
The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot
by Charles Baxter, Graywolf Press, 2007. I’m currently reading the next-to-last essay, “Creating a Scene.” It’s putting the spotlight on a tendency I, like many writers, have: letting the taboo against “making a scene” in real life show up in fiction, where making a scene is essential.
The Iliad
by Homer, translated [...]
John Truby’s 22 steps for storytelling are a genuinely worthwhile journey for anyone interested in strengthening the structure of their fiction or screenplay. I’m working through the process right now, and feel as if I’m laying the block foundation, framing in the walls, building the joists of a sturdy structure.
For me, writing fiction has never [...]
Newspaper stand alone book sections are a vanishing species, but news aggregator The Daily Beast just made my week by introducing Book Beast, featuring in-depth coverage of books and authors.
Today, you can see John Patrick Shanley’s Book Bag column, a selection of New & Newly Relevant books, and articles on authors ranging from Linda Fairstein [...]
Giving up. It sounds so pathetic.
But I’ve been mulling something I dismissed when I initially heard it.
I was lucky enough, thanks to a friend, to sit next to agent Sheree Bykofsky at lunch one day a few years ago at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s annual Spring Writers Festival. She went around the table asking each [...]