Camp Tin House
I never went to summer camp. I always wondered what it was like, that thing that other kids in other places got to do. My mom couldn’t afford it. Instead, my brother and I spent our summers trying to stay…
Category: The Writing Life
Friday Feast: The Appeal of Depressing Books, How to Know If Your Writing Is Any Good, Southern Summer Reading Round-Up, Where Books Are All but Non-Existent, and How Historical Fiction Does What Textbooks Cannot
Like the author of our first link, Pamela Erens, I’m drawn to depressing books. The darker the better. I can tolerate a happily ever after story, but only after the characters have suffered great trauma to get to the rainbows on…
My Legacy of Lying
I come from a long line of liars. My grandfather, a Russian potato farmer, was conscripted into the army in World War I to serve on the eastern front. Most of the soldiers couldn’t read or write, but my grandfather…
Confessions of a Chronic On-the-Job Writer
By Guest Contributor Anonymous Hi. I’m writing this blog post at work. A few months ago, I revised the final draft of my first novel right here at my desk, and since then, I’ve been writing short stories, drafting novel…
Friday Feast: Why We Need More Novels About Work; Bookmobiles in Southern Appalachia; Gay book, Indian Book, or Diverse Book; Our New Librarian of Congress; and a New Documentary Explores the Billion-Dollar Romance Novel Industry
I’ve heard folk say work novels won’t sell because no one wants to read about the thing they’re trying to escape. Personally, I love to read about workplaces. The crazier the better. Without working lives depicted in narratives, I assume…
Writing While Poor: Chasing the Dream You Know You Can’t Have
When author circles inevitably talk about what it is they need to write—two hours of Pilates, a stiff glass of Johnnie Walker Blue, a nap—I go quiet in a squirmy kind of way. When I’m told I should really travel…