"Reading is the creative center of a writer's life." — Stephen King
September 15, 2015
Writing about loneliness is surely one of those tricks that should come with the warning “Do not attempt this at home.” Often, descriptions of loneliness trigger disengagement. It takes a master, such as Marilynne Robinson, to write a novel about loneliness that’s a page-turner. In an interview… Read More
September 6, 2015
One of the first lessons that new teachers learn is that it’s impossible to predict how well a workshop, lecture or discussion will work. Teaching is situational. What works well in one class might not work in another. That’s why Stephen D. Brookfield, one of the … Read More
August 28, 2015
Much has been written about Atticus’s moral compromises in Go Set a Watchman, which might remove him from the list of “Best Dads in American Literature.” However, what I find more remarkable is Scout’s courage to reject the views of the men she loves most and to … Read More
August 21, 2015
This is the last line from the poem “Vocation” by one of my favorite poets, William Stafford. He was an advocate of the process of discovery. In Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series, he writes, “A writer is not so much someone who has something to say as he … Read More
August 13, 2015
The power of this final sharp sentence in the essay “The Santa Ana” by Joan Didion comes, in part, from the preceding sentence’s beautiful set-up: “Los Angeles weather is the weather of catastrophe, of apocalypse, and just as the reliably long and bitter winters of New England … Read More
August 6, 2015
This metaphor is simple, and yet it packs a punch. It’s from the poem “The Town Where I Belong” in Faith Shearin‘s new collection Telling the Bees. Part of its power comes from the way three of the five senses are used in these few … Read More
July 31, 2015
Arranging everything in chronological order in memoirs can be, well, boring. The challenge is finding an alternative structural method that doesn’t bewilder readers. The author of this memoir takes a bold approach: she gives us many tiny stories/reflections/anecdotes as stand-alone chapters, and she lets us draw our … Read More
July 24, 2015
The wonderful thing about 600-page sagas is, in my view, the opportunity to develop a wide perspective. Readers get to see the consequences of decisions as they play out over the span of decades. Sometimes characters come to see things differently, and sometimes readers do, too. Moments … Read More
July 16, 2015
With this first sentence, I was hooked on this collection of stand-up routines and one-liners by BBC writer Fraser McAlpine. With an addiction to Downton Abbey, a life-long love of the Beatles, strong memories of Princess Diana, and a daughter named Anna who lives in England, … Read More
July 9, 2015
The poem continues: “It is onions and potatoes . . . it is obvious. . .” This is how Philip Levin conceptualizes truth in the poem “The Simple Truth.” I’m often reminded of this gritty, elegant poem when I scrub potatoes for dinner. He writes, “Some things … Read More
July 7, 2015
Finding the right book at the right time — isn’t that what we all want? It certainly is one of the central obsessions in my world. That’s why I’m delighted to discover The Novel Cure, which provides 751 suggestions for novels that can “cure” certain problems. The … Read More
June 27, 2015
What makes this family special? Anne Tyler provides this list: They thought their uncanny ability to keep their dogs alive for eons set them apart, as did their fierce disapproval of any adults who wear jeans, and their air of good-natured patience “that was not entirely deserved.” … Read More
June 11, 2015
An extra punch — which distinguishes the extraordinary poetry of Kay Ryan — hits us in the title poem in this collection, “The Best of It.” At first, it seems that she’s telling us to make do, but then the poem gets darker, and then we … Read More
June 8, 2015
From the scores of books on writing that I’ve used over the last twenty years, the one piece of advice that floats to the top most frequently comes from this book. Author Anne Lamott tells the story about the time her brother, at age ten, was overwhelmed … Read More
