What city can claim more writers per square mile than anywhere else in the world? Oxford, England! (Where I'm posting from today, lucky, me!) This is home of …
Writing Quotes and Other Literary Fun
The Scent of a Woman's Ink, Still
On the whole, the past year was a pretty good one for literary women: Huerta Mueller won the Nobel, Hilary Mantel the Booker, Annette Gordon-Reed the National …
A Friday the 13th Writing Tip – on Writing and Luck
"Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself until one is amazed at one's luck." — Iris Murdoch And a quick reminder that Friday the 13th …
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Kafka on Books as Axes
"A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us." — Franz Kafka This is so true for both readers and writers. How is it I've never heard it before today? …
Richard Bausch on Showing Up for Work
I had the great pleasure of paneling with Richard Bausch - who is not only a wonderful writer, but also a kind and generous one - at the AWP conference last …
Professional Writer or Amateur?
I had the great pleasure of paneling with Richard Bausch - who is not only a wonderful writer, but also a kind and generous one - at the AWP conference last …
Tim O'Brien on Tenacity and Stubbornness
I read Tim O'Brien's amazing short story, "The Things They Carried" in the first writing class I took. I've read it many times since, but I wouldn't need to …
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Mark Twain on "Damn"
Think how much easier this writing advice is to execute in the days of word processing global changes: "Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write …
Rules for Writers (from Some Amazing Ones)
I just came across the most wonderful "Rules for Writing" series at the guardian.co.uk site, thanks to a mention of it in yesterday's NYTBR's "Inside the List". …
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J.K. Rowling: The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination
This video, though a couple years old, came to me today: J.K. Rowling giving a commencement speech at Harvard, on having "failed on an epic scale" within 7 …
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