Pandemic Pen Pals
Writer Rachel Syme’s pen pal matching program has connected more than nine thousand correspondents from over fifty countries during the pandemic. {read}
Jem Calder | Notes on Craft
I hated my job, and the longer I remained at that workplace, the more I could feel my identity becoming warped by it; the edges of my personality being steadily…
George Orwell Reveals the Role & Responsibility of the Writer “In an Age of State Control”
Well, then what? Do we have to conclude that it is the duty of every writer to “keep out of politics”? Certainly not! In any case, as I have said…
I’m an Award-Winning Short Story Writer and I Don’t Know What I’m Doing Either
What I’d forgotten: the way I could hold a short story in my head for the entire composition of it, how the first mysterious intimations — a sentence, an image, an exchange…
Why Are Men So bad at writing sex?
Male authors dominate the Bad Sex in Fiction awards, and it’s no coincidence
creativity, the illusion of originality, and when is something really plagiarism
I happened to listen to these two podcast back to back and I think they are actually great companion episodes. They are about creativity, the illusion of originality, and when…
How Too Much Research Can Ruin Your Novel
… I’ve found that writing and researching a novel is an experience—one that, when it’s going well, can feel as dynamic and unpredictable as reading a great book, or even…
Futility Closet: Two Vanished Young Writers
Everett Ruess and Barbara Newhall Follett were born in March 1914 at opposite ends of the U.S. Both followed distinctly unusual lives as they pursued a love of writing. And…
The Dangerous Lure of Writing For White Readers in an MFA
So I will end this by asking some questions of the white, American readers toward whom, for better or worse, I have been orienting my writing for so long: What…