Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays, by Zadie Smith This collection of essays came about by accident, Zadie Smith tells us in the foreword, but the voice and curiosity behind it make this read seamless and satisfying. And with Smith, whether the subject is Nabokov or Forster, her person is an […]
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays, by Alexander Chee “Writing is a way of going to the depth of Being,” wrote Marguerite Yourcenar, and the sixteen essays that make up Alexander Chee’s 2018 memoir are at their heart about writing—but they are also about striving to succeed as a […]
When you put yourself out ‘there’ as a writer, when you lasso the title of ‘writer,’ inevitably you are asked your opinion. You are also confronted by a litany of folks who make excuses. Now, I’m not adverse to the excuse bit. I hear and speak them daily. But what […]
There are many axioms that get tossed around writing advice columns and beginning writer’s workshops. Show, don’t tell is a big one, as is Avoid -ly adverbs. While these are good and useful, they’re really only pertinent to the actual process of writing. Just as there is more to being […]
It would be a superlative world if the collective “we” would fess up. We’ve done posts before that were meant to inspire. We’ve quoted some of the most beloved, some of the most “important” writers in history. But let’s face it — not every “great” writer has been read by […]
So there I am, in a small hotel between the Costa Brava and Sitges, once again unpacking the bag I’ve carried through France and Spain. It’s been five weeks, and by now the contents are painfully familiar: five t-shirts, two pairs of shorts, and various smaller items, including an excellent […]
The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible.” – Vladimir Nabokov The act of writing is a strange beast. A creature to love and to loathe, quite often at the […]
Being a writer isn’t always an easy gig. There are moments of struggle, of invented blocks that we use as an excuse to procrastinate and there is the thrilling, relieving seconds when a story is complete and we’ve finally wrote the two most beautiful words in the English language: The […]
From Flavorwire: Ben Blatt of Slate decided to see what adjectives, adverbs, and sentences pop up most in the popular young adult series Hunger Games, Twilight, and Harry Potter. Twilight is, to no one’s surprise, superficially glittery and “wrapped in emotion.” J.K. Rowling has a heavy “reliance on suspense.” Blatt […]
If you’re a writer from the Midwest, or who writes about the region, take note. the museum of americana has announced it will publish a special Midwest-themed issue. The online review, which features Americana-themed prose, poetry and art, will produce the issue in conjunction with Quiddity International Literary Journal. The […]
On this day, December 3, in 1857, Joseph Conrad was born in Berdichev, Imperial Russia (modern
Ukraine, then a part of Poland). While he settled in England and wrote in English, he always considered himself a Pole. Heart of Darkness, one of the most famous of his 20 novels (which explores colonialism and the attitudes regarding what constitutes a barbarian versus civilized society) is considered one of the best English novels of the 20th century, as is his novel Lord Jim, which chronicles a crew’s abandonment of its disabled ship. Conrad died in England in 1924 at age 66.