Tag Archives: Pulitzer Prize winner

“Rosa was a perfect example of an only child, thought Claire – she behaved herself, but it was because she was always on the stage and the lights were always up. “

Posted on July 28, 2016 by Kate Stover

If you were a novelist, what compliment would you most like to see in a review of your work?  A comparison to Tolstoy, perhaps? That compliment was in fact given in the British newspaper, the Guardian, in a review of … Continue reading →

Posted in fiction | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Children rarely want to know who their parents were before they were parents, and when age finally stirs their curiosity there is no parent left to tell them.”

Posted on July 21, 2016 by Kate Stover

This memoir by Russell Baker encourages readers to write their stories for the generation that hasn’t yet asked for them.  He shows us why he believes this: he will always regret not knowing better the person who told him how … Continue reading →

Posted in memoir | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

“Poems arrive ready to begin. Poets are only the transportation.”

Posted on December 17, 2015 by Kate Stover

So often, I see my students take an adversarial stance when they sit down to write. They use phrases such as “grinding it out” and “forcing it” to describe how they work. Sometimes that’s been my experience, too. But does … Continue reading →

Posted in poetry | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“I had to live on the lip of a waterfall, exhausted.”

Posted on April 23, 2015 by Kate Stover

You might expect a coming-of-age book to have a plot, to describe the who-what-when-where-how-and-why. But Annie Dillard is not a typical person, nor is her book a typical memoir. She concentrated on describing how she wanted to notice and remember … Continue reading →

Posted in memoir | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“. . . now I understand that it was not so ordinary after all.”

Posted on April 17, 2015 by Kate Stover

With his wonderful metaphors and his trademark compassion, Ted Kooser is a poet with many gifts. The gift that I appreciate most is his ability to look at ordinary things — rain, clouds, trees — and see what no one … Continue reading →

Posted in poetry | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment