Deeper into meaning
Ian Frazier tells an amusing story in The New Yorker (May 26, 2008) about a man at a soup kitchen who dismissed Frazier’s credentials as a writing coach. The guy blew off Frazier, sitting at a card...
View ArticleMelville’s thematic fluidity
This is a guest post by Tom Gilbert, my son, a college sophomore majoring in philosophy and film. “To write a mighty book you must choose a mighty theme.” –Herman Melville, Moby-Dick “Everyone knows...
View ArticleNoted: Tony Earley
from an interview with Tony Earley conducted by Hattie Fletcher for Nidus “I can’t write any piece, fiction or nonfiction, until I come up with a metaphor. I hate the idea of writing on only one level....
View ArticleNoted: Annie Proulx
from an interview in The Missouri Review, Vol. XXII, No. 2 “The research is ongoing and my great pleasure. Since geography and climate are intensely interesting to me, much time goes into the close...
View ArticleGail Caldwell’s memoir & metaphors
The use of running metaphors in a piece—all related in some way to indigestion or water or loneliness or roller skates, or with a surrealistic or violent cast—will guide the reader in a particular...
View ArticleAn ancient lesson in structure
A version of this post first ran October 3, 2008 The King James Bible’s stories and ancient words and lovely turns of phrase have influenced legions of writers. I’m charmed by its liberal use of...
View ArticleRay Bradbury on Shakespeare
How long he stood he did not know, but there was a foolish and yet delicious sense of knowing himself as an animal come from the forest, drawn by the fire. He was a thing of brush and liquid eye, …...
View ArticleThe first look at my book’s cover
I get to choose the face my memoir presents to the world. Coming, May 1, 2014. My Shepherd: A Memoir won’t be published until May 2014, but as it moves through my publisher’s system long silences are...
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