"Reading is the creative center of a writer's life." — Stephen King
June 27, 2025
Marian Schembari’s memoir about learning she was autistic at age 34 is called a “hybrid memoir” because it combines a personal story with biomedical research. But is it stirring? Do people love this … Read More
June 22, 2025
What makes a memoir great? Honesty, insight, humor, compassion? What about metaphors? Comparing a feeling to something you can see requires a lot of creativity. Look at how Angelo compares “shame” … Read More
June 14, 2025
Short stories can be more than appetizers. But the challenge of creating a world with vivid characters who do something that matters to us in a compressed format is great. The length is a … Read More
May 29, 2025
I remember the Bad Old Days well, when it was thought that the word “I” weakened any writing that contained facts. Yes, we actually believed then that impersonal writing was “objective” because the … Read More
May 25, 2025
Should museums include the work of living artists? Rarely does an institution say, “We are confident this will stand the test of time,” but that’s in fact the judgement of The Museum of Literature Ireland in Dublin … Read More
May 15, 2025
When asked to recommend a classic Irish memoir, a bookseller in Dublin went straight to this book. As it turns out, she wasn’t alone in saying that reading this book is one of “life’s greatest pleasures.” This … Read More
April 27, 2025
How do you write a memoir about a family that has more than its share of abandonment and fractured relationships? Joanne Nelson’s book is a collection of fragments. Her short pieces show … Read More
April 21, 2025
This book is based on the novelist Ann Patchett’s address at a graduation ceremony. She is the perfect speaker for students who panic at the thought of leaving campus and friends and having to walk the … Read More
April 11, 2025
What should a moderately successful novelist, who didn’t engage readers during the social revolutions of the late 1960s and early 1970s, do to stage a come back? Explore trends? Update her plots? Become provocative? Barbara … Read More
March 31, 2025
Imagine a story about a baker who experiments with a recipe for biscotti that contains pistachios and orange zest. The baker is pleased with the results. The end. Wait, what? How can a story have … Read More
March 21, 2025
The cover photo is a close-up of a level, which is sometimes called a spirit level. Ah, you might say, this poetry collection must be about finding balance. And since the author won the … Read More
March 14, 2025
Here’s what I like about George Saunders: even though he is an award-winning author and a creative writing professor – some go so far as to call him “a secular … Read More
February 28, 2025
As a young bride, what book did Gail Baines receive from her mother-in-law? If you are a fan of Anne Tyler novels, you might guess something quirky and blunt, and you would be right: … Read More
February 13, 2025
There are so many ways Percival Everett could have taken his retelling of Huckleberry Finn from Jim’s perspective. He could have focused on revenge, or the relationship between Huck and Jim, or finding justice. Instead, he focuses … Read More
February 7, 2025
I’m a skeptic – especially when it comes to advice for teachers at colleges and universities. I’ve seen scores of “best practices” rise and fall since I taught my first writing courses in the 1980s. There have been some exceptions, of course, where the authors have convinced … Read More